The tragedy of lost pleasures

I am absolutely passionate about gardens, I desperately want more people to go outside and enjoy their garden. There is so much wasted potential – potential for people to create their own space and potential for real enjoyment. All of this potential is being lost and (I know I’m a bit daft) I think it’s nothing short of a tragedy.

How to encourage people to go outside and enjoy? How do we encourage people to claim their outside space and make it theirs, something they can be proud of and enjoy?

Well we could try to bang on about how important gardening is, we could talk enthusiastically about growing vegetables, wax whimsically about the joys of early morning pruning sessions.

But haven’t we been doing this for years and years and years. The net effect? More people than ever are being turned off gardens and gardening programmes and books.

It’s been a resounding unmitigated failure. It’s time for a new approach.