Gardeners - friends of community groups, or urban terrorists? - LJN Blog Posts

As a community leader I have certain responsibilities and obligations to those I serve. Among these is the regeneration of our area to improve the general living conditions, health and mental welfare.There are two particular pitfalls that I am constantly aware off. The first is not to assume my own desires and beliefs reflect those of the people I represent, the second is not to get caught up on ideas, particularly those which are popular without testing and questioning common wisdom, lest we go down a route which does not truly benefit people.And this brings me to my topic, are gardeners friends of community groups or urban terrorists?Man has been on this earth for but a blink of an eyelid when measured in time that has gone past. Yet within this short period we are the development of evolution and progress. So much of our progress has been a battle against the natural forces of nature, disease and plagues.I live in a nice sterile world. I am protected from the elements by brick and mortar, I drink water from a tap inside my shelter, water that has been cleansed of harmful impurities. I do not need to hunt for my food, it comes in containers which keep it fresh and has gone through processes to lengthen the time it is edible and to ensure it is clear of harmful bacteria. I only need to go to the local store to get food or a larger one for more choice, including exotic food from far off lands which would not have been available to my ancestors.I have had a good life, and for great swathes of it my feet have not touched the natural earth, I am protected and well for it. Is it coincidence that countries where the majority of people who are protected as I am live longer than those less developed and whose people lives depend upon the whims of nature?But there is an insidious blight upon my paradise garden. It seems no matter how perfect our piece of our world becomes there is a terrorist group, called gardeners, who seem determined to bring chaos and our bitter enemy, nature, back into our lives.Do not be fooled, for they are a clever and patient group. Looking back over history it is easy to see how they recognised the way mankind was developing and took steps to ensure their eventual victory. This can be seen in one of their earliest victories, infiltrating another group called landscape designers. This group was one of mans most promising groups in freeing us from nature.Landscape designers use of stones, wood and other materials to separate man from nature showed great promise. However they were seduced by the attraction of colour and aroma that gardeners promised would add to their wonderful work. The truth was the gardeners realised that when the landscape designers were finished their work was done and fixed. However gardeners plan not for a finishing date, but whose work would grow and mature over time overwhelming that of the landscape designer.For a while it seemed as if the gardeners would lose, the industrial revolution rolled over landscapes and mankind. A behemoth, unstoppable as it brought us to civilisation. A new hero of mankind and civilisation rose in those heady days, the town planners. Gardeners and their ilk became ostracised by decent society and dismissed as ‘tree huggers’ and other names with a loony meaning.But just as they are patient, they are quick to recognise opportunity and to grab it with both hands. An innocent invention which promised entertainment and keep us informed of the news, TV ushered in a new era for civilisation. Oh there were the occasional tv shows about gardening, but these were aimed at taming those small squares of nature sitting outside our doors. How to keep those hedges clean cut, introduction of borders to put in simple aromatic plants and such. Gardeners were presented as civilised man’s friend, helping to keep tame that which is naturally wild. A move well known to any chess player, sacrificing the pawn for the final victory.Slowly man began to finally win the war. Wildlife slowly disappeared from our streets, with a few exceptions. It was only then that the genius of the gardener terrorist group truly showed up. Their use of technology for propaganda played a huge role. Another terrorist group was already feeding the population with stories of how ‘civilisation’ was destroying the world we lived in and how nature’s children were suffering and dying out. But there was one ultimate weapon in their arsenal, one they had been cultivating for centuries.Nostalgia.Civilised man has been corrupted by a flawed view of our past. Naturist had shown us the link between flora and fauna, now gardeners played on our nostalgia of the past, summer days with butterflies, shy hedgehogs, a whole range of insects which we once ‘enjoyed’ seeing now gone. Gardening shows which once exalted us to make our small pieces of nature unable to support many life forms now encourage us to do the opposite, openly promoting flora that once again would bring chaos into our sterilised lives.If you think I joke, then look at some of the more recent developments. Gardeners tell us that a wormery makes a good recycling facility, reducing our waste food for ‘natural’ fertilisers. Yep, people are actually making artificial homes for thousands of worms so we can feed them. If worms are so good then why not let thousands or even millions of them loose on landfill sites where garbage can be safely disposed out of the way and we don’t have to smell it?Even government is not immune to the march of the gardeners, and have obviously been infiltrated by them. How else could you explain the amount of money being ploughed into bringing disorder into our communities. But most surprising is the rise in wanting to grow our own food. Why? What is the attraction of food grown in the ground open to all and sundry. All those nasty insects landing on who knows what and then walking over your food, and possibly defecating all over it. I think I will stick to my own safe and sterile foods.So dear reader, having read this far I suppose you want an answer as to the question if gardeners are friends to the community, or urban terrorists? Do gardeners bring life back into stagnating communities where we don’t even know who our neighbours are, bringing together people who span different barriers such as age, culture, religion over a shared interest; or are they urban terrorists determined to see that the golden age of mankind never happens?That is for you to decide, I have only presented one side of the argument, it is your responsibility to learn the other side.

After 26 years at Radley College, Adam King has seen grounds management evolve dramatically. Weather patterns have become less predictable, playing surfaces are under greater pressure than ever, and flexibility has become one of the most valuable…

GroundsFest has welcomed Christina Walker to its sales team as preparations continue for the 2027 exhibition.Christina joins the award-winning team with an extensive background in publishing and exhibitions spanning more than two decades. She began…

When freezing temperatures threaten the pitches at Forest Green Rovers FC, speed is everything. Protecting the stadium and training ground with frost covers can be a race against the weather, but thanks to Kress battery-powered blowers, the club's…