What is a Gardener?

What is a Gardener?While listening to GQT a couple of weeks ago, a question popped into my head which I couldn't answer: What is a gardener? We all think that we know what a gardener is but at that moment I couldn't give a good enough definition. Is a gardener a nurseryman? Sometimes. Is a gardener a landscaper? Sometimes. Is a gardener a designer? Sometimes. Is a gardener a labourer? Sometimes. Is a gardener a greenkeeper? Again, the answer is sometimes. None of this helps so I'd like to try to come do an adequate definition of what a gardener is.The definition of a gardener from thefreedictionary.com is:One who works in or tends a garden for pleasure or hire.This definition seems to be quite good at first but when we consider that this definition includes all the different roles already mentioned in my introductory paragraph (Nurseryman, Landscaper, Designer, Labourer and Greenkeeper), we see that it becomes less useful. All of these roles are legitimate careers in themselves and a gardener is sometimes expected to fulfil all of them, sometimes in the same day.In one of the gardens in which I work, I have carried out the following roles / tasks:Dry Stone WallingPond building / repairLawnmowing & lawn edging, general lawncareVegetable Growing & fruit plantingSoil improvingShrub, tree & perennial pruningBorder redesign & replantingWeeding - perennial weeds, annual weeds & pernicious weeds such as bindweedHedge cuttingCompost making & general waste management (shredding some waste, burning other waste)Propagation of (mainly perennial) plants from cuttings, seed & division.The list is not exhaustive but demonstrates the variety of tasks which fall under the gardening umbrella. Some of these tasks I have also sub-contracted on occasion, where it is easier and more cost-effective to have a specialist handle the job, e.g. seasonal routine lawn maintenance (feeding / weeding / mosskilling / aeration / scarification).In addition to all of these roles, I have the specific admin roles associated with running a small business - filing receipts and doing tax returns, sending out invoices, chasing payments and so on and so on. While these are a necessary part of running a gardening business, they are not explicitly involved in working in a garden so I will not try to include these in a definition.So what I am looking for in a definition of a gardener is something which includes all of these roles but still allows for the sub-contraction of some of the specialist roles. This way of defining a gardener excludes the specialists or those who concentrate on only one aspect of gardening. The definition needs to include all types of gardener; those who work in open or public gardens, large stately and historical gardens, and domestic gardens should be included in the definition, as well as those who work in their own gardens for pleasure (the 'keen amateur').Anyone who has ever worked in a garden, either their own or someone else's, will know that gardening is so much more than a list of individual separate and unrelated tasks. If we put all of the individual gardening tasks into the wider context of maintaining a garden, we can see them as steps or stages in the management of the garden as a whole; I believe this contextualisation of separate tasks into the overall management of a garden to be key to the definition of a gardener. So the definition of a gardener which I am proposing is as follows:Gardener: One who is involved in the overall programme of management of a garden, for pleasure or hire.In this definition, the gardener becomes an integrated part of the management of the garden, undertaking a variety of roles in the context of the garden's management. Furthermore, this definition allows for gardeners to be described as artists as the individual management style of the gardener will inform the final style of the garden. Just as the original definition from thefreedictionary.com made no reference to the style of gardening carried out in the garden, neither does this definition. The arguments for and against the gardener as an artist is a separate discussion which I will not attempt to address here. I'd like to try to address the subject of the gardener as an artist in another blog which I'll scribble together soon.

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Comments

John Pickering April 5, 2011 at 3:28pm

I guess that at the moment I am a gardener who maintains gardens for pleasure, the hire bit will come soon....hopefully along with some small paycheck.....