I don’t know if it the recession, our values or our current expectations, but I find myself in a morass of conflicting passions whenever I enter any of the garden chats these days. One theme is common especially among creative garden professionals: “what to do about ‘free’ services?”

Of course there is very little “free” in this world. Most payments are simply transferred or hidden in other aspects of the service. And then there’s the question of what happens when someone really helps out another person in need: is that taking away pay that should be rendered for a professional job? With hard times focused on the housing industry, the green industry and creative professionals have been particularly hard hit. As a result sales pitches are getting grittier and professionals are getting more sensitive, some downright desperate.

Between the pinch of the recession and the glut of free information on the web the word “free” is sparking off panic. The general public seems ill-equipped to deal with making wise decisions and with economic woes. People are more interested in saving money than thinking about what they are actually getting for their cash.

Our consumer society has already trained us to expect short lives with our technology and our household appliances. High tech gadgets are old practically before they leave the store shelves as newer versions are released daily. Refrigerators and televisions that used to last twenty years are now expected to be replaced in five. Yet these items still sell at a comparable price of their sturdier ancestors. So why is it surprising the average person sees little difference between the makeshift fill-in of plants stuck in the ground by their mower-blower ‘gardener’, a generic, one-size-fits-all garden installed by a landscape company that has little or no design abilities and a lovely, thought-out garden that will grow-in better and better over the years planned out by a landscape designer or architect? After all, when the check exchanges hands, all these gardens may look perfectly fine – even if they are designed or planted all wrong.

I just had an experience from the opposite side as a consumer – sort of. As I approached the final deadline for submitting my finished garden book manuscript to the publisher, I still lacked several photos that I couldn’t take myself due to geographical issues. So I figured there would be some other garden writers elsewhere in the country who might have some snapshots I could use. The publishing industry being as threatened and penny-pinching as everyone else was not about to allot me a budget for photos. And since photos are not the focus of my book, I wasn’t looking for anything special to show up my own photography. So I put in a request on LinkedIn to one of the professional garden groups. Did anyone have one of these plants? All I could offer was photo credits. (I would love to have offered a little cash, but at this point I’m having my own economic challenges.)

I had no idea there were professional photographers on the site since it was, to the best of my knowledge, for other writers. But I soon found myself under furious attack. How dare I seek to undermine the whole professional photography profession? I was essentially told it was people like me that were ruining photographers. I was also told that there was no such gardening book in which photographs were not the primary focal point and that since I clearly was writing for profit, I should spread the bucks around. And if I were NOT writing this book for profit, I shouldn’t be writing it at all. I should be ashamed of devaluing my talents and those of the beleaguered photographers.

Curiously enough, two assumptions were wrong right off the bat. This book is about whimsy, my hand drawings, my photography (along with that of a friend of mine) and making gardening fun and entertaining. I personally think the photography turned out great. Even if I had a photographic budget, that wasn’t what I wanted the book to be about. No, this really was a book that was not centered around the photography.

Secondly, I have learned that authors these days don’t get rich writing gardening books. Fiction like New York Times best-sellers and Harry Potter phenomenons might, yes, but not garden writers. This was a project of passion so I could stave off depression when, for the first time in my life, no one was buying my professional art work or landscape designs. I needed to create a project to help me feel useful and helpful despite income issues. So now I’m being told I can’t write a book to share a lifetime of knowledge for any other reason than profit because that threatened those for whom income is their primary goal? Professionals do need to get paid and paid fairly for their skills. But I am not comfortable with all  life and creativity being reduced to profits only. Surely there must be some room in this world for both business and passion despite the economic pressures.

I understand the fear and anger creative people are experiencing in a recession where people will no longer pay for what they consider frivolities – and creative skills seem to come in at the top of the list. Then there is an Internet that offers all the free photos, illustrations, cartoons, written articles on any subject including free landscape designs – no matter how good or bad the quality. And, yes, I suppose by not using a professional photographer I am part of the problem. (Albeit even if I had the money this still wasn’t the direction I wanted to take with this new book.)

Of course, I could have responded that I should also be reported to the contractor’s unions because I am doing all my own electrical, carpentry and plumbing repairs. (I can’t afford those professionals either.) Yet I do understand the rampant fear that circumventing professional skills ignites: this can indeed reduce quality (like we aren’t already seeing that in other products and goods?) and threatens to put creative professionals out of business. I get it. I’m directly in the firing line, too. That’s why I don’t have the cash to hire other professionals. It’s a vicious circle. And I’ve seen this same issue echoed over and over from other creative professionals.

So the big question remains, what do we do about “free” services? Am I diminishing the quality of my book to that of a disposable refrigerator because I’m not paying a professional photographer? In this case I think not. And there may even be the occasional landscape design done by a non-professional that will work nicely. But what about all those other non-professional garden designs that will grow into disasters in just a few years? Add to this the problem of creative specialists who are having their jobs usurped by larger companies who offer “free” design (photography, illustration or anything else) and simply hide the cost in the overall bill so it isn’t free at all?

I wish I had a solution. But it seems to me there have always been well-paid creative professionals, poorly paid creative professionals (the difference not necessarily having anything whatsoever with talent), and professional people who occasionally do things for free because life can’t only be about money. If the economy were healthier, there would probably be enough money in circulation that there would be room for everyone. But the blending of a long-term recession with an unregulated Internet resource for just about everything has made for desperation and rampant anger. And too many people seek someone – anyone – to blame.

Blame seems to be the most obvious way to vent frustration. But it doesn’t solve a thing. And frequently those in anger are only blaming other victims adding hurt and defensive lash-back to the mix. The problem persists.

It seems to me we need to educate our potential clients one at a time. The consumer has to learn he or she will get the service paid for. That’s one thing that never seems to change. In the end, nothing is free. Whether paid for in money or consequences, we all still get what we pay for. Poorly produced books will become more prevalent as self-published books litter the Internet. How will the good ones surface? Hopefully, buyers will bother to learn about the writers when they shop as the filtering and editing quality control processes disappear along with by-passing print publishers. My landscape design clients need to know they will get a long-term, beautiful landscape that will cost them less in maintenance and replacement and will fit their budget and lifestyles if they use me. Cutting corners is likely to cost them more down the road. But my prices can never compete with the local mower-blower service that claims to offer the same services.

We are facing a lot of changes in the near future as services tumble in the spin-dry cycle and it is unsure just what will emerge whole when the final door is opened. I believe creative professionals need to support each other, particularly in educating the general public, not squabble. This is just my point of view reflecting my personal experiences. My circumstances are mine and may give me a perspective different than someone else. One thing I’ve learned in a full lifetime is that I have not, can not and will not ever be able to walk in anyone else’s shoes. So, I welcome and respect feedback. Do you have other ways of seeing the issue of “free” service, professionalism and the economy? Please feel free to leave a comment.