Why has the term 'gardening' caused confusion on TikTok?

TikTok is often the place where new slang terms are created and the latest one is all about "gardening," which has left people online wondering exactly what it means.

While we're all familiar with the term "gardening" referring to the pastime of cultivating and taking care of plants and although there are many TikToks and creators who share this hobby - there is an alternative meaning for the word that has emerged on the platform.

"Gardening," is also used as slang to refer to smoking weed, and a "gardener" is someone who does this while the "garden" is related to marijuana due to people often calling the drug "plant," "bud," and "trees."

The reason for using this term is so people can still talk about marijuana by getting their TikTok account removed - it's similar to how people say "unlive," instead of "kill," and "corn" instead of "porn" on the social media app.

The term was first used on TikTok by user Natalie Benson (@notnataliebenson) in November last year, according to Know Your Meme.

In her first video, she explained that her other account had been banned due to talking about weed and so created a new account where she would talk about "gardening," instead in order to work around TikTok's rules.

Though the term "gardening" has caused some confusion for people who are into actual gardening content as TikToker Tanner (@tannervanb) admitted in a viral video with over 8.1m views.

"I actually feel so stupid right now because there's this woman on TikTok and every video she starts with like 'Good morning gardeners,' or 'Get ready with me to go to the garden," she said.

“I’m just stupid. This whole time I thought she was like a professional gardener and that she had like an acre of land."

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