Observation:
The hobby of “Gardening” itself is fading, just like other hobbies.
More and more people with little time, outside of working hours, commute time, golf hours, TV time, and time at the gym, or country club. To say nothing of the few hours left to transport their children to whatever competitive sports programme is in trend at the time.
They pay to have whatever space they might have for a garden, maintained by some maintenance company, staffed by a few unknowing, or caring lawn mower drivers. The children are seldom introduced to hobbies such as the ones a few of us old farts remember, and even if they were, their peer pressure limits their interest.
Space is another problem. The great “New World” is offering the average new family only few options for living accommodation. The apartment, and the condominium, are the new wave. There is no space for a “Garden”, as we know it. High density living is the new trend. The days of the single family home on a nice lot, are doomed, by cost, and the lack of interest or time to maintain it. Then the latest wave of home owners, are even having trouble knowing how to change a light bulb…
Grand parents, are often seen as the ones that try to attract the children towards the “Train set” they remember from their youth, but never had. If the grand parents developed the hobby for themselves, and along the way offered to share their passion with the grand children, it would do more good, than the disappointment of watching the children fading from interest through the boredom of watching a train go round and round…soon asking “What else does it do ?”…next month the stuff is in a garage sale, or in the dumpster.
What is the answer to the slow death of hobbies, as we knew them ? That is the million dollar question…
The whole World is changing…can the hobbies change with it…I think not, as the so called “Quality of life” is not really improving; it’s just getting more competitive, and expensive.
Someone may have other observations, of less doom and gloom, but let’s face reality, not just dreams…
Fred Mills