Do men and women garden differently?
By Judy Lowe | 11.06.08
Does your sex have anything to do with how you garden? Are males and females drawn to different plants? Do they approach how they garden in different ways? Sometimes it would certainly seem so.
OK, I recognize that the following statements are gross simplifications and some of both sexes are interested in each. Still, in my long experience, more men than women seem to be interested in growing dahlias the size of dinner plates, and more women than men love herbs.
And while I know some dedicated female hybridizers, the field seems — for some reason I don’t quite understand — filled with men. I can’t recall the last All-America Rose Selections winner that was hybridized by a woman.
What brought on this train of thought was reading Charlie Nardozzi’s interesting article about the five essential tools for gardeners. While I recognize their usefulness, I’ve never owned two of the items on his list — a cultivator and a cart — and I’ve been gardening for umpteen years.
I’ll admit to having a long-handled shovel in the household — but I never use it. It’s strictly in my husband’s domain. He loves it. He’s also more than 6 feet tall. I’m 5-foot-3, so long-handled shovels are unwieldy for me. I simply can’t dig with them. Some I’ve tried are also too heavy for me.
But years ago, I spent what seemed at the time like way too much money on a small, sturdy spade from Smith & Hawken. It was called an English poacher’s spade, and it was just the right length and heft for a short woman. I like it so well that when we’ve moved, I’ve made sure it goes with us in the car, along with the other “valuables,” not trusting it to the moving van.
I can’t disagree with Nardozzi about the necessity of a trowel. You can’t garden without one. (Hint to new gardeners: Always buy two. One will always get left in the grass or behind a foundation shrub and turn up weeks later.) I probably own more trowels than most people, and I suspect that my favorite probably would never be chosen by a man because it’s narrow, just a few inches across.
Yes, I own wide trowels, but the narrow one is perfect for transplanting, and somehow it’s always the one I pick up.
My views on hand pruners vary from the norm, too. It has nothing to do with male-female, I’m sure, but is a personal idiosyncrasy. I know that professionals tell you that bypass pruners are the only kind to buy but I regularly rotate among several pairs of pruners and my favorites are really the anvil pruners.
I often read that they crush stems, but it’s never happened to me. So my advice on pruning is to go with what seems most comfortable to you.
I would add a pair of loppers to the essential gardening tools list for anyone with mature shrubs in their yard, especially the newer types of loppers, which have gears. You won’t believe how easy they make pruning.
That’s just my personal take on garden tools. What are the tools you use over and over and can’t live without? And do you think that men and women sometimes approach gardening in different ways?
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2. Cameron (Defining Your Home Garden) | 11.06.08
I can’t garden without my Black & Decker HedgeHog cordless trimmer. This all started with lavender trimming. I couldn’t clip-clip all day long with carpel tunnel (from computer work). With the HedgeHog I can shape and trim a lavender plant in just a few minutes. I also use them for deadheading prolific bloomers like coreopsis. I cut back my buddleia with it, too…then, neaten up my trims down to leaf joints to get rid of the ragged cuts in the thicker branches.
As a woman, the weight of the trimmer is light enough to easily handle.
Cameron
3. Judy Lowe | 11.07.08
Jim, I know exactly what you mean about the pruners. I’ve gotten so that I take them for a dry run before I buy, seeing how they feel in my hand, how easy it is to lock and unlock them, and the ease of cutting motion. I’ve been most happy with Fiskars pruning tools.
4. Judy Lowe | 11.07.08
Thanks, Cameron, for that tip on the B&D Hedgehog. I haven’t seen it, but will look for it. Sounds handy. I own few power tools for some reason. I think it’s because I look for peace and quiet in the garden. But I will confess to owning an electic leaf blower when our one-acre property had dozens of mature trees on it. It seemed impossible to keep up with them by raking (and still have time to earn a living!). I consoled myself that an electric blower was less noisy and better for the environment than gas-powered, but I know they’re controversial.
5. Rick H | 11.07.08
Can’t agree with you regarding sex differences in preferences for gardening tools.
I’m a D-handled shovel guy, myself. Don’t even own a long handled shovel, and wouldn’t, although I own four shorter, D-handled ones, scoop and spade, pointed and not. I never have met power clippers I liked, so I do all trimming with old fashioned hedge trimmers or pruning shears. I do agree on loppers. Have two pair, but both bypass. Power tools are required, although I don’t much like the noise either. Those are the mower, the brush cutter and the leaf blower, all gasoline powered.
I remember way back in the early sixties, when my father ordered me to spade the entire front yard of our new house in preparation for seeding the lawn, and how I struggled with his long handled shovel. It seemed illogical to have a shovel that afforded no control over twist, and why such a long handle in the first place? In the Army, where I became a Corps of Engineers lieutenant, we used D-handled shovels, and I haven’t gone back to the long handled jobs since. I’m exactly average height for the American male of my generation (now 64), so that isn’t the explanation. A shorter, D-handled shovel, whether spade or scoop, just works better, offers more power and control. Same goes for a “spading” fork. I’d have my pitchfork D-handled if they made them that way.
My preference, and my wife’s, runs to smaller “pot” dahlias, and my wife, who shows no interest in herbs except those I have cooked a meal with, once let a woman in the neighborhood “help” her do an autumn garden cleanup while I was away for a few weeks, and the two of them tore out all my hard-won annual and perennial herb patch, thinking it was weed clogged.
No, I’d say it’s more individual than sexual.
6. Judy Lowe | 11.07.08
Rick, I was so pleased to see you mention a D-handled shovel. I, too, think they’re great. I recently read an expert who said that you couldn’t dig in a garden with a shovel; you had to have a spade. And I thought, You’ve never had a D-handled shovel. My fave had a relatively short but very sturdy handle and was a dream to use. Unfortunately, at our last house, the “soil” (I use the term advisedly) was about two-thirds rocks and the shovel blade eventually was ruined and I couldn’t find a replacement. Maybe we should form a D-handled shovel admiration society! 
Of course, people are individuals and will have personal likes and dislikes (and ways of doing things) that have nothing to do with their sex. No one can dispute that. In fact, the editor who looked over that blog post remarked to me afterward that he likes to grow herbs. I was just commenting on what I’d noticed from many years of interviewing gardeners and observing and writing about the gardening scene. Dahlia societies seem to have more male members, herb societies more women, for instance. But then, the typical image of a gardener has always been the little old lady in tennis shoes — and we all know how wrong that sterotype is.
7. Judy Lowe | 11.07.08
Please note that the smiley face in my previous comment was placed next to the remark about the shovel admiration society and not at the beginning of the next paragraph, where it is now. I was not indicating that I was kidding about the differences in gardening styles and preferences. Sorry.
8. Peter | 11.07.08
I have what’s called a lifetime trowel (handle socket forged in one piece with the blade so you can really dig), a poacher’s spade just like yours from S&H, an English garden fork, a stirrup hoe, and a wonderful Eliot Coleman designed thing called a broadfork from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in Maine. The latter is absolutely the best thing you can do for your veggie garden, and is easy to use (I’m 70 and 5′-7″). In my opinion the ONLY pruners and loppers worth having are made by Felco. Not cheap, but top quality. Long-handled tools give you more leverage than D-handles, which require a workout for your back muscles. For plant ties, I use biodegradable garden twine; plastic ties last forever in the soil. PS: I grow lots of herbs.
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1. Jim/ArtofGardening.org | 11.06.08
Trowel, long-handled shovel, But my most used items are the pruners and a roll of that plasticy-garden tape for tying up plants. I’ve got a couple espaliers going, so I often walk around with the pruners & tape. If I know I’ll be working in the garden, I’ll dress accordingly, so I can fit tape & pruners in my pockets. Incidentally, I’ve not ever found pruners that I’ve been 100% happy with. And more that a few in the past have been annoying.