Last week someone commented that I—well, the whole site—was crotchety and out of date. I didn’t really mind; we do voice strong opinions and when people don’t agree they can go ad hominem if they want. (Oh, the comment fights I’ve seen on this blog! Good times.) The comment was really a misunderstanding; I had not made it clear that I, too, loved houseplants and had a sizable collection, even though I do like to complain about them. Being crotchety and all.
Here’s Ellie, one of my favorite crotchety gardeners. She taught us all what a hellstrip (shown at top) could be.
But it made me think about the way gardeners communicate and learn. While this isn’t a how-to site, and we never intended it to be, there is a general sense of flailing about when it comes to sharing information between beginning and experienced gardeners. Extensions are fine as far as they go, but they really do not go far, at least not in my region. Online groups are fun, but not always helpful and often completely the opposite. It’s really a patchwork with a lot of missing pieces. I think I learned the most about what I wanted my garden to be and how to get it there from books and from going on our local garden walks. And, though, I’ve never belonged to one, I know there are excellent garden clubs throughout Buffalo’s suburbs. I’ve given talks at a few and these are often really knowledgeable gardeners. (If I hadn’t been giving away bulbs at one of them, I’m not sure they would have tolerated me.) There is no city garden club, sadly—and there should be!
Garden clubs, however, mainly consist of older gardeners. We also have some excellent societies (hosta, daylily, pond), but they are super specialized. Classes exist, but very sporadically—and you’re just hearing from one viewpoint. I wonder if a revamping of the garden club model would be possible, with a better mix of generations and gender identities. Is that already happening? It does not seem so here. It would be fun to go to some sort of monthly gathering with people using technology to show what they’re doing and get feedback. When someone shows any picture in our online group, regardless of what’s amiss, it gets universal applause in every comment. It has to be that way; no good comes of any real critique, not online. In person, however, this gardener might show a projected image and people would feel better about saying, “This is great; have you thought of …”
It seems I’ve just given myself a New Year’s resolution: starting an urban-based club (though any are welcome) and finding a place for it. It would have all ages, and be carefully spiked with a few real experts. There would be a projector (which I have to buy anyway), plant swapping, visiting celebrities, and maybe cocktails, sometimes. Anybody been successful at this?
On our charming Whidbey Island in Washington, we have several garden clubs and a pretty solid WSU extension Master Gardener Foundation. All are service based, providing valuable volunteers to beautify local public areas and offer educational advice. Very proud to be associated with our delightful and crotchety gardening friends.
Years ago, I told my husband that my good friend and gardening partner and I were talking about starting a garden club. The requirements would be that you would have to be passionate about gardening and we would have to like you. “Oh,” he said. “So it will just be the two of you?” (We’re both a bit “crotchety”, but so are most of the people we like, gardeners or not.)
Your husband just got a laugh from me. I, too, would like better garden club in my area but I suspect it would be a club of one. Please thank him for the cheery Sunday cheek!
My circle of friends could be considered a garden club. We do a seed planting session mid-winter. We talk about plants, share cuttings, go to greenhouses together, suggest gardening classes and groups to one another. I think we’re young in comparison to the stereotypical garden clubber. We mid-40s. Our thirst for gardening has grown since covid started. I think now there would be a good response for a Garden Club for younger people – especially when we can finally move about the world freely, maskless and in search of the next great plant for our garden.
It has been my (albeit limited) experience that some expert gardeners can be insular in their thinking – preferring certain types of plants or garden layouts to the exclusion of many others. Not that they’re wrong … just that they’re not as right as they think they are. While I value the opinions of more experienced gardeners, I reserve the right to make my own mistakes.
Amen, Jack. I have always felt that the #1 rule in having a garden is that it must make the gardener happy.
I wish you success in your endeavour. I do disagree with you about the usefulness of criticisms though. It seems to me then when someone puts up an image and it’s met with universal praise no one learns anything. And it’s the same if all gardens are praised for their loveliness. Differences of perspective and opinion can be fruitful, instructive, eye opening, stimulating. I wish their was more of that, not less.
Her point is not that critique isn’t valuable, but that written criticism online is rarely as constructive as in person conversation.
I recently stepped away from my local garden club. I was sad, because I really like the other members and I admire their gardening chops and volunteer work ethic. But I work during the day on weekdays and have more than one job, so pitching in on the club projects or attending most of the talks or meetings was a challenge. My comments regarding this seemed to fall on deaf ears. Now you have me thinking that there might need to be a different kind of club. Not in place of the garden club, but filling some gaps regarding experience level, schedules, etc. This would encourage younger gardeners to participate. I also feel there are other gaps besides age: socio-economic, various orientations, including the lack of men (there are a few in this local club). Anyway, thanks for getting me to think on this a bit more…
Garden clubs…. they could be so much better. The one in my town still has 1 pm meetings (and if you happen to have a day job?) a “hat parade” at their spring luncheon, flower arranging programs; and then wonder why they can’t attract new, younger members. I’m a Master Gardener, on our Speakers’ Bureau to help educate especially newbies, and do online classes for our Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory. I learn from books, good classes at our Arboretum, the good blogs of folks like Margaret Roach, Benjamin Vogt, and others. Wild Ones’ local chapter’s programs have taught me a lot, too.
I have been a long time member of a garden club and I do believe that old model of garden clubs is outdated. There is a reason garden clubs consist mostly of older(retired) members and that is because they(Federation Garden Clubs) require community service and, dare I say it, flower shows. Community service is, of course valuable but flower shows are competition and while art is important and flower arranging fun, it is far removed from actual gardening. It is very difficult for working men and women to find energy at the end of the day to go to a garden club meeting. Yes, let’s revamp the garden club and find out what would really work and be inclusive to men, women, young, old, and foster the love of gardening while learning with a bit of service thrown in. I would love to hear ideas on how this would work and what the new garden club ideal would look like. As for cranky, well here in the USA, there is a lot to be cranky about concerning gardens. Undervalued hard work with unlimited personal satisfaction. I love GR….after all, it is a Rant!
Thanks! That’s part of my issue with Master Gardener programs. I volunteer already but not as a gardener. I wouldn’t want or need either of those elements in the club I envision.
If you want to engage younger generations, I recommend meetup.com as s platform.
Also (having run a bunch of different groups over the years) here is sime more unsolicited advice: the most important role of any group is being welcoming to guests and new potential members. It’s easy to get distracted with the fun of the topic or chasing down volunteers for bringing coffee or catching up with old friends.. but the most important difference between a healthy club and a “group of old friends”, is being welcoming to new members and making sure they feel like the group is a place for them.
I have seen many clubs throw energy into things that don’t matter (or only matter to the founding members) and slowly die off as a result.
Thanks! Good feedback.
My mother just told me that she joined a garden club when we moved from England to Alabama in 1964. She wanted to learn about gardening in the new climate. She didn’t last long because it was really a social club of women who happened to have yards and knew little about gardening. Given some of the houses in her neighborhood that have Garden of the Month signs out front, that’s still the case. At best, the houses have a few nondescript bushes in front. Most are just plain zoysia grass.
When I first moved to my little town, I thought about creating my own garden club. There were already two in existence, but it turned out these organizations were (how to say it nicely?) more of a social club and less of a garden club. (What you wore and who you were was very important.) In my opinion, garden clubs should be a bit of both. However, I never went forth to create a garden club, and instead, joined the local Master Gardeners. I think if you have the energy and time to create an urban-based club, you should. If you lived here, I’d join.
I agree with you that the extension agencies don’t go far enough. For example, our local extension office is far more focused on crops, lawn grass, recommending pesticide use, and vegetables than on any kind of ecological gardening. This is not to say there aren’t good people in the extension office, but I’m personally not interested in crops, lawn grass, etc.
It hurts to read someone thinks Garden Rant is “…crotchety and out of date”. Really? I don’t think it is, but then maybe I am crotchety and out-of-date? You said this was a misunderstanding.–I hope so! If Garden Rant is out of date, then what is in-date? Give examples. Also does something have to be super trendy to be good?
Hi Laura, I can see why the comment about being out of date was made. I have thought that myself quite often about this blog. Many of the rants about native plant ‘zealots’, or posts trying to make sustainability controversial do absolutely feel dated and crotchety.
Master Gardeners is heavily invested in service and I do my volunteering (and plenty of it) in the cultural realm. Our extension is very underfunded, so I can’;t expect much. I do think a new type of club could emerge.
As a Master Gardener here in Orange County, CA and an instructor in our local community college horticulture I know where the young gardening enthusiasts are – in community college horticulture programs! My classes are split between 30 to 40-something career changers and moms, 18-20 year olds doing their prelim work before entering a 4-year college, and a smattering of over 50’s. I also see veterans re-entering the work force. Our Sustainable Horticulture and Design program is booming.
I agree with several of the other comments re: schedules for working (read: young and middle-aged) gardeners, as well as the idea of the flower show itself. As a youngish, working parent who is totally crazy about both ornamental and veg gardening, I would die and go to heaven to belong to a meaningful gardening club. So when I say meaningful, I mean there needs to be a real goal. My tentative suggestion would be a seed-saving, seed-sharing, seedlings and cuttings sharing club. The big event(s) of the year could be seasonal swaps. Your participation is based on contributing something to these swaps – so beginners without plant material can provide the coffee or make a nominal donation. And then maybe monthly get togethers or Zoom meetings with a local expert on an interesting urban gardening topic, but nothing too long – 45 min lecture and up to 30 min of chit chat. Something like that, I could get behind! That’s just the view from here.
Great ideas, thanks! And you are so right on time limits.
This is exactly what I dream of finding in a garden club! I have some friends and coworkers locally and we trade and share dahlia tubers, seeds, garlic, and seedlings. It’s wonderful fun and a great learning experience.
Elizabeth, I think what you are craving is a writers support group, but for gardeners. All you need to make it happen is a Garden Rant Zoom license (about $200 annually to reach groups of 300 or less), willing facilitators, and an email to the Garden Rant readers. For a model of what I’m talking about, check out GARDENMASTERCLASS.ORG put out by Noel Kingsbury & Annie Guilfoyle. You could easily adapt their model of education and expert interaction to the Garden Rant vibe, while keeping the focus on some real deal gardener brainstorming. During each get-together, Garden Rant collaborators (participants) could share photos from their computer screen and present the kind of input they are seeking from collaborators. Participants can ask questions in the chat and make suggestions either in the chat or by their video participation. At the end of the Zoom, a transcript of Chat notes and a link to the video of the meeting gets posted to the Garden Rant web site, so that more people can access the content. If it did nothing other than further connect gardeners to Garden Rant, it would be a success. Thanks to technology, there is no limit to the ways that our community of garden nerds can come together.
Thanks! I do enough Zoom tho. Providing we can get together safely I would prefer a conventional set-up, but -occasional- Zooms along the lines you suggest would be great!
Well, judging from the message that just landed in my inbox, we all have an opportunity for a Zoom outing. Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden has jumped onto the business model with a “Virtual Garden Club,” six 90-minute sessions for the not-so-low price of $160. They promise plenty of opportunity for Q & A. I’ll not be joining-so much of what they discuss is regional. I’ll pay for access to presentations from horticulturists & designers who interest me, but not for the help I can get for free from my fellow Master Gardeners and garden club members.
Something else just occurred to me…our native plant societies are large, active and have a many young people as members and contributors. These societies have a dual purpose: education, and promotion of native plants in ornamental horticulture, plus they host hikes and popular plant sales and swaps.
Societies are great–we have every type here, including native—but I am after a more general group.
I lust for a local native plant society. The one closest chapter to me (about an hour away) closed its doors about a year ago.
I’ve been thinking the same thing lately. I don’t even know how to find one.
I have a core group of like minded garden friends who I have met over the years on various social media platforms, first Gardenweb, now Instagram and Facebook. We plant shop together, visit each others gardens and occasionally travel to garden destinations together(we visited your garden once on the Buffalo Garden Walk). Most of my contact with garden clubs has been through the town garden tours they organize. Although I often enjoy the tours, I work full time, spend at least forty hours a week in my own garden and enjoy other activities, so I don’t have the interest or the time for what appear to be the core activities: lunch meetings, civic projects, flower arranging or table setting competitions. I do belong to The Garden Conservancy and my state horticultural society and get benefit from their programs but on my own time schedule. Perhaps I’m more the norm now when it comes to home gardening peeps?
“Extensions are fine as far as they go” was a statement that bothered me alot! I have been part of Master Gardeners of Erie County for 20 years. We reach out to underserved populations by having classes not only in the suburbs but in the city of Buffalo. We have HotLine where people call us with gardening questions and/or send or bring us specimens for disease, insect, or whatever identifications and solutions. Our members are involved in FeedMore, community gardens, Niagara Square, just to name a few! Please contact us for more information.
Master Gardeners are wonderful for service and community beautification. The group I am suggesting would focus, rather, on casual discussions of what’s going on in our gardens, plant swaps, and practical advice. We would meet at good times for busy, working women. We would not necessarily volunteer. Personally, all my volunteer time, such as it is, is focused in the cultural sector. We would talk about gardening with gardeners and give beginners the help they need. The MG program is great but it’s not for everyone.
I feel a rant coming on.
I enjoy Garden Rant, but it can feel a bit dated. At 39, I suspect I’m at the young end of the audience. The rants are entertaining, but the website can take a dismissive tone to those who haven’t been gardening for decades. The internet is notorious for propagating bad information, and fads can be annoying, but don’t make someone ashamed for reading The Spruce or owning a fiddle leaf fig. Welcome them into a more informed community and let them know that it’s okay if the fiddle leaf fig didn’t survive. (I started gardening 10 years ago. I’m grateful that I had to purchase books to learn anything when I started.)
It would be nice to see more age and regional diversity on Garden Rant. That is what I would want in my gardening community. I live in Boise, ID. While I don’t keep an all native yard, I couldn’t in good consciousness plant the types of yards that thrive for many of the Ranters. Boise is an extremely dry climate, and declining snow pack and a rapidly increasing population are leading to a water crisis. Maybe the “all native” crowd can get obnoxious, but at least they have good intentions. My mother gardens in Indiana. We pass many hours exchanging notes on what does and doesn’t thrive for each of us. It’s educational and entertaining.
If you want to draw a larger crowd, only holding events midday or promptly at 5pm is very problematic. Alternatively, my husband is part of the local Audubon society. He regularly attends Zoom classes held at 7pm, and birding events are a mix of weekend and weekdays. He’s extremely engaged on eBird, the bird tracking app, although the nature of bird watching is more dynamic than identifying plant species.
Thanks!
in our community in Chapel Hill, one neighbor started a “Garden Sharing” group. We’d gather once a month over coffee at someone’s home and we’d share- ask questions, share problem that needed solving, ask for recommendations for a landcaper, plant nursery, tool etc, share info about upcoming events, gardening books we liked, etc. Folks with nothing to share could come and just pass if nothing to add. Every once in a while we’d get a few people together to visit an arboretum, a specialty nursery.
It has been great fun – no pressure, no agenda, no officers. Just folks who like gardening talking. We’d also welcome newbies who were just starting in gardening and give them encouragement and share our own stories of starting out..
give it a try- Garden Sharing!
This sounds perfect.
Your group sounds like a lot of fun. That’s what I want where I live.
I belonged to a MG group that, after a change in management, became a joy-killer. I joined a 75 year old garden club in a neighboring state that puts out a fat brochure of activities. I choose to be as active as I want to be. Any club–gardening or otherwise–can be pleasant or not, depending largely on how it is run and who is participating. Every club has its insufferable snobs, know-it-alls, etc, but the fun people are there, too. The best thing about clubs are the like-minded, exuberant gardening friends you make in any group, with whom you wind up visiting gardens and swapping plants. Hang out with them and avoid the ones who keep interrupting you to correct your Latin pronunciation and you will have a good time!
Maybe form a garden club in the mold of Buffalo’s Drag Queen Bingo? A garden club that doesn’t take itself too seriously, tries to have fun, and goes out of its way to welcome everyone. A booze and begonia plant swap would be an instant hit.
Sign me up for drag queen botanical bingo!
I would like to give a shout-out for a more ‘general’ group–the Hardy Plant Society, Mid Atlantic Group. I joined at the urging of a friend, as many of us have. My friend pointed out that this is the place to learn.
And learn I have—about plants, landscape architecture, nurturing nature, and how to share
the planet with every other living being. I have also learned of the kindness and generosity of
gardeners and of the inherent goodness that gardening draws out in people.
And HPS/MAG gets that. We encourage gardeners, from beginners to professionals, to learn
more about horticulture and to share skills, knowledge, and plants with each other. It says
that on our website, https://www.hardyplant.org/ ! In HPS/MAG we don’t care that you don’t know, we care that you WANT to know! We have day time and evening programs on a variety of subjects–on zoom and in person. We organize day tours, extended domestic and international tours, lectures, workshops, seed exchanges. We make friendships that last a lifetime and share food and swap garden wisdom. If you’re looking for a group of like-minded gardeners, consider us!
Nora Sirbaugh, president of HPS/MAG
PS–I am originally a Buffalo Gal (actually, Kenmore!) and followed a beloved grandfather around his garden on Hertel Ave!
Thanks for this info! I am not sure that group is active in our region, but maybe it can be!
I am a member of an online group based on Facebook. It is centred, but not limited to, the Island of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) in North Wales. Correspondence is regular- say 5 discussions a week out of growing season-more when there is more to see/discuss. Plant swapping can happen whenever you have a plant to swap – but early summer and autumn there will be tea, cake and plants to swap. In the winter there will be teacake and seeds to swap. Garden visits are easy to arrange.
I find FB creates a flat heirarchy – whereas my experience of f2f groups is a bit committee and guest speaker centric and less member-to-member communication takes place.
Good luck! I tried to start a garden club where I live as the 2 existing in the area met during the day (I work full time)or were so big they were not taking any more members, After trying for 2 years, offering a seed swap, plant swap, small community projects, free garden talks from a new author, MGs, myself, a FB page (no one would post anything, besides myself even with a few hundred followers and few comments besides a thumbs up) etc. At most I would have 3 people show for a meeting, talks were well attended, but I could not do it alone as I have a home and property myself to care for.
Even though it can be lonely gardening in an urban environment, I find that garden clubs are not a satisfying experience. Gardening books [ mostly the unaffordable ones :-), online professional horticulturists, garden designers and podcasts can provide us with best practices and inspiration.
Am I alone in my anxiety that a call for ‘diversity’ is a prelude to exclusions?
I have the same qualms, Anne!
I know lots of cranky opinionated young people. I find the gardening gap in my personal case to be conservative religion. I thought I’d get Marianne’s book for a very religious gardener friend who likes tropicals . Then when I read how she compared plants to relationships, nope that is out. She also would not enjoy Scott’s rants that I find hilarious. Too much booze reference. Sigh.
I’m a cranky opinionated young person with a colorful garden and a colorful vocabulary. Doubt I’d fit in with the local group of seniors that meets in a church – I’m sure I’d say something shocking or offensive without even realizing.
I’m a rural person in my thirties with no interest in joining the local group of seniors who meet in a church at inconvenient hours and give off country club vibes. I have little in common with those who live In Town and have manicured weed-free postage stamp plots with perfect lawns and boring plants from big box stores. I attended a garden club flower show this year and the stuffy overly formal displays made my skin crawl. So not my style. I find information in books and articles, community in online blogs and comment threads, and have a few friends who trade plants, tubers and knowledge. I also very much enjoy visiting others or showing them around my garden. As one of my favorite t-shirts states, I am “introverted but willing to discuss plants.”
I am “introverted but willing to discuss plants.” – love it!
My husband said I need a t-shirt that says “extroverted and will discuss anything with anybody”
I haven’t even tried to join a local garden club because their programs don’t sound useful to me. I’d be more interested in a native-plant or natural-gardening group, which probably would be on FB. As for crotchety, my husband and I quip that my quilt guild is my meeting of “cranky old ladies” (I’m mid-40s). That group complains often that it’s hard to get new members, especially young people. We meet at night which helps people of working age participate, and their crankiness includes honesty about each other’s work, good and critical. I stay in that group despite having no one else near my age because I need the inspiration and education. Whatever the interest, it seems like I have to choose either a local general-focus group of homogeneous people or a more specialized online group that’s slightly more heterogeneous.
Several Pittsburgh, PA area garden clubs have adapted to the times. The Churchill Garden Club made an effort to recruit non-traditional members (MEN) and expand our programs to focus on topics of interest to a wide variety of folks (hiking in wilderness areas, stream side clean- up events, wine tasting, glass blowing workshops (garden ornaments), visits to local breweries, etc. along with more traditional garden club activities. Another local GC, “The Late Bloomers” meets at night to accommodate younger, working professionals. BTY: I’m a former Buffalonian, now living in Pittsburgh, who makes it a pilgrimage to visit Buffalo Garden Walk (pre-Covid) annually. Buffalo gardens are awesome!
These sound like great groups!
Another option is to join a non-tradition group such as Wild Ones (focus on native plants). They have chapters across the USA. There’s a group here in western PA called “Native Plants on a Dime”. We meet twice a year to swap seeds and seedlings of plants native to western PA. The group also has a Facebook page. I’ve met so many interesting people of all ages and backgrounds through this club. The club’s founder hosts the semi-annual plant swap and opens her fabulous home garden of native plants for garden tours. I also belong to a traditional “ladies garden club” and value the many friendships and expertise that I’ve acquired from belonging to that club.
I’ve only been a member of a plant-related group once in my life. Back in the very early 1980s, when I became interested in orchids, I started going to a local Orchid Society meeting once a month. I’m not even sure if they were organized enough to have a dues/membership structure. At that time I was in my early thirties, and only one other attendee was my age; we ended up becoming BFFs, in today’s parlance, and it was she who introduced me to the wider world of perennial and shrub gardening. Everyone else in that group was 50+ and it was rather intimidating at the time. I’m not a “group/club” person by nature anyhow. And, like some others here, I avoid Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., entirely – which makes me something of Luddite, I suppose, LOL
I’ve never left a comment on your blog, but I will for this topic!
I am an intermediate gardener in my 30s, and also a software engineer working in “Silicon Valley”, so my entrance into gardening was naturally through websites and online groups. Neither are particularly good for beginners, because you need a baseline of understanding to make use of online resources, and online groups are often problematic in many different ways.
What really got me out of the beginner box was watching gardening TV shows, and the BBC’s Gardener’s World with Monty Don specifically. Sure, I live in Northern California and not Herefordshire, but Monty showing what he was doing and why, and the diversity on the show (throughout the pandemic they’ve shown gardeners from around the world, and of all different levels, abilities, etc., and they have a few young and POC hosts too) has really encouraged me to do more and try more in the garden.
Now, I am also taking classes from the University of California extension community garden in my neighborhood, which has been invaluable, and I’ve appreciated learning from the older folks there – at 35 I am one of the youngest gardeners there. I’m also starting up a gardening club aimed at people in their 20s and 30s, because we have very different gardening challenges stemming from our different life stages.
I know a lot of great gardeners who are huge fans of the Don. Seems to help them!
@sarah i too love Monty Don! There have been some on this site who have thrown shade his way but I’ve always found him/his shows to be inspiring, very down to earth and warm, and appealing to all age groups. So glad to hear you enjoy him as much as I do!