I read an interesting post today at Seth Godin's web site. The post "Music vs. The Music Industry" has crossover appeal to those of us in the garden industry. He say's, "the music industry is really focused on the ‘industry’ part and not so much on the ‘music’ part." As we all know the music industry is dying, while the interest in music grows. Um...could this also be written as "the garden industry is really focused on the 'industry' part and not so much the 'garden' part? Seth continues, "The shift that is happening right now is that the people who insist on keeping the world as it was are going to get more and more frustrated until they lose their jobs. People who want to invent a whole new set of rules, a new paradigm, can’t believe their good fortune and how lucky they are that the people in the industry aren’t noticing an opportunity..." It seems to me that gardening is growing in interest, while the industry is going through a decline. That's why I never bought into the "is gardening dead?" mantra. It's more like the garden industry as "we know it" that's dying. Horticultural media, including all those glossy magazines that asked if gardening is dying are now the ones dying, not gardening. The job of information gathering and dispersal has fallen to the garden bloggers. Just like music where indie groups and their fans are taking down the music industry. They are not taking it down on purpose, just finding the music they want without the industries help.
Maybe I am wrong. I am sure every large horticultural concern hopes I am. I have lots of friends in this industry, and I hate to see them out of work. That doesn't change the facts that confront us. Gardening is growing in interest, being spread by people with passion, while our industry seems to be caught in a time warp, trying to keep alive a way of life that is quickly disappearing.
What do you think?