The Blog Generation Takes Up Its Trowels. May 6, 2004
a "gardening challenge" sponsored by ReadyMade, a Berkeley-based do-it-yourself magazine for those who are young, hip and inclined to turn their soda empties into camp stoves. The participants, chosen by the editors, had to remake a 100-square-foot space, relying on found objects and the landscape's existing features, all within a $200 budget provided by the magazine.
"Creative reuse was the central thing for us," said Ms. Acey, who writes a Weblog and has sought gardening advice online from other bloggers. "I'm not a high-end person who's going to go spend $200 at Home Depot."
Ms. Acey may not fit the traditional image of a gardener, but she shares a passion that is blossoming among a certain segment of culturally plugged-in urban 20-somethings and early-30-somethings. They may not own backyards, but they are determined to make things grow...
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I'm thinking about gardening as a radical political act," said Fritz Haeg, 34, an architect who teaches in the environmental design program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. "
It means completely questioning the way we live, the way we get our food, the way we use and abuse natural resources, the way we occupy public space." Mr. Haeg plays host at a monthly salon that draws a young, flamboyant crowd. Events are themed — "avant-garde knitting" was a recent topic.
While gardening has yet to reach critical mass among this group, it is beginning to make an impact. Peter Bosselmann, chairman of landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley, said he has seen a bit of a shift among applicants for the graduate program over the last four years. Traditionally, students came with experience in horticulture, but
now, Mr. Bosselmann said, they increasingly have art-related backgrounds.
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It's pretty clear that young people are decidedly interested in or concerned about the landscape," he said. "Most perceive it as chaotic or in need of care and health, in need of introducing ecological principles, in need of being more artful, more structured."...
You Grow Girl, an online gardening site that says it "speaks to a new kind of gardener." The site, at
http://www.yougrowgirl.com, is the brainchild of Gayla Sanders, 30, a graphic designer in Toronto, who started it out of frustration with other online gardening communities. To her, they all seemed aimed at an older suburban audience, with a significantly higher disposable income...
Many young gardeners say they are cultivating patience along with plants. "It's such an obvious antidote to multitasking, to sitting in front of a computer, to the complicatedness of our lives."
