Working class/middle class gardening...

I find it very sad with the "class" system. As people we are all of the same class ... well, to me we gardeners certainly are! you all!

 

We lost our class/es when we retired :D :D

Actually I think LOL has put her dainty little finger on it. REAL GARDENERS are classless.

[ 12. May 2007, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: Dave W ]

 

Any RHS members?

 

Ex .. after being there three weeks before I joined GC. No time whatsoever for them.

 

I'm a member, and have been for years, but when was the last time their journal did an artical on an ordinary back garden, .... If you dont have an acre they are not interested.
As the old garden books said, however small your garden may be, alway put aside at least an acre for woodland. :D

 

I wonder...in which slot would they put The Garden of Eden?
What a load of Cr*P! They`re all inter bred, you see, that`s what makes them all mad.

 

When I was on a gardening society committe in Shrewsbury there was a real mix of people on the committee from people with some of the most expensive houses with huge grounds to people from the council estates and from retired to people like myself who had just bought our first house and garden, and I had an allotment - i needed the food. Never made any difference what your background was, it was the gardening that mattered.
In my experience those people who feel they have to impress others by how big their car is etc etc have no class whatsoever. I have come across people who are very wealthy and i suppose would be from high society but had absolutely no pretensions. They had "class", they had no snobbery whatsover, they did not seem to think they were superior to others.
In gardening some of the "experts" in particular specialist areas can have very humble origins and relatively limited means. its the knowledge and experience that counts.

 

Have to say I am still a member of RHS and only visit about once a month and fall asleep ... aah .. here is the thing for those who can't sleep!

The site is a waste of space in my opinion but I will thank them forever for leading me to GC

 

Yes I agree Geoff, and its true what you say, but there will always be the higher archy that are tellers and not do ers.
They are the ones.
LOL, I m refering to RHS membership, not so much the website forum, never been there.

 

There are only two classes. Those who garden and get their hands dirty and those who don't.

Plants don't give a Skooby if you come from Worksop or a posh Public Skool with Latin as a first language. All they care about is that you care.

 

I'm also a member of the RHS as Wisley is only 4/5 miles from home and the gardens are always interesting although not sure if it's good value for money. Just a small point about this odd class debate, when I was a lad it was the 'workers' who had their 'plots' - not so now, it's the Allotment Society - meeting place for the rich and poor alike - interesting.............

 

I really started thinking about this seriously when I lived in Leeds, and visited various Stately Homes in Yorkshire. Once in Harewood House I overheard an old lady saying to her companion (imagine Yorkshire accent, if you can!) "Must be a ****** to dust!" OK, she was being flippant, but there's a serious point in there - who did the work??! Well, yes, servants, but WHICH servants, who was responsible for which bit of the upkeep, what were they paid, where did they figure in the hierarchy?
To give it its due, the brochure of Harewood House does touch on this issue, which most information packs don't. I mean, it does acknowledge that the first Viscount Lascelles didn't "build" Harewood House himself, he paid for its construction...(probably not very much...) AND it acknowledges that he made his money in - sugar plantations in Barbados. This led to a lengthy disussion about whether or not it was fudging the issue not to say "slave trade" - I don't think so, because everyone who's read this got the point at once.

 

And have it designed by Capability Brown - if necessary moving entire villages and enclosing the land of the common people if it interrupts my view.

 

yes, me...sorry and all that!
Actually it always gets a bit of laugh from the comrades when we're discussing environmental issues!

 

this is true...if you're a member you get priority booking for Chelsea and other flower shows, and you get their journal, which does sometimes have useful info...
But I also subscribe to ORGANIC GARDENING, which is really much more useful.