Grab a trowel gardening’s – rock’n’roll gone
PERHAPS YOU’VE NOTICED yourself hankering after a hanging basket, or spending a quiet moment scrolling through garden furniture online. For the first time, you’re actually finding a bit of space in your brain to think about growing your own veg this summer, or maybe the chat on your Whatsapp groups is increasingly about compost? Don’t fret, you’re not alone: gardening’s getting a rock’n’roll makeover – you’re simply ahead of the curve.
The past year has seen unlikely suspects become gardening idols. Stacey Solomon, Katy Perry and Oprah are among those who are proud of their home-grown produce. It’s TV funnyman Joe Lycett, though, who has become gardening’s most unlikely provocateur: he frequently cuts through any horticultural pretence with his outlandish garden updates. Flowers are slags, tulips get erections and as for sweet pea roots? Frankly, it’s too blue to repeat. ‘It’s really good for my brain box,’ he’s said of his gardening habit. ‘I think it’s something to do with the nurturing side of the psyche; tying up a sunflower or whatever and helping it grow, it’s just some kind of core human experience.’
In line with that, while Gardeners’ World may have experienced record viewing figures during last year’s lockdown, the new wave of gardening is decidedly more accessible and more accommodating of rebellion. For one, you don’t need a garden: a window box, patio, shared communal space or balcony will do. Secondly, you don’t need masses of experience – gumption and a give-a-damn attitude is enough to get stuck in.
And so, the houseplant hysteria that has been dominating our Instagram accounts for the past seven years or so is finally shifting outside as the Grow Your Own movement witnesses the greatest resurgence since the ’70s. There’s a vast and growing movement of Instagrammers who attract thousands of likes for their heritage tomatoes and greenhouse game, bringing new meaning to the notion of a ‘glow up’.
If you’d rather grow flowers, that’s cool, too. In the era of cottagecore, a healthy appreciation for sweet peas and wildflowers is the height of whimsical chic. A flurry of new books from Millennial experts, including Claire Ratinon, Ula Maria and Arthur Parkinson, cater for those with little gardening knowledge and even less growing space, while on BBC Two, Your Garden Made Perfect is offering up an outdoor Changing Rooms for the Instagram era.
Where has all this come from? Well, a year of being stuck inside will do it. During lockdown, those with outdoor space to escape the tedium suddenly realised the full benefits of what they had beyond the back door. For those without, the confines of being stuck inside saw us all reaching for ways to engage with green spaces – whether those were our local parks, our community gardens or simply planting up troughs that could sit on our window ledges.
The easing of lockdown might be on the horizon, but few of us will have access to the festivals, parties or all-out holidays we may once have revelled in. Instead, the summer of the garden party is upon us: it’s time to transform our backyards into somewhere capable of bacchanalia, come the summer solstice.
Gardening doesn’t need to be edgy to be worth doing – the uplifting mental health benefits are well-reported – but it does make it feel a bit more cool. So what are you waiting for? The trowel is the hottest accessory of spring/summer 2021. Alice Vincent is the author of ‘Rootbound, Rewilding A Life’