Gender and Gardening - A Taste for Gardening: Classed and Gendered Practices - page 141

Lisa T : So you've worked in partnership, but you've done different things towards the
finished effect?
John and Stephanie : Mmmmm.
Stephanie : I'm the labourer.
John : She does the labour and I do the work and she finishes off, don't yer?
Stephanie : Yeah (laughs) …I do…
John : She does the main bit …carried to and fro.
Stephanie : (laughs) Titivating (laughs).
Here the garden becomes an extension of the way in which 'extra' household
tasks, for example constructing furniture or putting up Christmas decorations are
divided. Interestingly, Stephanie describes herself as doing 'labour' and John uses
the synonymous term 'work' to describe his tasks - but Stephanie provides a final
decorative layer through her act of finishing off. For John, decorating the garden is an
extension of how women construct a feminine appearance using the face and body:
John : Well that's what women are for, that's why you get dressed up innit and put make-
up on.
Stephanie : Yeah.
John : Yeah, it's like your garden is an extension of you, to me.
John and Stephanie revealed that their garden is an important public space
through their discussion of people walking past the house and looking at the garden
on their way to the local polling station during elections. For them, an unkempt
garden reflects on those within, 'If you've got a scruffy garden …their house is
gonna be t' same', Stephanie told me, to which John added, 'if you bother with your
garden it shows on yer house.' As a result of being conscious of the critical gaze of
others they strive to keep the garden tidy, 'If I've left it I've been ashamed,' Stephanie
told me. Significantly Stephanie then likened her care for the garden through an
identification with Hyacinth Bucket, the aspirational lower middle-class character
from the popular situation comedy Keeping Up Appearances (BBC, 1990-1995).
Hyacinth Bucket is obsessed with attempting to acquire the mores and etiquette of a
cultured, middle-class lifestyle. Her fear and anxiety about 'getting it right', as well
as instances she actually fails to 'get it right' offer the programme makers a set of
endless comic possibilities:
Stephanie : 'Cept I'm not Daisy. I'm more like Hyacinth these days because I think you
feel proud that you've done something. It's like washing your windows an' getting your
whites, getting your whites right. People used to be so concerned about not hanging
anything on t' washing line that weren't pure white. So if your garden's not exactly right