The Friday debate: is gardening more important than politics?

Gardening may be boringly cyclical, but it needs to wield some political clout, argues Matthew Appleby
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Alan Titchmarsh: gardening has 'a consistent point of view'.

Alan Titchmarsh told the Radio Times this week that gardening has a greater significance than politics when asked if the pastime was more important than the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight.

He said: "[It's] much more important. Tomorrow, Newsnight will have different stories and priorities. Gardening is more important than politics. It has a consistent point of view. And that is that a piece of ground should be cherished." Titchmarsh added: "If you live in the countryside and look out of the window, you will see there is no ostensible difference between this year and 200 years ago."

I'd argue that Titchmarsh is wrong. While he's right that gardening is boringly cyclical, horticulture does change. Politics changes gardening - hosepipe bans, peat and pesticide legislation, allotment selloffs, more and more housing built without gardens, parks run down because of cuts in government cash to councils. Styles in gardens change. Everyone has a veg patch now, but the raised bed built between 2007-09 will become as dated as the rockery or pampas grass patch of previous decades.

But why does Titchmarsh think gardening is above politics? Wouldn't it be better if gardening and gardeners had some political clout, or at least engagement? This could mean more schemes like those initiated in Brighton, where the Green Party administration is the first of its kind in the UK to demand new developments to include space for crops on rooftops, balconies and other available spaces. Half are now including such spaces.

I'd argue that it's partly the media's fault that gardening is not political. Media gardening aims at hobbyists rather than campaigners. Look at the difference between Gardeners' World and Countryfile, the BBC's flagship gardening and farming programmes respectively. GW tackles hints and tips for your garden. Countryfile always has a heavy eco-politics slot on animal culling, fox hunting, organic farming, EU agricultural policy, pollution, food crises and open access land. This is because horticulture does not receive subsidies as agriculture does, meaning it has less political influence.

Within parliament, the All Party Parliamentary Gardening Group was for hobby gardening politicians until about 10 years ago. Now the 150-strong renamed All-Party Parliamentary Gardening and Horticultural Group gets an annual speech from a Defra minister, who acknowledges the issues horticulture faces, then praises professional horticulturists for doing so well without having much political influence (ie access to central cash).

Things are changing for gardeners. Trade bodies such as the Horticultural Trades Association now have dedicated lobbyists. Not in the National Farmers Union's league, but perhaps that's a good thing. So, is gardening political at all?

Matthew Appleby is Horticulture Week's deputy editor.