"The urge to transport" or communicate is the urge that drives a writer and I don't think garden writing is different from any other form. When a writer discovers a passion this tends to be what she writes about. Technical writers and those who write text books may be different for all I know.

But you didn't answer my question...

My great-great-grandmother started writing because it was expected from a lady to engage into delicate ladylike entertainments. She wrote kitschy poems and painted porcellain. There was no urge to transport but to kill time.

If it wasn't for gardening I doubt if I would have become a writer but I may have and if that had been the case I would have written about my self and my family which I feel is zanier than most.

Then I guess I didn't understand the question susanne, unless it was:
Susanne: If it wasn't for gardening would you have become a writer?
Me: Yes.

Hmph.

Ha ha ha, I guess it's the old Venus and Mars thing above.
Being a writer is one of the greatest endeavours I have ever accomplished. I am not sure why I transitioned from a gardener to a garden writer but it has meant a lot to me. It defines who I am. I am also proud of my web site and the fact I have a wonderful wife. She, of course, may not have been as lucky as I. If I was as prodigious a writer as she is a reader, I would have written a whole series of books by now.

>>>>Being a writer is one of the greatest endeavours I have ever accomplished. I am not sure why I transitioned from a gardener to a garden writer ....Eddie ~ What about garden photography? Did your interest in photography exist before you began garden writing? I know some media outlets do not want the writer to do his/her own photography. Can be frustrating.... especially if the photographer does not have a basic knowledge of horticulture, or if he/she visits the garden(s) at a different time from the writer. Of course, some horticultural photographers know more than we the writers! And, some have incredible collections of stock photos/images.

Ah Hilda, you must be referring to the 2005 Garden Writer's Association Unofficial calendar. Wasn't that a hoot? (I have three left for $1 postage each)
It is sequential: If you write garden articles they assume you also give garden talks so you begin to get invited to speak and these presentation are much easier if you have a laundry list of favorite plants or whatever your garden specialty is. It didn't take me long before I got in the habit of taking a camera loaded with slide film with me everywhere I went. I took pictures of plants and people but my specialty was yard art. So I suppose I am saying gardening, writing, speaking and photography all go together just like plants, soil, water and sunlight.

How did it all begin? Do you mean that, susanne?
Both of my parents were illiterate so I did not inherit my brilliant writing style from them, I donÃt think. My father was a sailor and my mother worked as a maid up at the big house of a nobleman and poet a whig and a wag, until the year I was born. I have on older brother called Percy and three younger sisters Beryl Ethel and Edna. I have since changed it but I was christened Tarquin Claud. It was big joke at the village school, my name, I am lucky to be alive after the beatings I had. Beryl became pregnant on her fourteenth birthday and she called the child Tarquin, can you believe it, Tarquin, my name. So there I was, guilty for being a b*st*rd and suspected of making another one. Truth is that I had no more to do with the second one than the first but nobody believed me when I told them so I started to write it down. An odd thing happened; the more wild the events became so wild that my father became a pirate although he was not my real father and my biological father became more and more famous and my mother sold flowers in Convent Garden the more people were prepared to believe it or at least read it.
As you said in an earlier post, it should be entertaining first.
When my father came back from serving under Lord Nelson he took up gardening, cut the tar from his pigtail and became head gardener to a famous storyteller, one day I shall write about it because if I try to tell them verbally they wonÃt believe me.

Eddie:
You're a true writer!

Tony,
I haven't deserved that.

I am sorry Susanne, it was intended as fun, 'pulling your leg', you might say and it was not my intention to offend, I guess I shall keep my untrue writing to myself in future.

>>>>...you must be referring to the 2005 Garden Writer's Association Unofficial calendar. Wasn't that a hoot? (I have three left for $1 postage each) Dear Eddie,

If you still have the three calendars, I will buy them from you. They will be perfect to send to three of our colleagues who were not able to attend the Garden Writers Symposium on Long Island. Please let me know at your convenience. Best regards, Hilda

John, Thanks for the compliment.
Hilda, I can send you a few calendars, give me a little time but feel free to remind me.