Is gardening outdated

So you never cut your lawn and leave all weeds to run wild? Must be crazy long grass

Your ideas are actually outdated. Alan Titchmarsh wrote an article recently on how this 'wilding' idea is actually bad for the environment!

I have clover taking over my lawn, and I am letting it. There are so many bees enjoying it. Also, in this dry weather the areas with clover are still green.

I remember many years ago watching Bob Flowerdew on Gardeners World saying to allow the clover to spread because it is good in drought and good for bees.

I think it’s yet another thing that’s fallen victim to the rising cost of living. When I was a growing up both parents working full time was unusual, which meant there were just more hours of adult labour available to do things like tend the garden. These days everyone’s working their arse off just to keep a roof over their heads. It’s not that people don’t care, I’m sure they’d live to have the time to care, but very few people actually have the time.

IMO a lot of home owners are lazy and can't be bothered with their gardens, or lack basic knowledge on what is a weed, and how to keep them tidy.

i really can’t believe that sone people are so antiquated !

people did that when they didn’t know any better how harmful this all is

Everyone on my street looks after their front garden/drives. Several neighbours across the road are out all the time, mowing lawns or cutting back shrubs. I have a big drive with one side trees/shrubs etc, it’s quite low maintenance but anything more would be far too much for me, I’m not into gardening.

Weeded gardens, brushed up leaves - that's all we're talking about really. It doesn't take long and makes you feel better mentally if your environment doesn't look neglected.

Wouldn't it be great if there could be a scheme whereby the people who love a good weeding and tidying could volunteer to help the people who are too busy? A good spruce up of front gardens would lift everyone's spirits.

@Addictedtohotbaths

caring for a garden shouldn’t mean clearing native wild plants ( weeds) cutting grass and picking up leaves - that’s exactly the point - cutting the lawn is bad for the environment, clearing leaves, pulling up native wild plants , using weed killers or insect sprays to protect a plant - these are all bad

please try and wrap your heads around the idea that I take pride in mostly leaving my garden and drive to do it’s own thing

I think many people have such old fashioned ideas about what a garden and drive should look like and equate that with havibg sone pride - pride in wilful destruction and harming of the planet and environment seems a strange kind of pride to me

I personally love this look!

It don't think it's outdated generally OP, just changed. As people have said above, gardens have changed with more emphasis on wildflowers and grasses left in sections at least, being fashionable now, over the stripey lawns that a lot of people coveted in the 80s (never had any idea how they made those stripes!)
I'm looking to move as I'm in a semi in (according to the BBC heat map and 'lived experience') a hotspot. And it's getting increasingly hot every summer. We are on an estate of packed-in smallish houses, several schools and an A road and motorway close - so much concrete, brick and tarmac - and also sadly, people here are increasingly concreting or astro-turfing over their small gardens - which I understand is better for them, but overall adds to the general overheating of the area! Less than a mile in every direction there are woods and fields and they don't get anywhere near as hot!

My DH is very green fingered and was raised on farms, he keeps our garden looking lovely but it's hard work, he's out there every weekend and every evening watering. He does keep our garden looking beautiful though but it is time consuming. Our neighbours are either very elderly or young parents, their time and priorities are obviously different.

I'd love to have green fingers but just don't have the dedication or enthusiasm tbh so very glad DH enjoys keeping our garden lovely.

We moved into our house 28 years ago, the property was previously my grandparents and my nan left behind a very unhappy looking rose in a pot, it looked as though it was dying, she said it had been given to her by my granddad for their 50th wedding anniversary but she couldn't keep it going, it was basically a dying twig.
DH took it, planted it in the ground and nourished it. It now flowers twice a year and is beautiful. It's about 25 years old.

It's also about choices.

I think traditional gardening is probably a little outdated, due to lack of time/modern life(style). I suspect that back when only one parent tended to work and down time didn't involve so much technology (TV on demand, gaming, doom scrolling), the garden would have been seen as a realistic hobby that people had more time for.

I love my garden and spend a lot of time in it cultivating herbaceous borders etc. but I am in a minority on my street. The majority have a rectangle of lawn and a few trees/shrubs. Front gardens in my road are typically paved/gravel/low maintenance (I removed a large area of gravel and put plants in as soon as we moved in)!

Edit to add, I admit that I sometimes prioritise gardening over housework... my plants (and spending time with my children, which is a slightly higher priority 🤣) are more important!

I love gardening, and all the gardens in my road look like they are looked after, either by the owners or the gardeners they employ.

It certainly isn't going out of fashion here. We love our garden and it is a labour of love.

We have half an acre: fruit trees at the rear and very established shrubs, some quite unusual and one side is a spring riot with rhododendra, camellias and magnolias.

The front has been my project and I have it so there is something always in flower: hibiscus in late summer, bright Holly berries in winter, hellebores,cyclamen and daphne in winter. Then the spring bulbs, in a winding bes alongside the drive presently covered in geraniums, petunias and edges by pansies. The bed in front of the house is in flower with oleander, agapanthus, penstemon, daphne, salvia, fuschia, roses with hibiscus, phlox and dahlias to come - there will be colour through to the late autumn. The hydrangeas and jasmine are in force.

Projects at present are a rockery and the front of the summer house.

It is a labour of love. I spend at least six or seven hours a week on it plus watering and the gardeners come weekly through the summer to cut the lawns and trim hedges, shrubs and trees.

I am going part time from the autumn and will have more time for more projects . It was established when we bought the house ten years ago and had been professionally landscaped in the early 30s. It has taken the full ten years to make it what it is now and to introduce colour for every season.

Yep, I see more and more gardens with a small area which is manicured and a larger patch with meadow wild flowers. Looks much nicer too

Its about money and capability.

Some people can't afford a lawn mower or a shed to store it.

Some people aren't capable of mowing a lawn.

Some people can't afford a gardener and don't have a friend/family who can help.

Some people can't afford to pave/AstroTurf/shingle a garden.

I’ve always grown flowers and tended the garden. Less successful with veg growing tbh.
Front garden is mostly driveway but I have a smallish area with a tree, shrubs, grasses, bulbs and perennials. Unfortunately it attracts the local cats (little shitters) as nearly all the other front gardens have been pebbled. Some younger neighbours who are busy/don’t like gardening and older ones who can’t manage to garden anymore. I hope I never have to resort to pebbling over my garden.

That’s very encouraging I love it !

Stick to something simple, geraniums or lavender for example look lovely and simple and very easy to grow

I love the idea of gardening but I seem
to kill every plant! It’s also quite expensive to buy plants, pots etc.

Yes my late MIL told me that too. Every neighbour took care of their homes and gardens. Would grow fruit & veg, and share with neighbours. Would leave their rent on the table in cash which would be collected by the key on a piece of string retrieved through the letterbox. Different times.

Maybe it meant new builds? Certainly most of the new estates local to me have mostly driveways with a strip of grass of shrubs instead of full front gardens.

@Gogoea veg gardening has been on the rise since the pandemic when more people took it up while in lockdown. I have a fairly large kitchen garden and neighbours are forever asking me for help with their veg patches now. It didn’t used to happen often.

Yesterday a friend came for lunch and we had salad, an asparagus and spinach omelette and strawberries afterwards. Only the toast, butter and salad dressing weren’t from the garden. Veg gardening is ace.

I doubt she means topiary and stripe lawns.

more taking pride in your space, picking out weeds, sweeping leaves and rubbish and maybe some planting. Which actually is good for the environment.

It’s not a lot of effort to have a quick tidy, I think a lot of people are just lazy and don’t take pride in their homes.