Word: garden
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...have an idea of a garden. It is the place where we wish we were, where we are at our best: generous, fertile, humble and at peace. For some the vision may be exquisitely formal, a garden of thought and geometry, traced with tulips and a perfectly taut hedge. For others it is wild and artless, with shaggy trees and hiding places and children splashing in clover. Even if we have never been there, we know what it looks like...
Maybe it is the change of season, or something in the social climate, but suddenly it seems as though all around the country people are going to any length to find their garden: to read about it, visit it and, if at all possible, create it. Mailboxes bulge with gardening catalogs, groceries grow on windowsills, cranes hoist trees onto city rooftops. From coast to coast, nursery owners say their business has doubled. Even baby boomers who did not have the remotest interest in the subject two years ago now rattle off the Latin names of their plants and comb suburban...
Amid so much activity, the stereotypes no longer fit. Through the 1970s, the archetypal gardener was over 50 and had time and money to spare: a smug matron with impeccable calceolarias, an eccentric rosarian, a spinster growing herbs. But now, says the National Gardening Association, 78% of America's households garden, and all the recent surveys suggest that the most fervent converts are between 30 and 49 and still evenly divided between men and women. Those who once bought geraniums and parched them in college dorm rooms have discovered that they can even garden competitively...
...baby boomers get much of the attention, because they accounted for half of the record $17.5 billion that was spent last year on things horticultural. Once they have poured all the money they can into their homes, cash-flush yuppies have found that a garden can soak up limitless discretionary income. After seeds and dirt, there are goatskin gloves and Garden Weasels, wide- throated anvil pruners from Rolcut of England, not to mention $15,000 for a Sargent weeping hemlock tree. The yuppies quickly master the rituals and floral lore, swap compost recipes at dinner parties. Mulching has become elevator...
...design and into fashion now refer to it as House & Garment. Wintour has little affection for the traditional, glossy spreads of uninhabited interiors so dear to many subscribers. Her first week on the job, she summarily rejected some $2 million worth of inventoried photos and articles. "She destroyed House & Garden in 2 1/2 days," bristles a former editor who was fired shortly after Wintour arrived. Wintour explains that rather than showing "empty rooms," she prefers to bring in the feeling of people. "Dramatic environments reflect strong personalities," she says, sitting behind the stark black desk in her chic but minimalist...