Is gardening outdated

[BulbsAndLampsDiffer]

I live on an estate, on my road I am generally surrounded by couples/ single mums in their 30s and 40s. I am single mum try to maintain my garden both front and rear, paining fences, mowing the lawn and general weeding, so very cheap and easy. However when looking around I feel like the only one to be doing do with lots of weeds on driveways and un mown front gardens. I know it’s not a priority in modern busy life.
For convex some one said to me years ago it is impossible to have a tidy home, tidy child and tidy mum. And I do let myself slip in order to keep my home and child looking put together.
No judgment just curious if where I live is the norm.
YABU too busy to pull up weeds
YANBU pride in your garden

I love my garden and I love gardening but it is a lot of work.

I would say it’s a personal preference.
I love cooking, crafting, decorating my house but I’m terrible at gardening!
I can’t seem to keep any plants alive and honestly, I don’t have much time nor interest to learn. May be when I’m retired….

(That said I try to keep the outdoors tidy and clean enough)

It's not outdated but modern life is too busy.

There’s been a movement towards more ‘relaxed’ gardening over the past 20 years as we’ve become more aware of the importance of biodiversity, so certainly weeding is not as much of a priority for many people.

You only have to look at the Chelsea Gardens of recent years versus 2005 to see how styles and attitudes have shifted.

I’d say gardening isn’t old fashioned but styles of gardening and the focuses have changed.

I love gardening but notice I am one of very few on my street ( Edwardian terraces) who actually grows plants in our very small outdoor spaces.

I have small birds, butterflies and bees and can only imagine how wonderful the wildlife and air quality would be if we all grew more green.

I work in social housing and sadly, the majority of tenants do not take pride in their homes or gardens. It’s so nice to come across a small ‘pocket of pride’ where the house and garden are looked after but it’s not the norm.

Manicured gardens are dated and bad for the environment.

Gardening = outdoor housework if you don't have the time or inclination to keep up with it.

It can also be relentless. We have a huge weed problem that in the spring and summer needs hours of work every week to keep on top of and I hate it. In reality we need to get a gardener in to do something because it's out of control.

I love my garden and gardening. I do the garden as a substitute going to the gym.

It's definitely down to time for me. I just about keep on top of mowing but the weeds are awful and I don't have the money to replace the driveway and get a new liner put down. It's no coincidence that the neatest gardens belong to older, retired people. My mum is out most days deadheading, weeding, trimming, etc.

I was brought up on a council estate and certainly then - 1950s/ 60s if people didn't maintain their gardens they got a visit from the council and threatened with eviction. So even then there were some people who didn't see their garden as a priority but were forced into maintaining it.

And every where I have lived there has been a certain proportion of people who have not bothered with their gardens. This number has vastly increased though and includes privately owned and rented houses.
It annoys me, and many other people I talk to.

My feeling is why chose to live in a house with a garden if you have no intention of maintaining it?

And it's ridiculous when there is a situation as with my current neighbours, where the rear garden is so overgrown they can literally hardly open the back door. So the children can't play in it, they can't hang washing out or use it for anything.

Gardening is my hobby BTW. And it is hard work. Actually made harder by next door's weeds coming under the fence!

I live in London we love our gardens.

I grow veg but do the bare minimum with the rest of the garden because I don’t have time. I do think it’s seen as an older person thing, I have one friend who’s interested in gardening, nobody else in our age group (early 40s) bothers with it.

What? All 10 million of you? 😂
(To the Londoner above!)

Everyone has their own priorities .

a million things I personally would do before I even noticed, let alone did any gardening - just not my thing at all.

dh likes a potter in the garden and keeps it nice.

if you enjoy it - keep going . If not let it slide a bit.

My feeling is why chose to live in a house with a garden if you have no intention of maintaining it

There isn't always much choice about it. People in social housing won't always have any choice in where they live. Even if people do choose, there's usually compromises to make and for many, a low maintenance garden is a nice to have that may have to be prioritised below location, size, price etc.

Many post war council houses have larger than average gardens. This is what we live in. It also backs onto undeveloped land so there's a parcel of weeds and brambles that isn't maintained and just grows through our fence. We moved from a back to back with only a small yard and had no idea how much work it would be to keep up with.

Then it's not always a case of 'just moving' because that also takes effort and we're back to finding somewhere that suits in terms of location, price and size as well as having a garden that is easier to manage.

Nobody is too busy to keep the garden at least surface level tidy - opt for low maintenance options if gardening doesn't really interest you. My dad loved his (small) garden and kept it lovely, ours is bigger and slightly less lovely but still kept tidy.

Tidy doesn't have to be manicured.
Insects will still visit manicured gardens if there are flowers in them.

I love gardening, my parents and grandparents do/did too.

Our “garden” is just a tiny back yard but I grow things in two raised beds and pots, partially to teach DS about growing from seed, the seasons and the importance of making an effort!

I like old gardening programmes and books though, so I can definitely see there’s been a huge shift from the mid twentieth century when people of all backgrounds took huge pride in gardening, actually grew plants, knew about growing from seed, dividing plants and what should go where.

So many suburban gardens have now been concreted over for driveways, covered in decking or have plastic lawns, and in many cases we’re working so time is so limited. I can see why people can’t give it the time they used to, but it’s a shame. I miss the privet hedges and bedding out. Even the traditional cottage gardens you’d see in the country are more often than not just laid to lawn now. It makes me wistful and a bit sad for the former owners - they’d be turning in their graves! But I think as a society we make less effort now, whether that’s with cooking, in our gardens or the way we dress.

A good programme is one by Candida Lycett Green on front gardens; it’s on YouTube and must be 40 years old now. Worth a watch to see how things have changed very quickly.

It used to be rare to see an untended or messy garden. I’m in my 50s. So many front ones are paved now anyway. People might not have been gardeners but they were tidy.

I love gardening …

Here's one for you, grown in a pot, no trouble at all....

I guess there weren't so many single mums when the current generation of pensioners were younger, so more hands to sort the garden out. And they've got the nicest gardens (they've also got a lot of experience).

I like our garden to look good, as it's totally on show from our kitchen. So when the garden looks a mess, the kitchen looks a mess.

I've purposefully planted low maintenance greenery, and bee-friendly perennials that don't need much input at all. We spend a few hours a month on weeding and sweeping.

There's no way I've got the time and inclination for dead heading roses, spraying for aphids and mowing stripes into lawns.

Love my garden. OK it's hard work, it's time consuming and I definitely am winging it...but bees etc are so important, so I'm just trying to do my bit for them

Low maintenance gardens are definitely a good option - plants that don't require huge amounts of work, but look decent and attract wildlife. 👍

I’m a single mum of three working full time and have my children 100% of the time. Weeding etc is the bottom of the pile, I’d like to have time for sorting out the garden or indeed money but I simply don’t