Beginner & Expert Gardeners wanted

flowerbuddy

Hello everyone,

Long-time lurker on the forum here.

Just wanted to ask about how I can stop my neighbour's cat from using my flowerbeds as.......only kidding!!

What I'm actually looking to do is chat with beginner gardeners and experts about how we can make getting into gardening easier for everyone.

We know that private gardens in Britain cover an area bigger than all of the country’s nature reserves combined. 

How can we get more and more people using this space, their space, in a way that is both enjoyable for them and good for wildlife and the planet?

If you're a beginner, what has been your greatest challenge so far? What has held you back?

If you're an expert, where do you think are we going wrong in getting people into gardening, if at all?  

All thoughts wanted!

Dovefromabove

Hi ... can I ask ... who is the ‘we’ you refer to?

flowerbuddy

Good question - I meant 'we' as a community of gardeners. Perhaps 'we' don't all know that private gardens in Britain cover an area bigger than all of the country’s nature reserves combined, but that was just a casual turn of phrase.

Got any thoughts, Dove? You clearly have a lot of experience on the forum and will have read about the same issues time and time again... 

JennyJ

In terms of being good for wildlife, a garden doesn't have to be gardened, it just needs to not be paved/concreted over. There are lots round here that a full of long grass mixed with what most gardeners would regard as weeds, and maybe an overgrown hedge, and I'm sure wildlife like them just fine.

Dovefromabove

flowerbuddy said:

... We know that private gardens in Britain cover an area bigger than all of the country’s nature reserves combined.

How can we get more and more people using this space, ...

Well 🤔 a global pandemic has been pretty effective so far ...  😉

I'm aware of a Flowerbuddy app ... I'm wondering whether you think the promotion of this app might help achieve your aims ... 

flowerbuddy

Yes JennyJ I guess that's the paradox with wildlife gardening! The very best thing for  wildlife would be for humans to get out of the way entirely, but then that wouldn't be gardening. There's a lovely short book that explores this called No Nettles Required by Ken Thompson. I heartily recommend it. 

punkdoc

Please forgive me for being suspicious, but what is in this for you?
Is there somewhere I sign up, and give you my credit card details? 

pansyface

How can we get more and more people using this space, their space, in a way that is both enjoyable for them and good for wildlife and the planet?

Why do we need to get more people doing this?

I cannot understand the need for it any more than the need to get more people playing musical instruments in a way that is enjoyable and good for the planet (given that many musical instruments use natural materials).

If you're a beginner, what has been your greatest challenge so far? What has held you back?

I have been a beginner and I am still a beginner in some respects. What has held me back? Only having one pair of hands and 24 hours in the day.

If you're an expert, where do you think are we going wrong in getting people into gardening, if at all?  

I’m not an expert. I would say that very very few people are experts and, if they are, they are only experts in one small corner of the horticultural world. So I suppose, as a non expert, I am disbarred from answering the question but I’ll ask it anyway, where are we “going wrong”? In what way are we going wrong?

Why is being an expert a prerequisite to answering your question? 

dora.king.home

Feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to begin were the two things that held me back, half of my garden is still a disaster but reclaiming the garden a little at a time helped get me on my way...still a long way to go!

Suesyn

A disaster in gardening terms is surely in the eye of the beholder, it may well be described as a wildlife haven by some or yet again as totally boring by others. 

Fire

Thank you @philippasmith2 for your kind words.

I'll assume for a moment that Flowerbuddy is asking in good faith, and there isn't an app promotion about to land on us. I would agree with Philippa, that it's an error is to try and push people into gardening. Community gardening projects suffer greatly from some enthusiastic bod trying to inspire others to get into growing. Generally speaking, I think it doesn't work. You can't 'get people' into gardening (apart from, possibly, small kids) any more than you can 'get people' into stamp collecting or electrical engingeering. I've tried it and had many flops from my over-enthusiasm, thinking I could help people to enjoy growing.

I think it's important to acknowledge the very real constraints. Gardening a space well, I find, takes a full time attention. People watch gardening shows and understandably think they can go to the GC and buy plants, put them in and 'voilà', you have a wonderful, long term garden. When this doesn't work, they get disheartened, feeling that it's all too hard. The garden gets all overgrown, they usually have to pay for green waste removal, they have to deal with a lot of poo and slimy creatures. It's not for everyone.

What has worked for my community groups? Making everything as easy as is humanly possible for residents to try out on a very small scale, if they would like to. No pressure, no judgement, a Whatsapp group of dozens of neighbours to help if needed. Last year I bought bulk seed and gave out to anyone who wanted (simple salad, chard, radish, spinach, cress etc). I took loads of cuttings, grew them on and gave them out. I bought and gave out pots, organised group orders for compost, tomato plants, deliveries from out local GC; anything that I thought would help. We had a great year, partly because everyone was at home and through the novelty of growing and the new group.  

This GW forum has been invaluable for me as an organiser. I have come constantly to ask the hive mind for best approaches and it's been enormously helpful for me as a gardener and as a group organiser. I don't know much and would never have had the confidence to try and help beginners to grow without it.

Where do experienced gardeners perhaps go wrong? There does seem a lot of judgement and snottiness floating about in the scene. Competitiveness, who is the wisest, who has been doing it the longest etc. A lot of energy does go into slamming shows, growers, gardens, presenters and different approaches. Whose cucumber is longest? Experts seem to want a pedestal and praise for knowing the most about roses, trees, drainage etc. I suppose it's like any scene. But it's not easy soil for tentative newcomers. Growing comes across as hugely technical, harshly judged, very difficult, and only really successful for people with 40 years experience behind them; A closed world full of secrets. Perhaps, to some extent it is like that, but I am personally interested in mutual support, encouragement and celebration, to nurture the tender shoots of green exploration.

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Below are some of the community group's produce from last year. Mostly newbie growers.