Nick and all: I've followed much of the 'garden' discussion although have
to admit to having deleted a number towards the 'end' as the volume
'grew'!. I have the following comments/observations. First, I find it
fascinating that most of the people engaging in these academic musings on
what mucking about in the garden means have been men. Is this simply a
reflection of relative numbers in our discipline or does it have something
to do with the resonance of themes such as 'mastery of nature or the
environment' in male culture? Second, although again I did not read some
of the last postings, I found it interesting that while themes like
domination, class and so on were addressed, I did not see any message that
addressed personal meanings of the garden or gardening--for example as a
refuge or haven. There were productive themes e.g. growing one's own
organic vegetables but little in the way of reproductive themes. An
exception was a posting by (Olivia?) who suggested that it was preferable
in her experience to have her child master or control plants rather than
domesticated animals. As an animal lover and multiple pet owner I have
some problems with this view, including its reductionist premise that
relating to pets is about control or domination rather than also and most
always about real bonds and mutual nurturing. In fact when I think about
it, our pet cocker spaniel and domesticated rabbits more often control us
than us them!!!!
On a lighter note, does all this 'mucking about' mean that we can look
forward to Geography and Gardening specialty groups? :).
Vera Chouinard
On Tue, 19 May 1998, Nick Blomley wrote:
> I just wanted to record my gob smacked amazement and gratitude at the
> response to my rather timid enquiry about gardens, property and nature.
> There must have been close to 50 responses and follow on commentary. I
> will be sorting through them soon, and hope to feed back a summary of
> materials, ideas, references to the list. It's been a bumper harvest!
> Nick Blomley
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> N i c k B l o m l e y
>
> Associate Professor
> Department of Geography
> Simon Fraser University
> Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6,
> CANADA
>
> (604) 291-3713 (tel)
> (604) 291-5841 (fax)
> [log in to unmask] (email)
>
>
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