Is gardening outdated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

Gardens take time and money which I guess people have less of at the moment.
I adore my garden, it's probably not to most people's taste because it's a but free form, but I keep the grass well mown and edge which brings it all together.
(If dragging mower through the house is what's putting some people off, there are some dinky rechargeable mowers out there these days)

I like to keep my grass mowed and hedges cut. Was hoping to get this done today, but the weather is horrible. The hedges are a lot of work, but worth it. I usually cut the grass every other week this time of year.

I’ve got half a fence to replace, but have to wait for annual leave to do that.

There are a few houses around here where the front gardens are bad.

If it dries up today I’ll be hammering at the hedges.

One of my neighbours (it certainly wasn't me) sprayed LOTS of weedkiller on the weeds in my front garden (which is shared with my next door neighbour who has a completely wild back garden).

The stealth weedkiller person had probably been trying to help but I was trying to manage the weeds by hand and just mowing to keep the lawn short. Now there are dead patches everywhere, looks dreadful. I've put seed down but there are still rings of light dead grass and slow growth of new grass. How can I get it looking normal again?

My back garden is beautiful, I spend ages in there and I'm quite young.

There are still some birds nesting, leave the hedges alone for a bit. Give nature a chance.

When I was growing up on a council estate, 90% of people kept their gardens really well. The minority that didn't were definitely frowned upon and regarded as sloppy and scruffy.

I did not know that that the council visited back then and threatened those people with untidy gardens with eviction!

I'm trying with my garden but, as a pp said, it's yet more housework but outdoors.

*I did NOT know

I disagree that social housing tenants don’t care for their gardens. Maybe some don’t but in my run of council houses the gardens are well looked after. However we have all been here a long time and our children are older or grown now. Also, these days it’s likely to be poorer people in council housing and gardening can be expensive and take a lot of time.

Mine was less cared for when my children were little but I have time for it now. I have a big garden.

I definitely more interested in making it as eco friendly as I can and I like seeing buttercups, clover and daisies in my lawn. I’m gradually adding in more shrubs and flowers.

Came here to say this! My gardening style has changed and I no longer identify weeds as weeds – I know their names, some are very pretty! There’s No Mow May and rewilding techniques. It’s all very different from the vigilant weeding and generous applications of Round-Up I grew up with. Which is quite useful now I have small DC and two jobs: I’m not lazily ignoring the dandelions, I’m saving the planet!

i enjoy it but I can only really do it on weekends if no set plans AND it’s a dry day, and i’m not sick/too hormonal etc. In north west scotland can be few and far between for dry days at times. It’s been so wet recently our weeds are bad and the only dry day this
week I have plans. DH does the grass though but our flower beds are needing sorted (my job it seems). I worry it looks bad but other gardens are much worse. I hate how unkept gardens look though, so try and make an effort but it is hard if both parents work full time, with young kids.

I think it’s time and money. I love my garden, but it can be hard work.
DH mows the lawn, strims the edges and weeds and dug me some flower beds. I put in low maintenance plants like azaleas, hydrangea, Astiibe, a few flamingo trees, a huge Daphne, Jasmine, clematis and those palm tree things (not sure of name) camellias and an ancient apple tree. Also have pots of azaleas, geraniums (off DM) and a small potted fir tree. Turn the earth once or twice a year, water in hot weather. I pretty much leave it all alone other than that.

I have patio and decking and the front area is all tiled, aside from large pots.
I’d love to do more, but don’t have time. I vowed no small plants this year.

We have become lazy gardeners. We actually knocked down our garage which was full of junk and took back the garden which is now doubled in size. We have a lawn which is great for footy with GCs but only managed to mow it yesterday as the Grass maintenance man came to feed to treat it the day before we went off on holiday. It was extremely long, lush and green on our return and after a relatively long spell of no rain decided to mow it anyway. We now have a lawn again!! We also have planters, flower beds, small greenhouse and a pond but since the garden renovation have moved to plants which come up every year and just need a prune or hack down ready for next time. Any bare spaces have a handful of wild flower seeds thrown at them and what grows will grow.
We grow potatoes, tomatoes and strawberries for fun! Just harvested our 'earlies' potatoes and had to laugh as there is barely enough for two of us. But maybe the other two varieties will yield a better harvest later this year.
More importantly we now have a garden we can just sit in and relax. Love watching Monty but continue to be amazed at the variety of gardens seen on TV - but can't see the point of gardens that can't be sat in because of all the plants growing there. But to each their own.

No one seems to have a vegetable patch anymore !

Thanks for deciding that on behalf of every person ever. Although if you look through some other threads on here about people struggling you might change your mind.

We've started leaving the dandelions and other wild flowers to grow on the top third of the lawn. Some of our friends are not impressed. I don't care. It makes it worthwhile when you see the bees and butterflies it attracts. And I love dandelions.

Nature isn’t a consideration in this.

My hedges are by a pavement and the council jobsworth loves to serve notices if your hedge is so much as a centimetre over the pavement.

I can’t be bothered dealing with the arse.

I stand by my comment.
It's about choices.

That's vandalism, I'd be absolutely furious.

People are so bloody thick and ignorant.
"Weeds" are wild flowers, they have evolved over millennia to thrive in our climate and conditions.
Our pollinating insects depend on them. Seed eating birds like goldfinces also feed on them.

Thank goodness younger folk do seem more enlightened. I love that councils are becoming more switched on too.
This year we found 3 species of endangered moth, in our garden that we haven't seen before. I put this down to our local councils "no mow May" scene.

There is still hope. The sooner the monstrous fad for hard paving, gravel and fake grass dies out the better.

Oh god you’d love my street, everyone is gardening on our street constantly, as a result we have constant flies, ants and spiders all over the place. It’s very noisy as well when you’re trying to wfh. It is an older street tbf, and the younger couples who garden don’t have 9-5 jobs, they do shift work so maybe have more time?

No.

I live in a small seaside town in Kent and most people look after their garden.

It makes sense in the Spring and Summer to have a nice outdoor space and somewhere that kids and pets can play in.

I have fruits trees, strawberries and other berries, two small vegetable raised beds and a herb garden. It is so lovely to be able to use my own stuff when cooking and it also saves me money in the long run.

Yes, it takes a bit of work but like everything you prioritise what matters to you. I would rather spend time gardening than watching rubbish TV or endlessly scrawling on social media...

The days of when people would keep their gardens tidy out of maintaining general standards are sadly gone. There seems to be little care for the effect poorly maintained gardens have on neighbours. Just another example of the general decline in standards in society overall.

That's not untidy imho - there's definitely a difference between 'don't care' and 'helping nature'. It sounds like you're the 'helping nature' variety. 👍

It’s not relaxed gardening….its can’t be bothered (them, not me!)

To be fair, houses and gardens are for living in - that includes enjoyment other than work. Maybe some noise cancelling headphones?

There’s a reason it’s often associated with retired people. It takes a good bit of time to keep a really nice garden. I do what I can and we grow a few vegetables and flowers with the kids but to have a garden like my granny had when I was a kid takes a lot of work.

For convex some one said to me years ago it is impossible to have a tidy home, tidy child and tidy mum.
Do you believe that?

Re gardening. I don't like gardening but I don't want to look like the scruffy of the street so keep it in good order