Is gardening outdated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 gardening. It's so good for my mental and physical health. I did have an allotment but I had to give it back as I couldn't manage it with time constraints. I was so sad. But I have 3 kids and 2 jobs so something had to give.

But my garden (front and back) is quite wild and messy, I'm quite experimental and grow things for the bees rather than for straight lines and aesthetic.

I'm sure the neighbours think I'm mad but it makes me happy.

I'm in Australia and I love my garden. Even when I rented I always kept it mowed and weed free. Most in my street don't, we have a mixture of couples, state housing and single parents (inlcuding myself). I find it helps clear my head and I have a sense of pride when I pull into my driveway.

However maybe my neighbours are cooking up gourmet meals whereas I cook the bare minimum!

Yes we do 🙌

My estate amazes me

Expensive cars and holidays. Extraordinary Christmas lights.
Maintenance of the front of the house, unimportant. Shabby front doors, weed filled front gardens. Just tired and sad.

Mine obviously gets a bit scruffy then gets tidied on repeat, I’m not meticulous. But it’s one of the better looking houses in the area just because I make a little effort. Only a couple of hours a month, and repainting the door every five years. Not loads! Some haven’t done anything in the 15 years they’ve been here.

(I notice because I leaflet drop a couple of times a year. I have opinions about nice letter boxes 🤣)

Love gardening. Small garden at home, plus an allotment. A real sense of pride in both. We also keep the community space tidy, growing cuttings to fill that out.

Single parent, work full time, the kids have always gardened with me. It has given them good knowledge and a really keen interest in nature, plants and food.

We use the garden and gardening as a social space and for time together. Imperative to our good physical and mental health as well as our relationships. Team work, time to ‘be’, a sense of achievement and patience.

I'm trying to get promoted at work (if I don't they pay someone else a man more than me to take credit for my work) yet I still have to stay on top of the kids schedules and needs. Housework has slipped, garden totally irrelevant. It would be nice to have time to do everything but we all have different priorities.

I used to have 150ft garden and I kept it immaculate. I love gardening but I've had to downsize to a courtyard garden due to osteoarthritis. I just can't do it any more. But I love gardening and it's just so calming and health giving to get out there and fo it. For me it's not a chore but for many it's just too much hard work hence the rise in artificial grass and concrete.

My main priority for my garden is for the kids to have somewhere outdoors to play. I don't care if it looks a bit scruffy, it's functional. We mow and weed and cut back every now and then when we've got time and the weather is reasonable.

I would think most people in London don't have a garden

I love my garden and am lucky that all our neighbours take pride in their homes, the young family next door are time poor but employ a gardener to mow their lawns they told me he doesn’t charge much.

There just isn't time for everything these days.

I worked in social housing before I retired and that was my experience too. As @Alwaysbackagain said, it used to be an enforceable part of tenancy agreements. In the early days of social housing, when a house with a garden was a step up from tight terraces and back to backs, they were prized.

It’s not necessary to have an impeccable garden, but the other extreme of litter, old sofas and car parts is dreadful. Horrible for the neighbours who take a modicum of care of their surroundings.

I keep a tidy ish garden. I have gone for low maintenance, nature friendly plants and a few nice bedding flowers out the front. To me, caring for your patch is like putting your best foot forward, but I can totally see how people let it slide given the hours everyone works. I would say I go for "good enough" in all areas, house, kids, garden, my appearance. Nothing is perfect, but nothing is falling into disrepair!

However this year we are moving from our tiny terrace to a half acre site (new house on greenfield site) so it'll be a lot of work to get started! I'm going to start with fully hedging the perimeter with native hedging, leveling our garden and putting down some lawn, then I will plan further trees and wildflowers. I love a cottage garden, which my mum has. Veg patch is way down the line but I want to grow some things with the kids. I'm excited but a little overwhelmed!!

I was tempted to AstroTurf my front garden to save maintenance. We hardly ever mow it, it feels such a hassle to haul the lawnmower through the house so it doesn't happen much. Seeing that social media stuff about how hot they get in summer made me glad I didn't. Front garden looks awful but all that untamed greenery probably keeps the front bedroom cooler.

It’s not “outdated” but I find it boring and tedious and I’d rather be doing anything else.

Single mum here, I love gardening ,always have. I get a lot of joy from my garden. Modern life's not too busy, just personal choice as to how you prefer to spend your time. I mean I water my plants at 10pm, someone else might prefer to be in bed or watching TV 🤷. My kids have always helped in the garden too and still do as teenagers. Most of my neighbours have slabbed over everything green. My garden is full of butterflies and bees and I have a little outdoor 'lounge' I made myself which has had a lot of use this year thanks to the consistently good weather we've had.

I live in London we love our gardens.

As a Londoner that's bullshit, millions don't even have a garden!

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.

That is the problem I have only the piece of land is actually my neighbours back garden! Brambles, bind weed, docks - 4ft high - dandelions, buttercups , wild grass etc etc all causing me problems.

The family moved in 2 years ago - not a single parent family- and it was just a grass lawn which needed to be cut on a semi regular basis. But has been totally neglected and is now waste land.

I dont expect people who dont have time/ aren't interested to " garden " as such. But i do think basic maintenance should be normal.

My feeling is mowing a lawn every now and again is much easier than weeding gardens that have been paved over.

I think that standards have dropped. People don't take pride as much any more. They shouldn't buy a house with a garden if they don't have time to look after it. I don't think that we have less time than previous generations. They had less leisure activities and spent longer at home.

This time of year it feels like a full time job, weeding and deadheading and sweeping constantly. But I love it to look beautiful so I do have to put the work in.

Gosh, please don’t. We need the biodiversity of plant life, not to keep putting plastic all over everything. Humans are abominable, honestly. I can’t believe they ever invented astroturf.

My front garden is paved and shingled, I can't do much with that but I do have pots and tubs full of flowers so it doesn't look that awful.

My back garden is a mix of trees, shrubs, plants and climbers, it's full of flowers that attract bees and butterflies and the salvias are constantly buzzing with so many bees around them.

Either side of me are a disaster, their overgrown gardens make a problem for me with brambles, bindweed, bamboo and ivy encroaching on mine. The fences are not maintained and problems with mice and rats also added an extra headache for me.

If I didn't get on with them so well I'd be livid at the work they cause me in trying to control the weeds. It's all very well not looking after a garden but it can cause work and expense to someone else trying to maintain their garden.

I don't think that we have less time than previous generations. They had less leisure activities and spent longer at home.

No way was there as much investment in parenting, nowadays most dc are constantly around their parents. Work is often more consuming too. I don't have more leisure time than my parents they just different things for leisure eg going to the pub which isn't such a thing now.

I live on a row of terraces with a 2 x 3 meter front garden raised up by a meter (houses built onto a hill). Every house except one has a beautiful front garden. I love how different they all are and reflect different tastes and styles. My bedroom is at the front of the house and I often hear people walking past admiring them, pointing out plant names to kids, and looking at the bees and the bee hotel.

It’s not hard work to maintain a garden if you plant appropriately. I’ve used grasses and lambs ears as ground cover in mine so there’s very little weeding.

I have my potted plants and mow the garden but weeding front and back is the devils work!