Gardening

There have been many studies of gardens, but few have drawn on theories of consumer culture. Garden research has traditionally involved the archival examination of larger parks and gardens according to the various stylistic movements associated with them through time (e.g., Symes 2006). Here, historical accuracy has generally been prized over conceptual insight, and concepts of consumer culture have accordingly remained largely outside the frame. Recent work has come closer to the experience of modern domestic gardens by examining the various ways in which people enjoy being in them (e.g., Bhatti 2006). Here, an interest in cultures of pleasurable plant experience has shown how they provide an escape from wider pressures in a way that also necessarily downplays how gardens can also serve as expressions ...