Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Organic gardening cartoon – worms dragging unwanted organic matter underground

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Worms dragging unwanted matter underground - cartoon

Organic gardening cartoon – worms dragging unwanted organic matter underground

Cartoon showing a woman thinking about her husband being dragged under the soil by worms. Wishful thinking

A cartoon about organic gardening

The woman in the cartoon is a keen organic gardener – and her husband is a lazy waste of space.
She is thinking about the organic gardening principle that you should allow worms to drag decaying organic matter into the soil, and she is wishing that the worms would do that to her husband.

Cartoon reference number: a298

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Fruit growing cartoon – pear tree producing gluts of fruit in the autumn

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pear tree fruit glut cartoon

Fruit gardening cartoon – a glut of fruit on a pear tree

Cartoon about the problem of gluts of seasonal food or the over abundance of seasonal crops

The gardener complaining that all of the fruit on a fruit tree arrives at once.

A cartoon about fruit gardening, vegetable gardens, harvesting fruit, pear trees, garden fruit, allotment gardening, autumn gardens, fall gardening, fruit picking.

Cartoon reference number: a279

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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halloween lanterns in garden to scare cats – cartoon

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halloween lanterns to scare cat cartoon

Autumn gardening cartoon – halloween cartoon

Cartoon showing a gardener painting halloween lantern faces onto his prize pumpkins.

He is painting the halloween faces onto the pumpkins in an attempt to scare cats away so that they don’t damage his garden (such as by using his freshly dug seed beds as a cat toilet).

Cartoon reference number: a272

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Garden vegetable glut – gardening and cookery cartoon

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Courgette glut - gardening and cookery cartoon

Vegetable gardening cartoon
Cookery cartoon

Cartoon of a gardener harvesting courgettes from his garden and bringing them into the kitchen

In the kitchen the gardener’s wife is looking at recipes for courgettes and is saying “It’s amazing how many recipes you can find with courgettes in them when you have to”

This is a joke about the problem of gluts of seasonal vegetables and fruit.
Home grown courgettes are a particularly good example of glut-prone vegetables.

Cartoon reference number: a259

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Vegetable gardening cartoon – cabbage white butterfly cartoon

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cabbage white butterfly cartoon

Vegetable gardening cartoon – a cabbage white butterfly in the veg patch

Cartoon showing a girl seeing a cabbage white butterfly in her parents’ vegetable garden

She is saying “Daddy – a lovely white butterfly has just landed on your cabbages!”

A cartoon about the innocence of childhood, garden pests, gardeners’ banes.

Cartoon reference number: a250

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Garden design cartoon – down to earth vegetable garden or ostentatious designer garden?

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garden design and seed catalogue - cartoon

Gardening and garden design cartoon. Ordering garden seeds from a seed catalogue

Cartoon about garden design and planning

Cartoon showing a man trying to decide what type of garden to create – a vegetable garden or a garden in the form of a sub-tropical paradise retreat

Part of the humour in the cartoon is that the man who is contemplating designing or planning a new garden is a stereotypical old age pensioner – a type of person who probably wouldn’t be interested in creating an aspirational garden design such as a designer garden. He’d normally prefer a traditional vegetable garden or allotment garden in which he could potter round rather than a high status garden that would (hopefully) impress his friends.
The cartoon is meant to imply that an ostentatious high status garden design is more vulgar than an ‘honest’ vegetable plot.
This is a cartoon about cultural types, social class, cultural stereotypes.

Cartoon reference number: a236

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Cartoon about fruit trees – collecting windfalls from a pear tree

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pear windfall - cartoon

Gardening humour about fruit trees – collecting windfalls from a pear tree

A windfall fruit is falling straight into a bag labeled ‘windfalls’

Windfalls are normally associated with apples and apple trees, however I’ve used pears in my cartoon because they are a more interesting and recognisable shape.

Cartoon reference number: a215

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Golf cartoon and garden cartoon. Using a golf bag to carry gardening tools

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golf bag full of garden tools - joke

A joke about gardening and golf. Using a golf bag to carry gardening tools.

Showing a man using a golf bag to carry his garden tools rather than to carry his golf clubs.

A cartoon about men’s hobbies and pass-times, golfing, golf caddies, golf carts, combining hobbies
Cartoon reference number: a205

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Vegetable gardening joke – weeds in the vegetable patch

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dandelion display in vegetable patch - joke

Gardening and gardens cartoon. Dandelions growing in the vegetable patch

A joke showing a vegetable garden or allotment full of weeds.

Rather than eradicating the weeds they are being appreciated (perhaps sarcastically)

A cartoon about weed control, invasive species, organic gardening, pests.

Cartoon reference number: a202

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Using Christmas decorations as bird scarers

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using christmas decorations as bird scarers joke

Christmas cartoon. Using Christmas decorations as bird scarers

A joke showing a gardener hanging up spare Christmas decorations to scare birds away from the seedlings in his garden

A cartoon about bird deterrents, protecting seedlings, birds as garden pests.

Drawn: Dec 2010

Cartoon reference number: a199

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Fruit gardening humour. Using a cherry picker to pick pears

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cartoon - picking pears with a cherry picker

Fruit gardening cartoon

Picking pears with a cherry picker

A man using a cherry picker or aerial work platform to reach the fruit at the top of a pear tree.
A humorous comment on some people’s tendency to use technology or equipment that has a higher spec than is necessary for the task in hand.
Similar to the concept of using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.

Drawn: Oct 2011

Cartoon reference number: a180

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Cartoon – a man who will clean his garden fork but not kitchen forks

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Cartoon - cleaning garden fork

Gardening cartoon – a man lovingly cleaning his garden fork

A cartoon about gardens and gardening, with a bit of gender politics thrown in.

A cartoon showing a man carefully cleaning his garden fork, while his wife looks on and complains that he spends so long cleaning his garden tools but won’t do any cleaning in the house (He’ll clean the garden forks but not the kitchen forks).
A cartoon about domestic gender roles in household work, sexual stereotypes, gender equality.
Drawn: Nov 2011

Cartoon reference number: a169


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Fruit Gardening Cartoon – modern children are no longer interested in stealing apples

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scrumping apples cartoon

Gardening cartoon

Fruit Gardening Cartoon – children are no longer interested in scrumping (stealing apples)

Cartoon showing children walking under an apple tree laden with apples, and not being interested in picking any of them because they are too engrossed in modern technological devices such as cell phones or other hand held electronic devices.

Cartoon reference number: a161
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