Music in the Garden
December 20th, 2005 
by Susan Harris
Who is this crazy man, you ask? He’s aptly named himself the Renegade Gardener and is also known as Don Engebretson, a writer/designer in Minneapolis/St. Paul. I’ve been checking him out and I’m liking his brand of craziness. He opines on just about everything but let’s start with his declarations about music choices in the garden because it’s a subject I’ve been thinking about lately.
"Do not garden accompanied by an active Walkman, unless you happen to have secured a tape teaching you the Latin names of plants. In general, listening to most styles of music while gardening tends to lessen the beneficial elements gardening infuses into the soul. Playing rock music while gardening makes you ornery, while listening to modern country as you deadhead your Dianthus deltoides can lead to dizziness and gas. Classical music in the patio should be saved for after the watering is done and your guests have arrived; listening to classical while gardening makes you tire early. Only instrumental jazz, I have found, works pretty well alongside gardening, particularly pre-’65 Miles Davis.
"The sound nature makes in your yard is the most relaxing accompaniment to gardening, but if you must listen to something man-made, the best thing to listen to is baseball. Listening to baseball while you garden can be a smooth, sublime joy."
Reminds me of Henry Mitchell, the much-loved and missed garden writer for the Washington Post, whose equally strong and quirky opinions have been published in two wonderful volumes. You couldn’t pay me to listen to sports announcers in the garden or anywhere else, but I agree wholeheartedly about the deleterious effects of (most) rock music and (almost all) country.
Which leads me a long-term project of mine - the quest to figure out what I really enjoy hearing in the garden and the logistics of delivering same to my ears. All options and technologies have been on the table. I’ve gone through books on tape, a portable CD player, a portable radio, a stationary radio in my tool shed, and most recently, an iPod. Yeah, I was going to be one of those people we see on the subway attached by skinny white wires to their own worlds. And all my attempts have failed because the local radio fare is so terrible and polluted with commercials, and I just don’t have enough music of my own to keep me interested.
Now I don’t have to tell my readers that hope springs eternal in the heart of a gardener. And any day now my new XM2Go will arrive in the mail. Translation: the hardware needed to listen to XM Satellite Radio, with its 160 channels, 60 of them all-music-no-commercials. YES! The service costs $10 a month, which is about what I was prepared to spend on iTunes, but thank god I don’t have to do all the work of finding and downloading the stuff. So I’ll let you know if this baby really makes all my dreams come true. In the meantime, what do you guys do listening-wise in the garden? Or are you all thinking such interesting thoughts that you don’t need a diversion? Go ahead; I can handle the truth.
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December 20th, 2005 at 5:42 pm
Personally, I too like silence in the garden, or, actually not silence but quiet nature. I get lots of music and noise in the house all day but outside I like to be able to hear the various chirping birds, buzzing bees, croaking toads and sometimes baaing sheep in the field not far away. Ah bliss!
December 20th, 2005 at 8:25 pm
Definitely sounds of nature, or silence, for me too. Actually, I do prefer the sounds of birds, especially those pesky blackbirds that are such nuisance but whistle so sweetly, as well as sparrows, magpies warbling and kookaburras ‘laughing’. I like hearing cattle in the distance, too. I guess it all reminds me of my life on the farm.
I could play relaxing type of music with sounds of nature but I would be forever walking out of hearing range, and I don’t like things attached to me, like headphones and iPods, etc.
I loathe talkback radio. In fact, some of these stations you mention that are all music and no commercials sound wonderful.
December 20th, 2005 at 9:50 pm
I can’t stand music in the garden. Turn it off! I’d rather listen to the sounds of everyone else’s weekend projects–hammering, even mowing–and kids running around, and people chatting, and the birds overhead and the chickens and the wind. Silence is good, too. When I’m in the garden, I want to get away from anything manufactured or produced, even music.
December 20th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
First of all, there are three Henry Mitchell books:
One Man’s Garden
The Essential Earthman
Henry Mitchell on Gardening
Which one are you missing?
Second, I am glad to see you’ve discovered Mr. Engbretson. I only wish he had an RSS feed.
Third, to answer your question, I would answer as the previous commenters did. That is, I go out to garden to be outside. I don’t need any kind of aural distraction. The sounds that are already out there are part of the enjoyment for me.
December 20th, 2005 at 10:23 pm
Hi! I stopped by to wish you a happy holiday season, and was just about to comment on audio accompaniment when I noticed in your links column that I’ve been dubbed “Victoria Val” (I like it!) and been categorised as a gardening blog. Thanks for the link but I’m not sure I write often enough about gardens to qualify. However, a new year’s project is to create a virtual tour of our garden… (first new year’s resolution?)
Anyway, what I like to listen to is Australian Rules football, but admittedly it is not very zen-like. And there is that annoyance Alice mentioned re having various hearing devices attached. Just turning in a new direction can cause the sound to fade. Yes, it is better to listen to nature, unless someone is using a leaf blower!!
December 21st, 2005 at 9:50 am
Hadn’t thought of ADDING noise - even relaxing music to my busy corner. For me it’d be personally dangerous to wear headphones and not be able to hear the traffic, neighbors, & passers-by.
I enjoy lustening to the running water in my pond, the birds & the constasnt squirrel chatter.
A house across the street thinks outdoor music should be shared with EVERYONE - last summer they regukarly blasted mariachi music from sun up well past midnight & yes, I was the snot who called the copy a few times. I wouldn’t have minded so much if it wasn’t the same tracks over and over and over…
BTW, I saw the “Renegade Gardener” speak at a home & garden show about a year ago - he was fantastic! Actually one of the best live talks I”ve been to on any subject - not just gardening. Definitely will check out his site & keep track if he ventures to the DC area.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:34 am
I don’t listen to music in the garden (unless it’s Eminem or somesuch blaring out of one of the neighbor’s places)…
But I do listen on-line to a station called ‘RadioParadise’ - a little bit of everything.
Sometimes not to my taste, but I can turn it off for an hour and when I come back it’s interesting again. Worth a listen, just to hear new stuff.
You might see if you can get it on your new toy…
December 21st, 2005 at 4:32 pm
I couldn’t agree more with the folks who wrote that they are outside to BE outside, and the sounds of birds, water, kids playing, leaves rustling, bees buzzing are what it’s ABOUT!! But if you have to be attached to something, how about a disc from Audubon with bird songs. It helps one identify the ones that live around you. Oh God, how I would love to hear a kookaburra!!
December 22nd, 2005 at 6:04 am
Yay for Henry Mitchell! I’ve never stopped mourning his passing.
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:40 pm
Hmm, I guess I’m the rebel. I asked for an outdoor boombox for Christmas! I live in such a dense urban area (I have a 25′x35′ back yard and that’s considered huge around here, and a 10′x7′ flower bed out front) that there really aren’t a lot of “nature sounds” happening other than the occasional dog barking.
It’s just so HOT here most of the year that a bit of a beat to keep me moving and distract me from the sweat is a nice thing. I won’t be blasting it, of course, but if I have to listen to my neighbors’ radios and chatter when they’re in the pool, I think they can deal with my eclectic mix too.
Though I also got Henry Mitchell on Gardening for Christmas as well. Maybe he’ll talk some sense into me.
December 22nd, 2005 at 1:06 pm
VERY interesting comments, everybody. To be continued in the epilogue, which I’ll be writing soon because my XM receiver is here and charged and ready to go.
December 22nd, 2005 at 3:50 pm
If I brought out the tunes, they would compete with my singing!
Thanks for the link to the Renegade Gardener — hilarious reading.