Jeremy Corbyn has offered gardening tips to the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. For the sake of US politics, I hope her fingers are greener than mine
Jeremy Corbyn has been talking dirty to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter. Over the weekend, the congresswoman announced that she was getting involved in a community garden and asked her followers for some “sage words of advice”. Corbyn was happy to oblige, imparting tips on using lavender or comfrey to attract bees. “Best way to be healthy is to get your hands dirty – in the soil!” Corybn enthused. It was a wonderfully wholesome exchange.
To some extent, it was inevitable that 29-year-old Ocasio-Cortez would take up horticulture. Gardening is all the rage among urban millennials; though due to the constraints of city-living it normally involves tending to houseplants rather than plots of land. According to a 2018 survey from Garden Research, a company that, well, researches gardens, “younger households reached an all-time high in gardening participation” and 18- to 34-year-olds account for almost a third of houseplant sales in the US. It’s a similar story in the UK – a 2018 report from Wyevale garden centres found that millennials are 88% more likely to keep plants in their bedrooms than those aged 65 and over.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Z0bbfW
