"Do you think garden writers have a perceptible influence on the trends in natural gardening or is it the other way around?"

Ofcourse it goes both ways ...

"Where is it coming from ?"

Good sound scientific research conducted in a free society where the people have acess to an education and can decide for themselves what products and / or services they will purchase and use in their gardens.

"Was it inevitable ?"

No Way. This is why we need to continue to educate ourselves before we can educate others by writing.

We can always go backwards.

With technology as complex as it is today we run the risk more so then ever of "the blind leading the blind"

What really is natural gardening ???

We now know that plants have complex built in chemical defense mechanisms against insects ... perhaps what we really need is better chemical controls not a campaign against them ???

This "natural" business is really blown out of proportion ... I for one am glad that I live now in the 21 st century with all the "unnatural stuff" rather then the 14 or 15th centuries when people used "natural garlic" to battle the Black Death ... by the way there are all soughts of "natural" plants out there that are down right lethal if ingested ... whats all this natural business about anyway ... a somewhat goofy play on words if you ask me ... If a garden writer invented that term then I would say without a doubt garden writers have had a big negative impact on the world of gardening.

I hope most people see gardening as sensible management based on information we have gained over the years.

By the way what is so new about composting ?? My grandparents did it a long time ago !!

Good Day ..... Nice post.

Natural controls working in a garden.
Natural enemies (parasites, predators and pathogens),
weather and other physical factors,
food (quantity and quality)
interspecific competition(other than natural enemies)
intraspecific competition,
spatial or territorial requirements.

What your talking about ofcourse is the science of ecology .... these interactions can work for us or ** against us ** .... our ablilty to work with our environment depends on our understanding of the factors you mention and many others ... I don't see the point in labeling it natural or not .... many associate "natural" with "good" the words are not really connected ..... an earthquake is natural .... I would not call it "good" ... if it happened in my town ... Would you ?

I might call an earthquake "good" -- if I didn't hurt people but leveled ugly buildings and freeways.

Hmmm ...and maybe my mother-in-laws house ?? ... or would that be asking too much ...

It's interesting though .... as far as we know man evolved on this planet .... yet people will travel for miles to see a termite mound in Africa but call a skyscraper ugly and unnatural .....

sought of the pot calling the kettle black syndrome ?

Don't you think they might feel differently if the termite mounds were tens of stories tall and came with Vegas-style lighting?

Raymond Williams says that "nature is perhaps the most complex word in the language" and offers three distinct areas of meaning in his book 'Keywords'.
Whether we regard nature as malevolant or Nature as god without the beard, therefore our protector, some will think the opposite, but if we consider humans to be only observers of ecology we are wrong.
There is no doubt that 'The Environment' is too vast to get your head around whereas a garden cuts 'it' down to size.

acj ,

Not sure I understand your point of view .....

In simple terms my POV ... natural is used way to much in selling everyday products that are often useless or down right dangerous or already on the market for years in a old package ..... and writers should use the word "natural" with care ...... and gardeners should think twice when a "new" product appears that is a "natural" product.

Happy Holidays ......

By some commercial folk, garden writers are appraised in the way wine writers are judged: not by their knowledge, insight, and ability to write, but by how much product they can move. The more product they move (whether flats of annuals or big burlap-balled trees) the more "influence" they are said to have.