EDITORletter

Your editor at the recent Philadelphia Flower Show 2021 posing in the honey bee display. Is “Rage Gardening” the New Rage?

A few days ago, I was asked to comment on an article about the “new” trend of rage gardening? “What kind of gardening?” I asked, thinking I must have misheard the reporter. “Rage gardening,” she repeated. “Ah, you mean the age-old practice of getting out your aggressions in the garden,” I replied. She affirmed that yes, that is another way of describing it. And there it is, a concept that is as old as the hills—only given a new name and hyped-up for the Millennial generation to think they invented it. I’ve since discovered articles on “rage cleaning” and “rage baking” as well. Well, I’d declare this to be my editorial letter created by “rage writing” (also known as a good old-fashioned rant), if only I actually felt that strongly about it. The truth is, it has been a great while since I got worked up enough about anything to feel genuine rage. I mean, sure, I’ve been bothered by a few unfair and unjust things in the past few months, and went out and weeded a patch to get rid of some of that excess negative energy, but it is hard to sustain that level of effort for long. I also don’t think a gardening session filled with fury would be advisable in any area of your landscape that was not entirely weed-infested. Otherwise, you are liable to rip our or slash the good plants along with the bad. Few things are more heart-breaking that realizing you yanked out a precious perennial along with the cursed weeds and seeing that the resulting broken stub is not likely to recover.

Channeling pent-up frustrations can be therapeutic and cleansing at some level—as long as that stress is directed towards constructive tasks. Perhaps you can safely vent your stress by chopping up dead plant materials in a “rage composting” session or do some “rage digging” for a new rain garden? And hey, if you still have a built-up head of steam going and need somewhere to direct it, come on by. I have some stubborn invasive vines waiting to be ripped out!

Happy gardening,

Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher, Washington Gardener KathyJentz@gmail.com Kathy Jentz Editor/Publisher Washington Gardener 826 Philadelphia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910 Phone: 301-588-6894 kathyjentz@gmail.com www.washingtongardener.com

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Volume 16, Number 4 ISSN 1555-8959 © 2021 Washington Gardener All rights reserved. Published monthly.

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