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Gardening and Social Function

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Flower gardening is a big deal to my Mom and my grandfather (my mother’s father, who also grew vegetables).  For whatever reason, I never picked up the habit.  Anyways, my mother’s obsession with her flower beds always confused me.  Nobody really ever saw the garden, it had no purpose outside of neighbors looking at it as they walked by.  Gardening has become a practice that has been separated from any discernible social function.  I don’t know if this is regional thing, but no one I know has ever been to or hosted a garden party.

Before the invention of the Air Conditioner, gardens were where you took company to escape the bawmyiness indoors.  Gardens were kept beautiful precisely because people would spend hours in them, visiting and talking.  While I have been considering following in my mother and grandfather’s footsteps, I’m not sure what it would actually accomplish.

Written by adamv

March 28, 2008 at 10:49 pm

Posted in Misc

5 Responses

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  1. [...] <b>Gardening</b> and Social Function [...]

  2. Gardens either vegetable, flower or shrubs add to healthy of our environment. It helps relieve stress and I benefit from the exercise. Plus I enjoy the wildlife our gardens attract. Maybe someday you will give gardening a try and who knows you might become hooked.

    jeff-nhn

    March 29, 2008 at 9:56 am

  3. if we ever have a real yard, i’d go with veggie gardening. try reading something like barbara kingsolver’s animal, vegetable, miracle or small wonder. really shows what veggie gardening can accomplish. i’m still not sold on non-edible flowers and plants the effort i would need to put into learning to grow them, but veggies, as a very economically and environmentally useful thing, would be another story.

    Kelly

    March 30, 2008 at 5:23 pm

  4. I figured I’d start small. Like if I could keep a chia herb garden going for a few months I could graduate to the real thing.

    adamv

    March 30, 2008 at 8:43 pm

  5. haha, i hear ya! or maybe one of those tiny “basil in a pot” deals.

    Kelly

    March 31, 2008 at 11:44 am


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