What kind of gardening do YOU block on social media?
I bet we all do it without even thinking about it. But it wasn’t until I read Elizabeth Licata’s post on Garden Rant this week, “2015: the year of the do-nothing garden,” that I’d heard it voiced so baldly. She was vowing to take it easier in her garden next year, to stop fussing and just let it be — all well and good. And then she included a resolution that’s echoed in my head for days:
Ignore all the super-modern, spiffy-clean minimalist garden designs people keep posting in Facebook. In fact, think about blocking anyone who posts them, or at least clicking “I don’t want to see this.”
Wow, blocking someone on social media who posts about a different garden style than one’s own? I was taken aback and instantly started second-guessing myself. Is she talking about me? I do like modern gardens, and although my own will never be minimalist I’m drawn to some that are. Modern and minimalist gardens seem especially well suited to drier parts of the country than Elizabeth’s native Buffalo, New York (or even the South-meets-Southwest climate of Austin, my hometown), and plants naturally grow farther apart and as individual specimens where rainfall is scarce — and this is a look that modern design embraces. Of course it’s quite easy to make a cottage garden in Phoenix or Boise, or a clean-lined contemporary garden in Raleigh or Buffalo, if that’s what you like. But I do think that certain styles lend themselves to the region in which one lives, and don’t merely reflect one’s taste. In that case, if you block a particular style of gardening from your news feed on Facebook or Pinterest or your blogroll, are you also blocking out whole portions of the country?
Image courtesy of morgueFile.com
Isn’t this what many nationally marketed gardening magazines and books did and still do, at least in the U.S.? Focus on one type of gardening, typically the lushly planted, temperate-climate gardens of the Northeast or Pacific Northwest, sometimes adding California Mediterranean for a bit of diversity, and largely ignoring the Southwest, Mountain West, Plains States, Lower Midwest, and Southeast — i.e., “flyover country?” And isn’t this what the democratic age of social media was supposed to ameliorate?
When garden blogs proliferated in 2006 and 2007, suddenly you could read about gardens all over the country and around the world. No longer did gardens have to fit an editor’s narrow idea of perfection. In fact they didn’t have to be anywhere close to perfect! Instead, you could see real gardens made by real people in regions you might know nothing about. Readers in the North were surprised to discover that gardening seasons are often flipped on their heads for southern gardeners. Readers in the South learned about the benefits to northern gardens of winter snow cover and the springtime joys of bulbs and ephemerals. In other words, we quickly learned more about different types of gardens than we ever learned pre-blogs, and it was eye-opening and fun.
Image courtesy of morgueFile.com
But now, with today’s oversaturation of blogs and hourly updates on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, each of us is forced to make decisions about what to read and what to cut out of our feeds. There’s simply not time to read everything. One must curate. And so Elizabeth’s comment about blocking people from her feed who post about gardening styles she’s not into makes sense. But it makes me sad to think we may all be curating ourselves back into the limited experience of gardens we had before the rise of blogs and other social media. Personally, I cut chicken chat and edible gardening posts from my feed, only because I’m not into homesteading and am into ornamental, wildlife, dry-climate, and native-plant gardening, with a lot of modern design thrown in for fun. My taste isn’t better than anyone else’s. Your taste isn’t better than mine. It’s all just what we like and have time for. But amid the plenty don’t you feel a bit of loss for what we miss and how we narrow our world by blocking and clicking “I don’t want to see this?”
Image courtesy of morgueFile.com
So fess up. What do you curate out of your social media feeds? And do you think it’s a necessary evil, or do you find it liberating to essentially create your own weekly magazine of garden stuff you love?
And for the record, I hope when my friend Elizabeth Licata reads this she understands that I intend no personal criticism. On the contrary, I appreciate how her post got me thinking. That’s another thing garden blogs are good for!
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Interesting! I like modern design a lot and glom onto photos of it because I know I’ll never use it in my own garden – I want too many different plants, change everything too often, etc to succeed at a modern design. But I think I can be inspired by it, learning to both simplify and be bolder when I can, for example.
What I block are Facebook “friends” I actually don’t know, and the ones I do know who post frequently. More than once a day? You’re outta here – unfollowed. Still friended, but I don’t have to see all those weather reports and meal updates. Also, anyone who links their FB updates to their Twitter feed. Ugh.
So I block (technically unfollow) to keep the numbers manageable.
I think we all unfollow, either by clicking the button or skimming past, to keep our feeds manageable, and it’s interesting to hear the kinds of things that set people off. Too many updates seems to be the main complaint among commenters on this post, and that follows with the theme of this post. —Pam
Pam, I do throw things out there in posts that I don’t actually ever act on. Indeed, I suspect I’ll fuss just as much about my garden as I always do. Which isn’t all that much.
As for the super stark minimalist gardens, I do find them kind of annoying, but the Facebook posts about them don’t generally come from anyone I personally know–usually organizations or publications. They are the airbrushed models of the gardening world. But they aren’t nearly as annoying as many other posts I see on my cluttered, completely uncurated feed. It’s a chaotic cacophony, and it will likely stay that way.
I’m glad I’m not on your “blocked” list then, Elizabeth. 😉 Your comment may have been only “thrown out there” in your post, but it provided me with lots of food for thought. —Pam
Ditto above. I like looking at different types of gardens–even if something is not quite to my taste, there’s always something new to learn about, enjoy, and experience by reading and vicarious touring. But folks who post about what they had for lunch or dinner? I’m SO not interested. I also unfriend or cut off the feed of prolific posters. With my attitude, I probably shouldn’t even be on FB. Hmmm. Is it too late for a New Year’s resolution?
Resolve away, Tina. FB has its uses, but yes, much of it is a total time-suck. At least we’re not missing any good gardening weather by being on right now. —Pam
Interesting. Elizabeth’s point and your questions are certainly food for thought. I think I am more like Susan in that regard. In general, I don’t friend folks I don’t actually know. And I follow blogs that I enjoy. Many of them represent the garden styles that I love, but there are certainly other points of view included in my blog roll. I like being able to “create” my own magazine. When some of the gardening publications moved to a more minimalist style and nothing but contemporary projects, I did quit buying them. But on social media, I can adjust that mix at will, and I do love that about it.
I think those who like to meet other bloggers in person, as we do at the Fling, tend to follow bloggers we know as much for the person as for their topic, right? It’s all part of the curating process. —Pam
I’m not interested in reading much by pretentious garden designers with no concept of gardening with kids, dogs, a small budget, etc. I need to feel passion and reality in what I read. I was once directed to the blog of a well known designer but when he mocked other people’s garden’s, I stopped reading. Garden snobbery comes disguised in many forms and always gets a delete from me. I doubt I’ll ever have chickens but love to read about them. But any blogs or FB posts that emphasize rigid design rules and lots of straight lines aren’t interesting to me.
I’m guessing you fall in the “liberating” camp then, Casa M? There are so many options for reading about gardening online now that it’s quite easy to be choosy. Not so in the days of just a few print magazines and books. —Pam
Sadly, I don’t block anything garden related, and waste far too much time looking at stuff while household projects languish.I’ll look at anything that has a plant in it. I do however discard heartwarming videos whose descriptions end with “and you won’t believe what happened next!!!!!”
Oh lord, don’t even get me started on those! Right there with you!
I’ve unfollowed so many of those pages too, KS. Sometimes I get suckered into watching one of those videos, and they can be fun, but they waste sooo much time. —Pam
She planted an agave and you won’t believe what happened next!
Well, I’d click on that one. —Pam
Good information and discussions.
I’m glad you think so, Tom. Feel free to jump in with your social media opinions as a non-blogger, if you like. —Pam
On Facebook, Block and Unfollow are two very different things. Blocking is much more hostile, and I don’t think I’d ever do it for someone whose taste was different from mine, I’d save it for something much more offensive. I tend to follow people more than gardening styles. I pay attention on Facebook and out in Blogland to the people I know, have met, and like as friends or acquaintances. Although like Susan, I do unfollow people who post too often. Not long ago I also unFriended a bunch of people that I don’t actually know, who were for the most part PR folks in the gardening world. All their pages were filling my feed with stuff that didn’t interest me, and replacing posts by actual friends, which I do care about.
I too unfriended a number of people I didn’t really know a couple of years ago, Alison. It was surprisingly difficult to hit that button, even though I really didn’t know the people. I always worry about boring my FB friends who aren’t garden obsessed like myself, so I post nearly all of my garden-related stuff on my Garden Chat page. But now that FB keeps so many posts hidden from those who’ve “liked” our pages (unless you pay), I wonder if it would be better to post on my personal page and accept as friends those I don’t really know. It’s a ridiculous tail-chasing circle to be in, and yet these social media connections are so important to those of us who enjoy chatting about gardening. —Pam
Hmmm. I don’t think I’ve ever unfollowed or muted someone on Facebook or any other social media platform over anything gardening-related. I tend to friend only people I know or thoughtful, well-informed people who are very into whatever I’m interested in, and my gardening interests are pretty wide-ranging and I like learning about different perspectives, so it hasn’t been a problem. My unfollowing/muting so far has been solely because of people getting on my nerves in the most volatile of subjects: politics and religion. And that is a discussion for another day!
Yes, hot-headed political posts of whatever side push my buttons too, Lori. Everyone ends up preaching to the choir, so you have to wonder why so many people fill their pages with sermonizing. —Pam
Thanks for the thought-provoking post, Pam. I agree with most of the comments above. Lori really hit it on the head for me, though, with her point about politics and religion. Politics, in particular. I have Facebook friends who are ultra-conservative and ultra-liberal. Either one is fine if that’s the conviction. But it starts to become a shouting match, and Facebook is not a friendly place to be leading up to an election. Anyway, regarding garden blogs, it seems like they’re thinning out a bit from the larger numbers of a few years ago. Personally, I’m sad to see some of my favorite blogs disappearing, for various reasons. I would never block or unfollow a blog for having a different style of gardening. But sometimes I spend more time with a particular type of blog or with a very favorite blog just because I want to. Great topic!
I agree, Beth, that the number of garden blogs has thinned in recent years. I think FB and other quick-post media are the reason — they’re just so easy and offer instant communication, rather than the slower back-and-forth of comments on blogs. Still, a blog is so much more expressive and thoughtful a medium, and it’s owned by the writer, not Mark Zuckerberg. —Pam
I’m not on social media.–No Twitter. No Facebook. No Pinterest. (You can’t block someone/something if you aren’t part of it.) Therefore, I’ve only seen the local trend toward minimalist gardens. I’ve been gardening for 17 years without garden input except from blogs, books, an occasional symposium/tour, and the radio.
The trend in Central Texas gardening has gone from cottage gardening to a focus on native plants to minimalist/modern gardens. Oh, and when the economy tanked, there was a deep interest in backyard food growing.
Through all of this, my taste never changed even though our climate did. I can see the reasoning behind a minimalist garden here. In the Austin/San Antonio garden blogs it appears many folks headed this way with their plant selection and use of hardscape.
However, I continue to do my own thing. My Austin garden is untrendy… However, my house with it’s Texas cottage garden will transfer ownership on Jan. 7th. (It did do my heart good that an artist purchased my house and wouldn’t accept an additional 40K from the back-up buyers to back out of the deal. If no one else likes my garden, I think she does.)
If I WERE on Facebook, I’d probably be the person banned or blocked because I’d post too much, post something that was not trendy, or post something that would offend people.
Not to quibble, but you’re here, Laura, so you are on social media. 🙂 And I’m glad! Wow, you’re leaving a garden of 17 years? That’s a big deal. I’m so glad to hear you’ve found a buyer who values the garden. That makes all the difference, knowing you’re leaving your baby to a caring new owner. Will you continue to garden in Austin, or somewhere else? —Pam
I’m not on Facebook but I did join Pinterest last year and, because I generally treat my boards as research tools connected to current or future projects, I limit who I follow there and pay little attention to Pinterest’s regular updates on who’s following me. That doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the views and garden styles of others but only that I have just so much time and I want to spend it productively looking at feeds that support my specific interests. My tastes in blogs are more diverse and, while I probably gravitate first to those that face conditions somewhat similar to mine, ultimately I follow bloggers based more on personality than on garden design preferences or what they chose to grow. Like Tammy (Casa Mariposa) I also prefer to read posts by bloggers who lack pretensions (no Martha Stewarts!) but rather demonstrate a genuine passion for plants and gardening.
A FB holdout, so rare! 😉 I like following people I’ve met, those who garden in similar conditions, and those whose writing I enjoy. I wish I had more time to sample new blogs because I feel sure I’m missing out on some really great stuff when I only stick with the familiar. —Pam
I’ve not blocked anything or anyone from facebook but I don’t look at it that often. Mostly just hang out in the blogosphere reading far too many blogs. It’s the interest in and experience of gardening in various parts of the world that fascinates me. Trashing other gardens is not appealing. I’m really not interested in hearing folks who think they know everything. (Makes it so difficult for those of us who do.) Seriously, it’s the joy of the endeavor and the support of the community that keeps me reading.
Your humor and artsy-funky style are what keep me coming back, Outlaw. 🙂 —Pam
Facebook for me is family and friends only. I get my garden fix from my blog feed which includes a mish-mash of many interests. I have noticed that many of the original garden blogs I first followed eight years ago are no longer active but I still find plenty to read. With the feed, if I see a garden topic I’m not interested in, I’ll pass it up that day, but that doesn’t mean I won’t find an interesting post a week later.
I do the same thing, Lost Roses — make a quick decision whether to read based on title and the first couple of sentences or the photo. I wish I had as much time to read all the blogs in my blogroll as I used to. I tend to save up an evening every couple of weeks for a binge reading rather than do a daily read like I used to. —Pam
Make Lists on Facebook and put Family on one list, Gardeners on another and former Classmates and so on.
Just read the list you need at the moment rather than your general Feed.
As you know I was a long time FB holdout, but finally gave in because of Fling planning and don’t regret it. I will accept friend requests from people I don’t know, as long as they know lots of folks I do and I can see they’re posting about garden related things. However if their posts start to become religious, preachy (2 very different things) or all about the grand kids then I hide their updates. As for styles I love seeing new things! (Nix the chicken chat though)
I’m glad you broke down and got on FB, Loree. As I mentioned to Lost Roses above, I save up my blog reading for a binge night every few weeks, which I enjoy though I miss being a part of active commenting that way. But I often see your posts announced on Facebook, and so I’ll pop over to read them in a more timely manner. —Pam
Pam, I get my dose of modern from your blog. While I don’t relish the minimalist look every garden gives me a thought about my own garden. If you saw my garden you might see a touch of minimalist and a dash of formal but you would never think of it as either in the big picture. I do get tired of seeing just what the publications do by showing CA and other west coast gardens. I have stopped watching the garden shows on tv because that is all they show now. I miss them too. I love blogs because they show what people are doing in real gardens with a dose of travel gardens to look at and you don’t have to mush through what everyone is having for dinner etc…
True, and such a good reason to read blogs instead of FB, Lisa! —Pam
I don’t block anything. Perhaps I should, at least some.
Let me just add that I think it’s probably like when I go to a garden show or visit other gardens – I might not like the overall garden, or what I see might be too grandiose/formal/informal for my taste, but I nearly always see something of value that I can take home and adapt to my own garden.
Yes, good point, Kylee. —Pam
Interesting topic, Pam. I think we all struggle with FB overload. Not much I can add to that discussion, and I’ve only blocked offensive people. I also sometimes give myself time away from FB because I find I can spend too much time on it.
But regarding different garden styles, I do love to look at all kinds of gardens, provided they’re really gardens! The more minimalist ones could really be considered just framing for the architecture of the building, not really gardens one would like to hang about in. I got a chuckle out of Elizabeth’s description of minimalist gardens being the “airbrushed models” of gardens. Still, sometimes I can glean a new way to design an area even from a minimalist garden. So bring it all on – I’m willing to at least give it a look.
I like to see all kinds of gardens too, Jean. I just wish there was more hours in the day. —Pam
Everyone has a different level at which they think their garden meets their satisfaction so I will continue to do what I do out there whether people visit or not.
I have interests in design, plants and cooking and those are what I look for on the internet. I enjoy many tastes in garden style and think Pinterest is a valuable resource as are garden blogs. I am disappointed that so many of our local gardeners no longer write about their gardens as they are our best resource.
I don’t block anyone and don’t receive any kind of notification other than our private Austin group and family. I sometimes look at newsfeed and am always amused by the cat videos even though I don’t own a cat. No Twitter of instagram so none of the # stuff.
I enjoy thoughtful posts and as you said the post on Garden Rant made me think.
I miss the local bloggers who’ve stopped too, Jenny. You learn more about gardening on your home turf from local bloggers making their own gardens than you could from any publication written for a national audience. Design is universal, but planting and plant knowledge is local. —Pam
I left Facebook years ago and with the exception of having to gently remind a few of my friends that if they want to share photos of those adorable children/pets/grandchildren they’ll need to specifically email them to me, I’ve never regretted my decision for a moment.
I have significant quarrels with the use of what should be our private information being mined for corporate benefit, which is the profit model driving most of social media (including a few blogs). I believe many who use social media to “share” what they’ve read or seen with others do so in ways that undermine the preservation of intellectual and/or artistic property limits. I’m a bit of a stickler about credit being given where credit is due, I want no part of lazily unattributed pins or posts or follows.
And I’m honestly not trying to convert or convince -this is really more a case of an ornery old gal doing what an ornery old gal has gotta do. Later I’ll tell you about how I had to walk to school uphill both ways. Barefoot.
Counter question: Is the appearance of stark minimalist gardens driving or following what people want to see more of? Is minimalism a true trend nationally or is it a byproduct of editorial choices made on one coast or the other? Just don’t answer on FB, please…
In my inexpert opinion, I don’t see minimalist gardens as being a big trend on garden blogs or in plant-focused and gardening how-to magazines like Fine Gardening or Horticulture; even Garden Design shows a mix of styles these days. Minimalism is popular among fans of contemporary design, obviously, particularly house design. Landscape architects, who often don’t know much about plants, like minimalism because they can choose a few species for form and structure and call it a day. Homeowners who aren’t interested in becoming gardeners like it because it’s easier to take care of and looks clean and neat. But minimalism also has a fan base among plant-loving gardeners who value form and texture over flowers, who adore succulents, and who garden in hotter, drier parts of the country where architectural plants like agave, yucca, and cactus grow so well and lushness is harder to attain without copious watering. In these cases I wouldn’t categorize minimalism as stark at all, for these kinds of gardeners are as plant crazed as anyone, but more focused on clean lines and form. Very different from the cottagey or woodsy East Coast aesthetic, right? —Pam
What an interesting post and approach. Like you I enjoyed discovering different types of gardening when I started blogging. However over the years I have streamlined my feed readers and other forms if social media not so much to types of gardening but to people with a similar mindset to me. So by this I mean plant mad people rather than those interested in design or edible gardens and especially not chicken or other small holding posts.
I also like good writing and photo quality
However, saying this I often go through phases of seeking out new random blog/people on the off chance I will find someone that I can connect to.
I do too, Helen. I think it’s important to sample new blogs as time allows. You never know when you’ll find something wonderful that you’d never know about if you stayed in the same old, familiar circle. —Pam
I haven’t blocked anybody who has a different gardening style than me, altho I have unsubscribed to some blogs that were just too different from the way I garden. The reason being that I can glance at a picture on FB and/or read the caption in a minute so. If the picture doesn’t catch my attention, then I keep going. On the other hand, blogs take longer to read and I would rather spend my time reading ones that consistently give me info I like.
Blogs not only take longer to read, they take longer to write, which I believe is why many bloggers have switched largely to posting on FB. So not only are we curating as readers but as writers too. —Pam
Well, this surely got a lot of people going, didn’t it? I enjoy going on R’s iPad FB because he has only a few friends. I haven’t THAT many, but enough that I never quite get to some family posts because most of my interaction is with gardeners. I’ve never taken the time to delete anyone, but have become a pretty relentless scroller. Time management may become a bigger subject in 2015. Interesting to read through these comments to see how others handle it.
I’m a relentless scroller too, Ricki, but I still spend way too much time on FB. Reading a spouse’s feed without the garden contacts is an ingenious way to just see what family and non-garden friends are up to. But I confess I’m generally most interested in the gardening stuff. —Pam
I don’t block anything, but of course I tend to click on things related to what I love the most – informal, cottage-style gardening. I am thankful that there is such a plethora of information on the web, now, though. When I lived in the Southeast, much of the gardening advice I read was for the Northeast or Pacific Northwest, and didn’t work at all for where I lived. In fact, many plants in the garden stores would be labeled incorrectly for my area – ‘full sun’ in the North often means ‘part shade’ for many plants in the South. I think it is great to have so much info from so many different types of gardeners. And if people don’t have much time for social media and want to focus solely on their type of gardening for a while, I could understand that.
Indie, yes! That’s exactly the kind of misinformation for Southern gardeners that blogs are correcting. It seems like everything from gardening schedules to plant labels (and I’ll throw in Christmas carols) is written for mild-summer folks. Since so many growers are located in those climates, it makes sense for them, but not for us, especially when those plants are shipped all over the country to the Home Depot gardening aisles, where people who take labels at face value are bound to buy and be disappointed. Reading local blogs can help newbies understand what the gardening schedule and plant preferences for a place are really like. —Pam
It is nice to know so many are NOT on Facebook! I have never found a use for it but I do use Pinterest as a research tool. I garden east of Dallas and have limited time and space. I know many of the magazines only rarely focus on this part of the country but I still enjoy seeing how someone else “sees” their garden. What is so sad is that we don’t have the time to look at everything!!!! What I do is look at color and try to copy with something that works in my area.
I like to do that too, Susan (although I’d like it more if the magazines actually showed plants that would grow here). It’s a fun exercise, like this “switch-hit” I once did. —Pam
As to gardening blogs, I follow people with many different styles from many different parts of the country, or beyond. They do have to have good photography, decent writing that is not too wordy, and each blog has to be diverse. I long ago stopped following one trick ponies who only posted daylily photos, or only posted photos from their own garden for instance. I also like to be taken to places I will likely never visit, be it a garden, some natural wonder, or something entirely different. As to Facebook, that’s a whole other topic.
I like to follow people who venture out of their own garden from time to time too, Les. After a couple of years, posting the same seasonal pics can get old, unless the writer has a talent for fresh observations. But I do respect those who focus intently on what’s in their own back yard because that’s the way to really know a place. Happily there’s something out there for all of us, with our varied tastes and voracious appetites for new material, right? —Pam
What thoughtful points, Pam, and you’ve hit on one of my pet peeves in garden magazines (and something I try to remedy whenever possible as a writer, though I do live in California) – that people so badly neglect the “flyover” states and the south in much of their garden coverage. While I know that issues like access to great plants and materials, and population density mean that there are fewer photo-worthy gardens in Kansas than LA, I think as writers we should do all we can to seek out those in differing climes and showcase their work. I know it is frustrating to readers to only see a few climes (not their own) repeatedly represented.
Exactly. This is why I’d love to see more bloggers step up to represent their region, especially if they live in an area regularly overlooked by print publications. As you point out, it’s easier for writers and photographers to see lots of gardens in big cities and along the coasts, where population density and money ensures a plentiful supply of gardens. There are, I’m certain, many, many beautiful and interesting gardens to be seen in the great midsection of the country, but they just don’t seem as accessible. Blogs can change that. And so can garden writers willing to travel as much as possible to seek them out. If only there were a budget for that, right? —Pam
Just like a garden, Blog Lists, FaceBook and Pinterest accounts need frequent weeding.
An apt observation, Jean. 😉 —Pam
So funny, Pam, that the same comment caused me some introspection too. I do love me some modern! Amazing how doctrinaire garden writing had been for decades, and I agree that regionalism has really come into its own via blogs. There’s many other reasons besides “style” as to why our gardens look the way they do!
Yes! Cultural and environmental influences affect garden style in different regions, even within our own vast country. —Pam