“A working man who tended his flowers and vegetables the way millions do in Britain would be regarded as downright eccentric, if not effeminate. US males may mow the lawn, shoot a few basketballs with their sons, barbecue steaks on a summer evening and then get out with the leafblower. Other than that, they stay indoors.” Matthew Engel has some interesting thoughts on the US aversion to nature.
The weather helps England have such magnificent gardens, but there’s clearly something deeper in the society about the obsession with gardens and gardening. A not untypical evening will see three or four gardening programmes on primetime network television here. As obsessions go, it’s a healthy one that does the commonweal considerable good.
Incidentally, a smaller group of English obsessives plane spotters which I wrote lightly about the other day is running into big trouble. It looks as though the Greek magistrates will charge them with spying, which could result in lengthy jail sentences. Bizarre.