The chemically enhanced gardening boom of 1965

The enthusiasm with which new pesticides were recieved now seems naive'In 10m homes throughout Britain this morning, householders will breakfast and then potter out into the garden,' starts the Observer's 4 July 1965 report on the contemporary gardening boom. It's not a wholesome account of a simpler time, evoking your grandad's sun-warmed raspberries or the delicate ephemeral scent of sweet peas; rather it's the story of how gardening became a chemically enhanced big business.This uncomfortable hindsight read describes how science was taking the place of sweat and old-fashioned expertise (laughingly deemed 'muck and mystery' by horticultural chemists according to the journalist, who took a tour of the Fisons research centre). 'Sales of chemical fertilisers make up 10% of the gardening market,' the article explains. 'Forty different products are devoted to the onslaught on greenfly and black fly? The pursuit of the slug alone provides a ?500,000 annual market.' Continue reading...