“The much reported decline of gardening”

It seems that somebody shares my former opinion of gardening in American life. In today's Slate magazine:

As historian Kenneth Jackson notes in his book Crabgrass Frontier, the shift to largely indoor living, accompanied by the much-reported decline of gardening and encouraged by everything from air conditioning (often now needed because houses seem to lack shade cover from trees) to front porches being replaced by garages, has left yards — when they even exist — curiously empty. “There are few places as desolate and lonely as a suburban street on a hot afternoon,” he writes.

I haven't anything to add, overlooking a very urban street on a cold and rainy morning.

Comments

[Marcia]

The good: I used to belong to a garden club. Now all we "grow" are cacti and happily, the pumpkin seeds the girls spilled on the 120-degrees-in-the-summer balcony fell into the iceplant below and one of the resulting plants is flowering.

The weird: My husband and I were casing the joint... er house-browsing in a Bay Area suburb that is not known (accurately or not) for its diversity. As our car rolled down the perfect street, my husband looked for For Sale flyers while I looked for evidence that I'd feel comfortable living there - there were no kids' bikes, no driveway backboards, and in fact no people until... "Oh! Hey! That guy mowing his lawn is Latino!" I said happily.

You guessed it: The ONE man outside on this day was a gardener.