Third International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

This paper explores gardening as an aspect of domestic recreation and investigates the role gardening plays as a contemporary leisure activity. A qualitative study will be conducted in the city of Kolding to understand the meanings of gardening as a form of outdoor recreation taking place at home. By walking with, talking with, and photographing participants in their home gardens, I explore their motivations and experiences with gardening and/or other forms of leisure in gardens. Writers debate the potential of gardening, in the sense of cultivating plants and growing food, to encourage more eco-conscious and sustainable lifestyles. However, engagement in gardening activities today seem challenged by various factors such as work hours, changing leisure patterns, and shifts toward the domestic garden as an outdoor living room. Based on the empirical findings, the paper discusses how gardening and the home garden as a leisure space is influenced and transformed by the material culture of gardening, changing social norms, and environmental debates.