Histories and Context - A Taste for Gardening: Classed and Gendered Practices - page 26

of housing production on which good credit levels with the local shopkeeper, the
pawnbroker, and the neighbours depended' (Bourke 1994, 89). As a result, Bourke
suggests that working-class men did develop creativity in relation to masculine
housework, 'Creativity cannot be ignored: men maintained standards of beauty, they
enjoyed the touch of plants and wood' (Bourke 1994, 89). Gardening and DIY or
'Creative manly housework' offered a means of competing with other men on the
estate, of winning love and esteem from loved ones and of providing a respectable
front to the working-class domestic domain.
In these ways, by the late 1930s, the nineteenth century social reformers' wish to
alter working-class leisure had largely been delivered: while recreation outside the
home had not altogether diminished, a large shift had taken place from community
to home-centred activities. By the 1950s, working-class community ties had become
far weaker than they had been in the nineteenth century: working-class men were far
less interested in street leisure - most especially pub recreation. Rather, people were
interested in activities which made investments in the home and family: gardening,
D-I-Y and television became the most popular working-class pursuits.
In the following section I trace the growth and popularity of gardening since
the 1930s, charting its continued development as part of contemporary consumer
culture.
From National Recreation to Lifestyle Consumer Culture: Gardening Since
the 1930s
Even as early as the 1930s, the historical antecedents of home-centred consumer
culture were being set in place by marketers, publishers and small horticultural
businesses, who recognised the market possibilities in home-based leisure. By the
1930s, gardening had become a national working-class pursuit and the publishers of
the day sought to capitalise on its growing popularity. Gardening magazines grew
in number. Securely middle-class magazines like Amateur Gardening began to
popularise their appeal by using colour on the front cover, including straightforward
gardening instructions and by carrying much more advertising (Constantine 1981,
398). Similarly, the most popular magazine of the day Home Gardening , appealed
to people using comic conventions, gave away seeds as free gifts, gave simple
instructions illustrated with photographs, was packed with advertisements and
embraced the complete novice. Moreover, as the following editorial shows, the
publishers clearly recognised the context and conditions in which ordinary people
were setting up home and garden:
a real home-garden paper , a paper which caters for the needs of those who not knowing
very much - knowing, maybe, nothing at all - about gardening, would yet make their
gardens beautiful. …Are there not gardens to most of the new homes on the Council
Housing Estates? (Constantine 1981, 398)
Continued media growth followed: the national press started gardening columns,
part-works and popular comprehensive guidebooks appeared and gardening talks
were broadcast on BBC radio. And the popularity of gardening continued: two-