Questions of Consumption: What Ordinary Gardeners Do With Garden ‘Lifestyle’ Media - A Taste for Gardening: Classed and Gendered Practices - page 164

Even though, as I argue in chapter 5, using Bauman (1987) and Chaney (2002)
contemporary 'experts' strived to lower their differences in knowledge, personality
and outlook between themselves and audiences, Doris could only see a chasm of
difference between herself, Alan Titchmarsh and his access to garden resources:
Doris : This, erm, Titchmarsh. What do you call him?
Lisa T : Alan Titchmarsh.
Doris : Well he shows yer, and he's lots of garden and he's doing this and doing the other
and putting, you know, making them in arches, and I think, “It's all very well (laughs) but
you've a lot more space than I have.” And, like I say, you like these things but you just
haven't the space to do it.
Indeed, for Doris the mention of Ground Force only served as a reminder of a list of
resources she simply could not access:
Lisa T : Do you watch Ground Force ?
Doris : I've watched that, yes. They've to do it in a certain time.
Lisa T : What do you think about that?
Doris : Well as I say it's alright, they're all experts. Erm and they can do it and they have
all their plants, everything, all at the ready.
Lisa T : Yeah.
Doris : Well I 'aven't a car so I've to depend on someone taking me to the garden centre
and that …
Lisa T : Sure.
Doris :…if you're wanting to do things like that. I mean you can 'ave people in, but
they're quite expensive you see and you've to think of the expense as well, haven't you?
Lisa T : Yes … so that's something you'd watch but you wouldn't be influenced by?
Doris : No …no because you can't can you, there's certain things that you can't enter
into.
For Doris maintenance of a tidy garden was all she could hope for:
Lisa T : Dreams or aspirations?
Doris : Not really. Well, I mean it's tidy and I keep it tidy. Probably if I was younger I
might, but when you're older, you don't 'ave dreams like.