GardeningThe technology of beautyNow, gardening was driven by three main trends: technolog

Gardening

The technology of beauty

Now, gardening was driven by three main trends: technological change, plant prospecting and fashion. Of these, the most important was technology, whose advances made it possible for the middle classes to enjoy what had once been affordable only to the very rich.

The most dramatic example of popularizing technology was surely the invention of the lawnmower. Nothing was more labour-intensive, in the 18th century, than maintaining a large lawn. It would take three men with scythes (大镰刀) a whole day to cut an acre (two-fifths of a hectare) of grass; they would be followed by lawn women whose task was to gather up the cuttings.

Just one man went to mow

Then, in 1830, Edwin Beard Budding realised that the rotary blade used in the cloth industry to produce an even pile on textiles could be used on grass. The rotary lawnmower meant that suburban homes could afford the neat greensward (草皮) previously available only to the rich.

The other technology that transformed Victorian gardening was the development of the art of growing plants under glass. Importing plants from countries as distant as Australia became a commercial possibility once they were sealed in wooden boxes with glass tops. From the 1830s on, Victorian gardens, private and public, used masses of bedding plants. In 1877, 2 million plants were bedded out in London's parks, often in elaborate geometric designs. Growing them under glass protected them both from frost and from pollution.

In the past century, technology has once again transformed and simplified gardening. Among the most significant advances is the growing of plants in containers. Instead of ordering plants grown in open fields and dug up bare-rooted for planting in autumn, gardeners now typically buy plants which, because they have been grown in containers, can be transplanted at almost any time of year. Container growing has in turn become possible largely because of the development of lighter composts.

Other men's flowers

The past two centuries have seen an immense increase in the range of garden plants. Native species have been refined and developed; and explorers have brought back plants from all parts of the world. The passion for plant collecting sprang partly from the expansion of Catholic religious orders (神职) abroad in the 16th century, looking for medicinal plants as well as souls to convert. Many early plant-hunters are commemorated in plant names, such as the Tradescants, father and son; Sir Joseph Banks, who sailed with Captain Cook and brought home 3500 species from Australia.

Fashion is every bit as important in determining what people grow as in what they wear. The geometry, gravel and bedding plants of the mid-19th-cenmry town-house garden had given way, by the century's end, to a passion for informality and English cottage gardens, fostered by two of the great designers of the age. Their influence has proved enduring. "All over the world, people want to rival English gardens, often in a climate that makes it very difficult," says Sarah Bond, an enthusiastic amateur gardener in Manhattan.

A growing business

Both gardening and looking at gardens are developing rapidly. Give people a piece of ground and they will buy something to put in it. Mark Bhatti and Andrew Church of Brighton University in England point to the fact that people now seem to spend far more on machinery and chemicals, and more again on benches, barbecues, pots and sun-loungers, than they spend on plants themselves.

Moreover, the range of places where people can buy gardening supplies has expanded. Supermarkets and general stores frequently carry plants and other gardening necessities. On the contrary, Britain's Garden Centre Association says that around 12% of the typical turnover of a garden centre now comes from the cafe. A trip to a ga

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