Can Gardening Be Fun Again Please?

Did you know that forsythias kill bees? No? I didn’t know either.

It could be because this fact is actually completely false. It’s another one of those ‘internet facts’ that’s bounded around by certain types of gardener, one which is – if we’re kind enough no to call it nonsense – rooted in misunderstanding.

If you look carefully you’ll spot the bug in one of these flowers

Individual flowers of forsythia are not generous, granted. In fact there’s a good reason why some plants are a little less generous than others; if the plant gives away too much pollen and nectar then there’s no incentive for bees to go from flower to flower, so the plant doesn’t get pollinated.

There is a massive difference between saying that a forsythia is frugal with its pollen and nectar (truth) and that it kills or harms bees (fallacy).

Doom-mongering

I would have thought that there was enough doom and gloom around in the world without looking for more, but here we are.

There’s an increasing fashion for a terribly pessimistic approach to gardening, and I’m running out of patience. If a plant isn’t bad for the bees then it’s so poisonous that it will kill you even if you just look at it. It’s a wonder that humans, or bees for that matter, have managed to survive this long.

A laburnum tree in full flower

Of course some plants are dangerous if you consume them. Laburnum, that beautiful tree that has golden wisteria-like racemes of flowers in spring, is remarkably poisonous if you eat it. This is why we don’t eat it. Not only do we not eat it but in fact stories of how toxic it is have been passed through the generations, and in fact cases of actual laburnum poisoning are surprisingly rare.

What’s really sad is that so many laburnums have been removed from gardens over fears of toxicity. Children have played in gardens where laburnums grow for many decades, but for some reason modern children are deemed too careless or stupid to not eat something. Or parents have become extremely paranoid; take your pick which. I’m told by friends who have children that young children seem remarkably averse to eating fruits and vegetables, so why children should take to browsing the garden like hungry deer is beyond my understanding. Added to that the leaves, flowers and seeds of laburnum are, I’m told, very bitter.

Anyway….

Taking The Joy Out Of Gardening

There are some very joyless people around.

Gardeners who see a plant and have to drone on about oh if only you didn’t plant that – bad for the beeeeeeees you see. Not a typo, just a tediously long drawn-out emphasis on “bees”.

It’s a pity this bee isn’t foraging on a native plant of course

We’re seeing a rise in a sort of eeyore-ish fundamentalism that is quite frankly unhelpful. You’ve got rid of your exotics to grow natives have you? That’s good, but it’s a pity they’re not native to your local region? Oh they are? Well it’s so sad they weren’t grown organically with a peat-free compost? They were, were they? In that case it’s a pity you used your fossil-fuel guzzling car to go and fetch them. You rode your bike? In that case it’s a pity your bike isn’t made of sustainably sourced locally grown timber, felled using traditional stone axes and planed with ancient stone tools by blind artisans.

I exaggerate a little, but you get what I mean.

Carrot And Stick

If you want to encourage others you have two choices. You can lecture them endlessly to make them feel inferior while you yourself feel oh-so-smug for being ‘in the know’, part of a special elite as it were, or you can actually climb down from your high horse to encourage people instead.

The problem with the latter, and it’s a thing that’s not appreciated by those who like to cajole us about anything and everything they don’t do themselves, is that you must meet others on their terms. Those more extremist elements have no interest in appreciating anything but their own situation and worldviews. As controversial British comedian John Cleese said several decades ago, extremism is great because it sets you up with enemies, and you can blame everything that’s wrong in the world on them while you take credit for everything that’s good.

You can garden with natives alongside exotics, just don’t tell the more extremist end of the scale

Cleese wasn’t talking about gardening but the sentiment certainly applies to a small but vocal group who have set out to lambast every single one of us who doesn’t turn to their path of enlightenment.

If you want gardeners to embrace ideas like growing more native plants, turning away from the use of synthetic chemicals, and embracing a more sustainable way to garden then the best way is to lead by example and find good ways to engage gardeners with new ideas.

But doing this means accepting and celebrating progress. Persuading a gardener who diligently mows their lawn every week to mow every other week will save 50% of fuel, and emissions, in one move. They get to mow their lawn but actually environmentally speaking significant progress has been made in that one change.

Double flowered roses are perfectly morally acceptable in moderation, and they’re very pretty

And of course some plants are a bit more beneficial to bees than others, but rather than moan at someone for growing a double flowered rose why not celebrate the other things, plants that are more beneficial, that they grow.

Manifesto For Happiness

We need to bring the joy back into gardening. Now more than ever before.

Gardening has made huge leaps towards sustainability and environmental awareness in the last couple of decades, but while there is more that can be done we should celebrate how far things have come. The idea that gardeners can save the planet by growing a few things is a laughable one, a joke so cynical that it could only have been dreamt up by some shadowy force hell-bent on destruction. Sure your little wildflower patch will make all the difference as we build an 18-hole golf course on a pristine habitat nearby.

In the long list of destructive things that people can do modern gardening doesn’t even make the top 100. There will be those who argue that tending a garden of beautiful flowers as the world slumps into yet another pit of depression is akin to Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burns, but I disagree.

Bedding violets are cheery little flowers

Seeking joy is a very human thing to do. It’s right to find happiness, and if we can find that happiness in a garden then this is good. Of course we must always be sensible and we must follow a course that is heading in a positive and helpful direction, but we must be ready to push back against those whose own personal inclinations and neuroses would see us live a joyless life like them.

If we fill our gardens with a diverse range of plants for all seasons then yes we will have some plants that are less beneficial to wildlife, but we will more than likely have plenty that are very helpful indeed. You can absolutely have double flowered roses in a garden filled with nectar-rich plants, or some bedding plants in a pot by your door in a garden filled with trees and shrubs for birds to nest in.

Fight for nature and the environment of course, but also fight for the last vestige of joy we seem to have left in these challenging times.