Parks managers, parks police and polite gardeners

Expert gardeners should maintain good order among plants and people in public parks and gardens

Expert gardeners should maintain good order among plants and people in public parks and gardens

I had a chat with a gardener in one of London’s Royal Parks this week and he was a nice a man as you could meet anywhere. He loved his work and he loved the visitors who admire his work. Talking about a park user who seemed troubled, and who he tried to look after, he remarked that ‘One thing I know for sure is that whatever you do in this world – you get it back tenfold’. His idea was that she must have treated some people badly and now she was experiencing the consequences. Anyway, he was such a nice man that it made me wonder about the park administrator vixen who shouted at Tian Yuan with the help of a portable PA system. I think it is wrong to have separate administrations for gardening staff and policing staff. Instead, they should give the gardeners more training and more money and more responsibility – and smartphones. If they have serious trouble they should film what is happening and call on support from the real police. The video could be recorded in the police station in real time. The advantages would be (1) the public tend to love and respect good gardeners who make beautiful places (2) there would be less expenditure on parks police – and less aggro to park visitors.

8 thoughts on “Parks managers, parks police and polite gardeners

  1. Tian Yuan

    Thank you very much for your interesting post for me! I found the illustration very interesting and was made capably! Very good ideas and I really hope they could know and act as it said in 50 years.

    Reply
  2. Tom Turner Post author

    Let’s hope it does not take 50 years before it happens.
    We have a large police force in Greenwich Park. They drive about in expensive cars, forcing pedestrians off the pedestrian paths, but they hardly every speak to anyone and have enormous lunches of sausage, egg, fried tomato, beans and chips. It cannot be at all good for their health but, to be fair, it does no harm to park visitors. Whether it is a good use of public money is another matter.
    Do you think gardeners in historic Chinese gardens should wear traditional dress? If so, I suppose it would have to be peasant clothes rather than aristocratic clothes – but I wonder what clothes the Humble Administrator wore when working in his garden, and whether his womenfolk did any gardening? My impression is that European aristocrats only began to have an involvement with the practical side of gardening towards the end of the eighteenth century.

    Reply
    1. Tom Turner Post author

      I do not think Britain’s National Trust, which must be the largest garden owner and manager in the UK, has a policy of dressing gardeners in traditional costumes but (1) they are making more and more use of volunteers to manage gardens (2) the volunteers seem to enjoy ‘dressing up’ in traditional costumes. I would like to see more of this!
      Interesting link regarding the T’ang Dynasty. I knew the T’ang Dynasty extended into Central Asia but I did not know that many of its leaders were Central Asian.
      The hanfu looks much better suited to outdoor work than the cheongsam. It could give freedom of movement while letting the air in and keeping the insects out.
      Gardeners in Colonial Williamsburg also wear period costumes. See for example http://www.flickr.com/photos/patbreana/459857658/

      Reply
  3. Christine

    The Colonial Williamsburg gardener looks safe from prickles and scratches, although the hat is more ornamental than protective from the sun. The gloves look appropriately robust, however the tights may be difficult to keep clean if the ground gets a little muddy.

    Reply
    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Yes. He is dressed as a gentleman and it is not likely that gentlemen dirtied their hands in gardens in Colonial America. But note how the vegetable garden is managed: to my eye it looks more authentic (for 1699 to 1780) than equivalent eighteenth century vegetable gardens as they are now managed in Britain. So hats off to the Yanks!

      Reply
    1. Tom Turner Post author

      Very interesting. It is sad that the normal pattern was for colonists to take their own customs and tastes with them, instead of trying to learn from the countries in which they settled.
      I wonder if there is a difference between colonisation (which is what happened in South Africa, Australisia etc) and the establishment of trading posts, as was done in India, China etc. India became part of the British Empire but there was never an attempt to form American-style colonies there. People went out to ‘run the empire’ and then, with some exceptions, retired to their own country. I think traders might have taken more interest in local customs than colonists did. Many Chinese people have gone to live in Africa recently. My impression is that they are traders, not colonists, but I doubt if they are taking much interest in African culture.

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