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Herr B: Now I too have the rake up my backside
🇸🇪 Sweden /Culture & Society

Herr B: Now I too have the rake up my backside

From Dagens Nyheter · (37m ago) Swedish Mixed tone

Translated from Swedish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • The author humorously describes the growing trend of hobby gardening and the pressure to participate.
  • Despite initial reluctance and self-proclaimed lack of gardening skills, the author finds unexpected enjoyment in a community gardening event.
  • The author embraces the idea of joining the gardening community, albeit with a self-deprecating and slightly mischievous tone.

In Sweden, the rise of hobby gardening has become a cultural phenomenon, almost akin to a middle-class sect. As humorist Herr B notes in this piece for Dagens Nyheter, the pressure is on to have the latest gardening tools and an opinion on everything from interest rates to the perfect heirloom tomato. It's no longer enough to have a well-appointed kitchen; one must also possess a passion for pruning and a disdain for weeds.

As you know, hobby gardening has spread and grown into a sect.

— Herr BDescribing the pervasive nature of the hobby gardening trend.

This piece captures a distinctly Swedish sentiment: the blend of earnestness and gentle self-mockery. While the author jokes about inheriting a plot of land and hoping for something more exotic like the Belgian Congo, the reality is a more mundane, yet morally simpler, patch of earth. The description of gardening as a "resistance action" against the world's problems, complete with hand-written labels on jam jars, highlights the almost spiritual devotion some have adopted.

A jar of homemade rhubarb jam (with a handwritten label) is the latest in hostess gifts.

— Herr BIllustrating the social currency of homemade garden produce.

What makes this uniquely Swedish is the underlying appreciation for community and shared activity, even when couched in irony. The author's initial apprehension about his "pink, soft, easily damaged" office hands and a "tumb in the middle of my backside" (or "räfsan mitt i stjärten" in garden slang) gives way to a genuine appreciation for the camaraderie at the community meeting. The shared soup and the collaborative spirit are presented as inherently positive, even to a self-proclaimed "heathen" ready to plant lupines.

My own fingers are decidedly not green. I would rather describe them as pink, and on top of that very soft and easily damaged, adapted to an office work life.

— Herr BSelf-deprecatingly describing his lack of gardening skills.

This article, from the esteemed Dagens Nyheter, reflects a common Swedish cultural tendency to observe and gently critique social trends, while ultimately finding value in collective endeavors. The humor lies in the relatable struggle between societal expectations and personal aptitude, and the eventual, albeit ironic, embrace of a new passion.

Yes, I am drawn in by the earth's gravity. So watch out all colonists, because here I come.

— Herr BExpressing his eventual, ironic commitment to gardening.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Dagens Nyheter in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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