Great Uncle Fred? All the grown-ups in my family spend all their time gardening. They are not poor. If they want vegetables or flowers, they could buy them. If they want their gardens to look nice, they could get someone to do them. But they do them all themselves. And then the rest of the time they talk about their gardens. My grandma was holding up this one carrot, all proud, and I was thinking to myself, you can get a bag of those for not much in Safeway`s. I just don`t get it. Gardening is boring and slow and muddy and tiring, and there`s no need for it. What`s the point of it? (Anthony, Summer 2008)

You are quite right, Anthony, gardening is ultimately pointless. But that does not mean that there is no point to it. Lots of things humans do are pointless. Football is much more pointless than gardening, art perhaps slightly less pointless but pointless all the same compared with midwifery or feeding orphans. But absolutely everything can seem pointless - what`s the point of saving the lives of people who are going to die anyway? - if you are in the mood. The pointlessness, or otherwise, of any particular activity is perhaps beside the point. But, of course, gardening is not pointless. Think what Britain would look like without her gardens and think how the efforts of all those millions of anonymous gardeners contribute to the glorious whole. To garden is to be deeply concerned with the creation of beauty while participating with the processes of nature. About what other activity could you say that? And partly because it is so wholesome and natural and basically good, it is extremely soothing and the pride it induces is generally a good pride because it is pride in what nature, with your nurture, has produced. And your grandma`s carrot would undoubtedly have tasted better than a supermarket carrot. There is no question about that, and not just because she grew it. The thing is, young people do not know and do not really want to know how long things take. They are impatient, which is not surprising and which is healthy. There are lots of young gardeners but generally it`s for oldies who have learned patience and are treasuring every moment before they conk out. Gardening does seem to be something that almost every British person gets into eventually, if they live long enough. Its pointlessness is part of its point. Hobbies are all pointless: who needs collections of stamps and toy cars? But they define us and give us a community to belong to. Gardening is about as respectable as you can be while being pointless. It is pointless - I think you are right, Anthony - but it is not futile and it is not meaningless.

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