The gardening craze: the popularity of tilling the earth blooms among blacks

Ebony, August, 2005 by Lynette R. Holloway
NOT too long ago, Gwendolyn R. Richardson had to work hard to find compatriots who enjoy gardening as much as she does. She was usually alone as she selected flowers such as blue delphiniums, Asiatic lilies and white Shasta daisies to plant in the garden of her home in suburban Atlanta. Most of her friends were reluctant to dig in the earth and get their hands dirty.
Today she is not alone. Many of those reluctant friends have joined the ranks of gardeners, seeking her advice and accompanying her to nurseries. The dramatic about-face comes at a time when legions of African-Americans from Los Angeles to Chicago to Atlanta to Washington, D.C., are engaging in gardening. (Georgia in particular is a hotbed of gardening activity for African-American homeowners, in part, because of its widening Black middle-class and warm temperatures.)
Some housing experts and homeowners attribute the increased interest in gardening by African-Americans to a burgeoning Black middle-class, which has more leisure time and money to spend on hobbies. They also point influence of home repair, renovation, and gardening television shows, which have helped to spark consumer interest. The pastime appeals to both sexes, young and old, with many saying that gardening is a great way to relax and escape professional and family problems.
As a result of these varying influences, city dwellers are demonstrating that space limitations do not preclude them from planting, pruning and weeding makeshift gardens perched on rooftops, patios, and alongside windowsills and balconies, bringing a touch of color and life to otherwise dreary streetscapes. In cities like Chicago, community gardens bloom in once-neglected neighborhood yards and vacant lots.
Residents in rural areas and in the suburbs are also showing off their gardening skills, maintaining neatly manicured lawns, highlighted by dazzling perennial flowers like hydrangeas and peonies, and colorful annuals like begonias and geraniums, depending on where they live.
"Now everyone is interested in gardening and asking my advice," says Richardson, 52, a married mother of two who tends to her own sprawling garden surrounding her home in Norcross, Ga. Richardson, a gardener for about 25 years, even designed parts of her garden in the front and back yards and around her pool.
"I aim for a more asymmetrical look in my beds in the back[yard] because it's more of a freestyle for me," Richardson says. "Mixed borders appeal to me because my goal is to have a continuous flow of color. To achieve that, you have to mix perennials and annuals."
Stephanie V. Gowdy, an interior designer who tends to her garden outside her European duplex-style home in Alpharetta, Ga., says that more African-Americans are becoming part of the gardening craze as they become homeowners. "More African-Americans are purchasing homes and realizing that the grounds do not take care of themselves," says Gowdy, who is engaged and has two adult children. "It's a big job and a lot of people are taking to it."
Gowdy should know. She has worked as an interior designer for 17 years and says that interior design and landscape design go hand-in-hand, though most experts specialize in one or the other. Gowdy has worked as an interior designer in homes that include those of celebrities such as Ray Buchanan of the Oakland Raiders and Terrance Mathis, formerly of the Atlanta Falcons, she says.
For Kwanza Hall, 34, who lives in Atlanta's Martin Luther King Historic District with his wife and son, gardening is an opportunity for him to reflect on his childhood, when he learned the basics of maintaining flower and vegetable gardens from his parents and grandparents in Montgomery, Ala., and Chicago.
"My great-grandmother was a student of George Washington Carver," says Hall. "So the interest was passed on to me. I was trying to cross-pollinate flowers when I was 12 years old. Still I didn't really get back into it until I became a homeowner. When I lived in an apartment, I just had one indoor plant."
Chicago is also a popular gardening city. Known for its harsh winters, it is also known for its sultry summers, when gardening enthusiasts trade in their winter gear for gardening gear. Cora Williams, 63, a retired senior caregiver, is one of them, and she has been gardening for about 10 years. When she started, her block, a mixture of houses and apartment buildings, was in desperate need of flowers, she recalls. Yards were neglected and vacant lots were littered with construction debris and old mattresses. Now flowers and vegetables bloom in once-neglected yards and lots, says Williams, a member of the community gardening club, Austin Green Team, whose motto is "We build communities garden by garden."
Williams says she has encouraged neighbors to build their gardens by providing them with seeds, sharing gardening tools, and teaching residents the basics of planting. At home, Williams, who enjoys the relaxation of gardening, has planted her favorite flowers, marigolds and petunias, and some vegetables. "I consider it my therapy," she says of gardening. "In the garden, you can meditate. Digging into God's good earth relaxes you and helps you to get rid of a lot of stress."
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