Is vegetable gardening work?

[Anja]

Hi everyone,

some of you may have read and responded to my earliers posts about what motivates us to grow our own fruit and veg and whether there are any emotional or spiritual benefits to doing so. As I explained there, I'm doing a bit of preliminary research for an academic research project into growing our own.

I've had lots of really interesting thoughts about my earlier questions, so here is a new one that comes out of those other discussions.

Do we consider fruit and vegetable growing to be work?

Obviously, at a physical level it is work, pretty hard work at times. But it somehow does seem to be different to 'work' in the sense of the work that we are being paid to do, i.e. our livelihood. So the next question then is:

If it is work, in what way is it similar or different to 'work' work, i.e. the job that one does?

I'd be really interested to read your thoughts on this and look forward to - hopefully - lots of posts.

Best wishes,

Anja

P.S. and the usual disclaimer - I am hoping eventually to publish results from this research in an academic (and perhaps practitioner) journal, so I might use quotes from responses, but I will not (!) reveal any forum usernames (or real ones where I happen to know them) or even the name of the forum, so it's totally anonymous. I also do not stand to make any money from this (alas )

[PLUMPUDDING]

I don't think of gardening as "work" as I categorise the hard physical effort as exercise, also I can do as much or as little as I feel like at the time and give myself a day off or just potter and do easy jobs if I've overdone it the day before. Paid work has to be done whether you feel like it or not (if you're conscientious) or other people depend on what you do.

Also it doesn't seem like "work" if you are doing something you enjoy. It seems nowadays that it is only a lucky minority who actually really enjoy the jobs they are employed to do.

[Nature's Babe]

Work? No, for me it's keep fit, creativity, and a lot of pleasure when it comes to growing harvesting and eating, nothing tastes quite as delicious as, new peas sweet and raw from the pod, a tomato ripened in the sun, the first sun warmed strawberries or raspberries, a tasty cucumber crisp from the vine, our own dessert grapes from the vine , a cox apple or juicy cherries from the tree. There is pleasure in getting to know garden friends - what attracts different birds, where the slow worm likes to bask in the sun, how worms cope in prolonged drought,( they excavate a nest deep in the soil and curl up in a tight ball to conserve moisture.) I get unexpected gifts that self seed. The ability to choose favourite varieties, my choice, not what the farmer/supermarket prefers The beauty of a dragonflies wings as they emerge from the pond to spread and dry their wings ready for first flight. So much pleasure I can hardly call it work. It's the most relaxing occupation I know, literally brings me down to earth in a good way. In winter I open a kilner jar of rattatuille or pears in red wine, or tomato or beetroot chutney, or fruit I froze and memories of summer come flooding back, if it is work - then its very rewarding work ! Maybe more of an accomplishment than work !
Many of us garden well past retirement age, a labour of love that keeps us flexible active and healthy, if we can do it then it should not be too much hard work for the young either.

[Monika]

I echo all that said by Nature's Babe and couldn't have put it better.

I suppose it's "labour" in the sense of the "labour" in giving birth, but what a result!

[Fair Weather 33]

Hi Anja

I aggree with the above I do not see it as work. As I am gardening on the same plot my mum worked on (namely the back garden). I see it more of being able to grow the things I know the family will like. It also gives me a chance to get my sons interested in growing and finding out about where things come from.

So I suppose the answer is that I see gardening as not a job but a means to getting the best taste out of food, and being able to get the family together to chat about their day.

[peter]

I work at a desk on the fourth floor of a ten storey air conditioned block inside the North Circular road in London and I drive to and from work.

To me my gardening is relaxation for my brain and fresh air plus exercise for my body.

[Victoria]

I agree with everything everyone has said. My husband has a really stressful job and is hopeless at trying to relax, but the allotment does it for him! he's so happy over there. It is hard work at times, but its for yourself so feels different, plus you can stop if it gets too much. Its therapeutic.

[Anja]

Thank you all for your thoughts. They echo my own quite well, I also don't think of it as work.

From what I'm gathering, the reasons why we don't think of it as work are:
1. It's our choice, no-one forces us to do it. It's something we do for ourselves, not a boss.
2. It's relaxing, something that 'job' work often isn't, perhaps because it takes place in a good place, outside, not an office.
3. We can do it at our own pace.
4. It's enjoyable, something which 'job' work also often isn't.

Is it also something to do with the fact that the results of our labour is something that's quite immediately (well, in a few weeks, anyway) visible to us, and benefits us and our family, rather than a company or client?

I can see another question about the significance of feeding ourselves with the fruits of our work/labour coming on. Separate post, though.

Please keep posting, this is all so interesting.

[Primrose]

No, I definitely don't see it as work. It's a pleasurable hobby for me, but if work is said to provide some disciplined structure for our lives, then I suppose I spend enough time at it to replace some of the paid work I did before I retired. I'm not an "exercise" person as such, so the physical exercise I get in the garden replaces, to a minor extent, a gym membership and I regard a work-out in the garden, digging, mowing, planting or weeding as far exceeding on the pleasure scale any mindless activity I might be spending pounding a treadmill or an excercise bike in a sterile environment with mindless pop music blaring out at me.

I can stop when I want to if I get tired. No bl**dy boss is asking me to produce a yearly mission statement or quarterly self-assessment on my performance against my objectives, I don't have to pay into wedding, leaving & birthday collections for people I don't like and the resident cook in this household hasn't yet given me my P45 for not producing adequate quality produce for him to cook. Yes, I definitely like this self-imposed job and hope I'm going to be able to carry on with it for a long time yet.

[EddieJ]

Anja, as an analysis of whether gardening is work or not work, you would really need to raise the same question on many differing forums. With the exception of myself, I doubt that many gardening hobbyists are likely to call it work. Ask the same question on say a car oriented forum and I expect that the majority of users would say that it is, and its a chore that gets in the way of their hobby.
I consider it work, as I do a very heavy physical job day in day out, and coming home to do yet more manual labour, doesn't give me a break.
Okay, I have bitten off rather too much with my ever growing projects and the shear size of them, but I doubt that until my retirement in many many years time, that I would ever be able to consider it anything else other than work.

[Anja]

Good point, Eddie. So what makes you do it (not being funny, just genuinely interested)? Although I suppose if I posted the question on, say, a car forum I might not get all that many responses. But yes, clearly by posting here I'm talking to people who are predisposed not to see it as a hardship, I agree.

I think your point about it being self-directed is one that's shared by a few, Primrose. It's our choice, and it might still be hard work, but we could choose not to do it, and so for most it feels different from the work we do as a job.