Design & Differences: Two Ranters Discuss. Part III

Wrapping up their three-part email discussion — annotated here with links and photographs — Anne & Marianne move away from garden design and differences in technique to the rapidly changing face of media, and how (and why!) garden writers & and other media professionals communicate to others about it.   

Part I on elements of design is available here. Part II on mulching, chop & drop, and self-seeders here. An interview & YouTube video with Anne by Alexandra Campbell (co-chair of the UK’s Garden Media Guild and founder of The Middle-sized Garden) that illustrates more of Anne’s thoughts on design is here. 

Interested readers are encouraged to continue the conversation in comments.  No doubt Anne and Marianne will! 

 

Why Do Gardeners Teach?

Anne:

It interests me why so many gardeners want to teach people to garden.

There seem to be more people on Social Media teaching us how to garden than there are gardeners to be taught. Are people with other skills and interests so interested in sharing their skills and interests, or do they mostly want to get on doing the thing, whatever it is?

Marianne:

I am more torn by this question than I have ever been.

I could spend absolutely every moment of the day in my garden, and I would not be bored and I would not be finished. It is like a big creative studio-laboratory. 

But, translating those observations into words and images that might lead others to pursue and study this fascinating discipline, is also extremely compelling.  It is such a rich life for those who discover it, and helping people get there is satisfying. When a reader emails or DMs me to tell me that they’ve thought about something differently, or someone comes up to me at a talk and thanks me for explaining something they were unsure about, the feeling is tremendous. 

 

I think that many people with different skills feel similarly. Sharing information is part of the joy of it; and though every generation thinks that it has invented gardening (and sex), there are new things to be discovered, and old things to be recovered. But how much is getting through to the general public and how much is it a mutual admiration society of millions of influencers following each other? Follow me, I’ll follow you, ad nauseum.

When I had a smaller garden, and garden media was different and didn’t involve social media and the endless content machine, I was able to balance my love of horticulture with my love of researching and writing articles and books quite easily. Now, I have the same question you do.  How many garden media professionals without teams behind them are actually able to devote sufficient time to doing the thing? 

But hang on.  I don’t see your writing and observations on garden building and garden visiting as separate from teaching. 

I learned much when I read The Bad-Tempered Gardener.  Perhaps too much. 🙂 And I continue to learn and be motivated by your multi-part series on the building of The Veddw.  I often think about it when I am out there noodling something out.

Anne:

I certainly didn’t set out to teach in either of those things, though I got bounced into it in my other books. What I really enjoy though, as you may have noticed (https://thinkingardens.co.uk/) is thinking about it all. And life.

I wish more people would tell me what they think about it all. I do not want to see another article on deadheading or – worse – obsolete and mistaken garden practices. I wish people would interview me about the aesthetics and meaning of gardens, instead of how to garden more easily.

Marianne:

But Anne, most people don’t wish to think that deeply about it. 

And they DO want to know how to do it. And as much as I crave those discussions myself (which is why I’m trading emails with you), I can’t fault other people for being far more interested in the nuts and bolts of it.  

That makes sense to me because I’m interested in both. That makes sense to me because my daughter is just starting to garden as a young adult and she has real questions. If everyone sat around discussing gardens instead of doing them, there’d be a whole lot less green in the world.  (This probably isn’t the best time to tell you I’m recording a podcast tonight on the subject of deadheading. 🙂 )

Anne:

There’s fat chance that everyone would do anything…..I don’t much care whether other people garden or not. (You are terrible, it’s lucky you’re wonderful too. – MW) But in Britain we’re all supposed to care about that an awful lot now and bully kids into it.

Marianne:

“Bully” is too strong I think when it comes to encouraging people to garden; but I do think it can be used to describe our predilection for telling people what they should and should not find attractive once they do start gardening — placing plants, gardeners and gardens in a bad/good moral framework.  That is what I take a strong dislike to. 

Whether you’re raising eyebrows at unkempt edges in 1982 or the use of non-native plants in 2025 — you’re raising the same damned eyebrows.

I am of the same opinion as Christopher Lloyd on this one:

“I confess to being unattracted to the concept of gardening with a moral implication. It puts a dampener on going all out to garden full-bloodedly in whatever way appeals to you most.”

Is all of your writing and social media use just to get people to come to The Veddw? Or is it something deeper? I know you enjoy pushing back on “the rules” — as do I — and surely that is a form of teaching?

The Value of Independence in Writing

Anne:

I think we differ in several ways here. I need to write. It seems to be a critical part of me, an endless kind of thinking and composing I remember being told as far back as primary school that I would be a writer. (me too! MW) I love to write, to communicate, to think, to work things out in my head, and it’s certainly not just about promoting the garden. Though that is important and keeps me focused on gardens as a topic.

This now means Garden Rant and Substack. Their freedom does suit my needs. (Ditto.  MW) My garden writing was never quite acceptable in mainstream media once I’d given up writing banalities about very boring ‘lovely gardens’. Though on reflection, there have been some brave editors, who I should acknowledge. (Or there were)

Marianne:

Brave editors are a rare breed and should be championed!

I’m fortunate to have had a few.  What a dance to satisfy a) the author, b) the marketplace, and c) one’s own sensibilities.

Anne:

But also, I’m not very fond of gardening. You’ve read about our making the garden, and that was a lot of hard work. It was hardly ever gardening as it is understood. Now, I’m happier indoors – writing. Or reading. Apart from relentlessly looking at the garden and working on how to improve it, how to make it sparkle and excite.

And looking, and photographing, which also leads me to thinking and then back to writing. And that is not so often, perhaps,about the ‘how to and where to’ that an editor once demanded of me. So I don’t think of myself as teaching. Reflecting, perhaps?

And I’d never listen to a podcast outdoors. I tell myself that sometimes I could listen to music, but I never actually want to. I like quiet out there and sometimes even the birds’ noise feels a bit bloody much.

Who listens to garden podcasts?

Marianne:

You should visit Virginia in August. It’s like a Rachmaninoff concerto out there. (I have a dread of London’s parakeets reaching us. AW)

I can’t listen to a podcast that requires thought when I am standing in front of a bed that also needs deep thought and planning; but for the many mindless tasks of weeding, planting, sowing, transplanting, etc. that go on for hours, it occupies a mind that longs to sink its teeth into something.

I’m definitely happier outdoors. And that is good because I’ve got a lot to do out there. Hopefully friends take that into consideration when engaging in email discussions — I often think about the questions when I’m outside for longer than I do sitting at my laptop. 

Too harsh on social media?

Anne:

I think you are a bit hard on Social Media.

It is all a question of how people choose to use things. Or not. And it has opened up our communications with each other to include the possibility of the whole world.

Marianne:

You are obviously disciplined in your use of it. But the majority of social media use is diametrically opposed to deep thought. And I know you know this because you have commented to me on the tendency of users to respond to captions or photos referencing a post, instead of reading the post itself. It’s just easier.

Yes, we can see gardens all over the world in real time. That’s a big plus. But the majority of SM users insatiably consume “content” — the shorter and more reactive the better. The more personality-driven the better. The prettier the better. Which means we’re often NOT seeing gardens in real time.

That’s a lot of brains being trained to 3-8 second attention spans. And that means that fewer people are going to be willing to think about gardens in the way in which you want them to. Addiction to short bursts of dopamine is built into the model.

Doing the thing? Or consuming the thing?

Marianne:

If you are extremely serious about horticulture and the work itself is important to you, and you are also in media, and you don’t have a media or gardening assistant of any sort, you realize quickly that the documentation of doing a thing takes far more time than actually doing the thing, and also takes time away from doing something else. That’s a serious quandary if you want to keep both a garden going and a career going, because the trend is towards how-to, quick hacks, and viral smart-assery video shorts. The very things that you (Anne) dislike.

And if I really want to go down that 3am existential rabbit hole and look at the way we consume media now — voraciously and mindlessly — adding content means I’m adding to the noise in a world where there’s already too much noise. That feels increasingly uncomfortable — my worrying instinct is that more precious hours are lost following gardening than actually doing it.

This is probably why I am enjoying podcasting at The Garden Mixer so much. Yes there are millions of podcasts. But when you find the ones that speak to you, you can do all manner of things in the garden and listen to them. I cannot scroll through Instagram and prune a spirea at the same time. Consequently, it doesn’t feel as if I am adding to something I feel is making us all crazy.  It feels like I’m talking to friends around a dinner table.

Anne:

The thing – especially as AI begins to take over – has to be to be saying something unique and valuable, in a unique voice, on whatever platform.

Marianne:

Agreed. And engaging in discussion that opens it up further. But I maintain that social media isn’t the place for those kind of discussions. Places like GardenRant are.  Or dinner tables. Like yours in August over some of that lovely fish and chips Charles got in last time. 🙂