David WE Roberts wrote:
I have just cut the lawn and cleared a bit of overhanging shrubbery
at my daughter's place (she rents it out ATM and we were letting a
tradesman in). Took me about 30 minutes.

The tenants, 30 and below, show absolutely no interest in the garden
and so do not maintain it.

This does not bother my daughter because she has no interest in the
garden either.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of neglecting a garden it did
make us ponder about "the younger generation".
[Just a minute, when did we stop being "the younger generation"?]

Her tenants can afford to buy, but don't want to because they don't
want the responsibility.
They still seem to live as students with the same short term view of
accomodation as somewhere to dump stuff between work and socialising.
This is not uncommon, from talking to other "Baby Boomers" about
their kids. Not many seem to settle into the life we were lead to
expect - married, kids, good job for life.
Not that this "dream" is practical now; jobs and carreers are not
expected to be long term and life expectancy is much longer so
everything seems to have an air of impermanence. Marriage and kids
has gone down the priority list for many. Expecting to have to work
until you are 70 or more must be quite daunting.

Please note that I do not criticise people for not following the
route we were encouraged to take. The world is a very different place
and each generation makes their own decisions.

However gardening seems to be tied in to a focus on the home and a
willingness to spend time at home working on it. If life is so busy
that there is no spare time and energy to maintain your home and
garden then something has got to give.

So to finally get to the point.

How many urgles (contributors and lurkers) are aged 30 and below?
Is gardening as popular as it always was (the amount of stuff in the
sheds does suggest a strong demand) or are most of the people
gardening Baby Boomers and the next decade or so, who bought houses
before the last couple of the housing booms?

Has the extended period in education (did we ever get to 50% going to
University instead of 5-10%) and the massive availability of
electronic consumer goods and availability of various entertainments
given the 30- generation a whole new set of priorities which render
serious gardening a waste of valuable time?

Just wondering (and not too seriously) :-)



Well, I'm 45. Eep!

My younger years consisted of living in a large number of flats (my mother
used to joke about the number of crossed out addresses for me in her address
book) and when you're doing that, it doesn't seem much use investing time in
a garden you're probably going to abandon in a year or so, so you just keep
the grass down kind of thing. Now I'm in stable accomodation, the garden
seems an investment worth making, because I can think, "that'll be nice in
two years" or something.

Another factor might be that gardening is only an enjoyable hobby for somet
people, not all. Like, any hobby. In the past, I think people were more
likely to feel an obligation to present a nice garden to the world, like
scrubbing your front doorstep was an "advert" that you were a decent, clean,
respectable family beyond the front door. So even people who didn't much
enjoy gardening would do it in order to present a positive image to
neighbours etc. People care much less about such things these days.

Regarding marriage and kids as a priority, there are all sorts of factors.
One element is that nowadays for men marriage is a risky business. Just ask
John Cleese


Ian