I sometimes go on about how garden writing compares to, for instance, cookery writing, car writing, property or architecture writing. This top 10 looks at newspapers only - because their editors should know better.
Here are some reasons why garden writing doesn't always stand up.
Use more than one source. This piece on Phytophthora ramorum in the Daily Telegraph by Ursula Buchan uses the National Trust too much as a source. The feature is a good backgrounder but doesn't include the views of growers or Defra and looks to be in response to a piece in The Guardian that is more critical of the National Trust. I do like the box in the Telegraph piece by Tony Kirkham on what trees to plant.
Talk to the subject. This piece, again in the Daily Telegraph, is a question-and-answer with Dr David Hessayon. The format does not give an opportunity for follow-up questions. In this piece, it could lead to accusations of greenwashing. Call, or better still, talk to your subject face-to-face.
Get an original and interesting angle and do more than fill space. Monty Don is a high-profile gardener. But Don's piece on how he likes to wear tweed in the garden smacks of being a little less than enough for a two-page piece.
Commission a writer with something to say. Reality show winner Ben Fogle and ex pop star Alex James are celebs. They write countryside columns. Fogle lives in South Kensington. James farms - so he can write about it.
Ask some tough questions. Matthew Wilson's piece on Alan Titchmarsh is a little matey. Hence, the reader discovers little about the subject.
Go beyond what the press office says. This piece on Toby Buckland in the Sunday Times is a bit like this piece in HW. Without the interesting bits. Because the BBC press office got involved.
Do your research. This piece on Toby Buckland fails to mention peat-subject of an hour long special from Buckland out a fortnight later. The profile tells you little you wouldn't already know if you had read previous pieces.
Keep some perspective. This profile of Monty Don is cringeworthy in its worshipping of the evangelical gardener.
Be topical. A nice feature on guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds by Pattie Barron in Evening Standard Homes & Property this spring (no link available). But almost a year after similar pieces appeared when guerrilla gardening was briefly fashionable (among journalists).
Topical should be new too. "At about this time of year I write much the same as I wrote at this time last year".Snowdrops in Feb anyone? Compare Spectator 2009 and Independent 2003.
Avoid clichés. Dan Pearson:"My own sap is up. Gardeners can feel the sap rising." Observer 22/2/2009
Guardian gardening blog February 2009: "The sap is rising."
Monty Don 6/2/05 Observer: "Spring just around the corner, gardeners can feel the sap rising."
Sunday Times Rachel de Thame 6/4/2008 ... "I feel the sap rising and am eager to start work in earnest."
Finally, this piece by Zoe Williams marks the nadir of allotment blogs. Like when Jenny Powell decided she was a garden designer in a makeover show, you knew the craze was near the end. An associate says the recession will hopefully kill off ill-informed commentators like Williams. BTW, the comments box is the place to ask: what does he know anyway, who does he think he is? And maybe refer to pieces I've done you don't think much of.
