BOB DAVIS ART

Gardening

A. Background

Gardening was invented in 1823 by three English gentlemen on an estate in Sussex.

Hilbert Stainsworth and Sir Jeffrey of Higginbotham were enchanted with the idea of growing plants in the garden for aesthetic pleasures, rather than simply for food, as had been done ("agriculture" - Kids! See my friend Willie explain food to you!) for thousands of years and in many countries around the world. Hilbert and Sir Jeffrey were very good "friends" however they were not skilled in the arts of plants, as was their other "friend" Bertram Goodrich Shipley IV. Hilbert and Sir Jeffrey designed the new garden, whilst Bertram did the actual planting. It is thus that all three are remembered today. See the British Royal Albert and Alberta Museum of Londonderry Town, Flowering Glory exhibition, Spring 2001, for further displays relating to the three men's original adventures, including the room above the garden.

History of Gardening

The pre-history of gardening predates modern man: pre-historic man created agriculture as a way to have food available, even when the local fruit trees were not ripe. However pre-historic man, especially in France, located around Lascaux, did not in fact garden, as they did not have such free time as was necessary to spend cultivating, tending, weeding and enjoying the fruits of their aesthetic labors.

Thus they spent most of their time hunting and gathering, with some agricultural activities on the side.

The history of gardening proper began in 1823 as detailed above, however it was not until the publication of the book, Gardening, in 1946 that gardening actually became common beyond a handful of British homosexuals.

Timeline

1423: In a pre-emptive attempt, Bishop Hardbury plants 3 non-edible plants behind his parish cemetery; however none survive the harsh and unforgiving winter of 1423-4.

1823: Homosexual lovers Hilbert Stainsworth and Sir Jeffrey of Higginbotham engage their young charge and bedmate Bertram Goodrich Shipley IV to create the world's first garden.

1883: Italy joins Britain and France in the first of 6 biennial World's Gardening Expositions.

1889: Sixteen incorrigible youths are released from prison on an experimental basis to try to create the first American garden in Brooklyn, under the watchful eye of Carlyle Babson.

1942: During WWII England and the United States recommend their citizens grow "Victory Gardens" as a way to help win the war against Hitler's army.

1946: After the war is won with the help of "Victory Gardens" in the United States and Great Britain, the book Gardening is published, helping to spread the joy of gardening to the masses.

1952: The first televised gardening show in the Western Hemisphere.

1958: The first gardening game show is televised on prime time TV, live (oh, the stories we could tell...)

1962: President Kennedy plays croquet in the White House Garden with Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon and Jeffrey Tambor. David Suskind watches on in quiet seething jealousy.

1968: Julia Child (recently deceased - oh, dear Julia, how we'll miss you) starts cooking foods pulled directly from the garden, thus creating a new trend: gardening edible foods.

1982: President Ronald W. Reagan of the United States of America, Francois Mitterend, President of France and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain send an entire flower garden as a gift to Mikhail Gorbachev, Ruler of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The gift is well received and diplomats around the world rejoice as the cold-war appears to be almost over.

1988: The cold-war is officially over as the ruble is devalued, and the German mark is now viable once again.

1992: Smith and Hawken opens garden "stores" around the West coast.

2004: President George W. Bush of the United States of America sponsors "National Gardening Day" as a way to win the most important newly discovered swing-vote demographic.

Garden Size

Most gardens are .0256 Hectares.

Nightime Gardening

Join us as we explore the new, exciting and fast-growing pastime of nightime gardening, begun only last year in a suburb of Saint Louis, Missouri.

Renowned scientists at the noteworthy Institute of Plants in Bergovinia, Iceland discovered in 1998 that most plants prefer to be tended to at night. Most plants spend the daylight hours soaking in the sun, using their mighty and magnificent chlorophyll powers for good, not evil, in converting sunlight energy into food. At night they rest, and this is the time they like to be tended by overly protective gardeners. Talking to your plants in the evening helps them sleep well through to the morning, raising their dopamine to ridiculous levels thus insuring good dreams of pleasant strolls through mountain scenery with Julie Andrews singing in the background about the hills being alive.

Competative gardening-at-night began in dangerous inner-city urban crime-infested areas, where being outside gardening at night could be dangerous, so speed was considered a premium skill, thus beginning the traditional garden races. And where there were races, there was betting. This attracted the attentions of the authorities who tried to shut it down. So the gardeners went Pro, and now we have the brand-new National Pro-Am Nightime Gardening Northern League and the National Pro-Am Nightime Gardening American League which allows for the designated gardener.

All photos were graciously donated to the Bob Davis Knowledge Base by Cactus Jungle, through a generous grant from the Eli Lilly and Wallace and Grommit Foundation.

This knowledge entry was written by BD, CC and SH.

If you are using this for a school paper, please remember to credit the "Bob Davis Knowledge Base"

llast updated February 19, 2007

Send any email corrections you may have to the "webmaster":

bob
at
bobdavisart
dot
com