Beware the Garden Guru Grift
Many of us seek knowledge, and in that seeking we are drawn to teachers. But sometimes the teachers we find are not what they appear to be.
If you tell people that you have something that will make their lives better in some way - some of those people will buy that thing from you - even if it is something they can't see, hear, feel, touch or taste. If those people happen to feel like it worked, no one will ever be able to convince them it was a coincidence, and they will probably help you sell that thing to more people. They might even devote their lives to helping you sell that thing.
It's one of the oldest grifts in the world…
Why am I writing about grifts in a gardening column? Because I’ve been watching something happen in the gardening world over the last couple decades - and I don’t like it.
Long before I had a podcast, or a YouTube channel, or a Substack page, or a garden, or even land - I was a guy who wanted to be a guy with a vegetable garden.
I remember being in my twenties, living in an apartment on lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoons, watching television, usually PBS (I had free cable) - and I would sometimes watch gardening shows. I would marvel at the beauty and bounty of backyard gardens, and I would dream about some day having a garden myself.
I also remember the content of those shows, and the personalities of the hosts. The content was confined to gardening. The hosts were humble, matter of fact and down to earth. And, aside from the odd plugging of a recent book or upcoming show - there was very little “selling” happening on those shows.
There was no social media back then - so while television personalities might have had fans, they did not have “followers”, and they were not “influencers”. So, while they may have sold books, and may have done some public speaking - they never seemed to develop the “gravitational force” that today’s garden gurus seems to be able to generate. I think this kept them grounded, and kept them humble. It also kept them “in their lane” - so they did not tend to venture into topics outside of their expertise.
By contrast, today’s garden gurus weigh in on everything, and build industries around themselves.
How do you spot a garden guru? Well, they tend to do some or all of the following:
They claim to have special knowledge that can only be accessed through their unique mastery of the subject matter - often in the form of expensive courses. Sometimes there are free courses - but those are usually just a pretext to convince people of the necessity to the pay for other, better courses.
They sell a range of products - but often, they sell various types of magic pixie dust that they claim will improve soil health in some way.
They make exaggerated or unproven claims about the need for their products, and the efficacy of their products. Sometimes evidence is offered - but it does not stand up to scrutiny.
They make various claims about improving one’s health, or even curing various illnesses by means of the benefits that can be gained from eating the improved produce that their gardening methods will provide.
They have social media disciples who validate their teachings, while simultaneously try to build their own followings through a kind of co-promotional symbiosis.
None of these things, taken on their own, seem like a big deal - but taken as a whole - they should cause one to step back and apply a little skepticism, because when the entire package looks like a 1980’s ninja death touch dojo, walks like a 1980’s ninja death touch dojo, and talks like a 1980’s ninja death touch dojo - it should cause one’s internal B.S. meter to start ticking like a dosimeter at ground zero of the Chernobyl disaster.
The reality is that: (a) no one has special knowledge that is needed for backyard gardening, that can only be learned from specialized courses; (b) there is no magic pixie dust that can fix a garden any better than a good mulch and maybe a little compost or manure from time to time; (c) none of this stuff was needed by our grandparents; (d) most vegetables are good for you, but health advice should come from health practitioners; and (e) endorsements from disciples are not evidence of anything. Zero times 1,000 is still zero.
To be fair, anyone can take an idea a little too far, or exaggerate, or simply be wrong and not know it. In fact, I think it can be entirely possible that some of these people are honest actors, and they sincerely believe everything they say, and they truly think they are doing good in the world. I think this can be a natural human response to gathering a following.
For example, let us suppose a person - lets call him Bob - starts out with a very simple message that resonates with people, and maybe it helps them in some way. Eventually, the followers want more - so Bob gives them more - and they eat it up - but still they want more. After a few iterations of this back and forth, Bob starts to run out of material that is a natural extension of his area of expertise - but due to all the positive reinforcement he’s been getting from his audience - he starts to think that maybe all of his ideas are great ideas, so he begins to weigh in on topics that are outside his base of expertise. The followers still eat it up because they like him, and are invested in him - and even though some followers may start to point out flaws in the claims Bob is making - the other ones shout them down and drown them out, often accusing them of having political or other ulterior motives. I think this can probably happen to all but the most emotionally disciplined and morally centered people.
Of course, in other cases, we are simply dealing with charismatic yet dishonest people who are trying to make a buck any way they can, and have found a fertile milieu for their grift in the world of gardening.
Final Thoughts
I have toyed with this topic in numerous articles, and I apologize for coming back to it so often. I have an aversion to shysters, charlatans, and grifters that runs deep. It bothers me that people make money off the hopes and dreams of others. It bothers me that this sort of thing seems to be on the rise. It has been with us, probably, since the advent of language - but modern communications technology seems to have set the dial to eleven, because I don’t see it slowing down any time soon. There is a common mantra among freedom of speech enthusiasts that says, “sunlight is the best disinfectant”. This mantra speaks to the idea that if we get enough people talking about a given topic, that eventually the truth will percolate out out of that debate. Perhaps that is true. Or perhaps that was true when the conversation was on a smaller scale, and among a handful of experts acting in good faith.
But perhaps what happens today, in the age of social media, is that the truth gets drowned out in the noise. Maybe the truth is hard to find. Maybe it is a lone voice. Maybe it is quiet, and introverted, and introspective, and self deprecating. And maybe it gets trampled by millions of footsteps each day - as people run from one shiny object to the next. The internet is replete with lack of accountability, profit-driven motivations, misinformation, pseudoscience, and cult-like behavior.
My advice is to ignore the shiny objects and turn off the noise.
Turn it off, read a book, and get gardening.
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Gardening is too basic to sell your knowledge and experience to others. I have been gardening for 6 decades. I know a few things.
I give away seeds. I share produce with family, friends, and neighbors. No amount of money is better than the smile on a person’s face when you hand them a vine ripened tomato.
Some things are worth more than money.
Snake oil salesmen were ever thus ----