The garden blogosphere has been analyzing all sorts of declarations about the state of gardening in the country today and where it’s headed and apparently it’s an inexhaustible subject because there’s more. The
Garden Writers Association reports these results from their 2006 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report.
1. Better mental health, nutrition or fitness is the primary reason 36% of households garden.
2. More perennials and more vegetables are the two leading additions households plan to make to their garden this spring.
3. The number of consumers planning to increase their lawn areas rose by 5% over 2005 while the number planning to decrease their lawn areas dropped from 11% to 9%.
4. Fewer households plan to use weed and insect control this spring.
5. Manure is the most frequently planned means of fertilizing gardens and container plants this spring (31%), followed by slow-release fertilizer (27%), potting soil with fertilizer (19%), and liquid fertilizer (16%).
6. This spring and summer, one in four households plan to prepare their garden area with store-bought soil mixes (26%).
The 2006 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report was conducted in April and covers consumer expectations and attitudes for activities and purchases planned for the next few months. The survey was conducted by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, a national consumer polling organization, and statistically represents the attitudes of 110 million households with an accuracy of 95% (+/- 3.1 percentage points).
Wow, I hardly know what to think of such a hodgepodge of results. Most of it sounds good but what’s up with the increase in lawns? And the notion that people are gardening for fitness reminds me that my experience of gardening isn’t necessarily what clicks for everybody. So should I rhapsodize less about Nature and Beauty and more about Soundness of Mind and Body?
[Photo: The pink flowers of what's either Mexican or Evening Primrose are new to this border and I love it with the chartreuse of the creeping sedum, my all-time favorite weed.]
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I am surprised by the increase in lawns as well. I WISH we had less grass, but my DH disagrees. When we bought the house 5 years ago with the unfinished back yard, we had a large dog, and 8 & 15 year old boys. Clearly they needed 3000 feet of sod to run around on with the dog,and throw baseballs and footballs and such,said the DH. Well, the dog is gone, the 15yr old, now 20, is gone, living on his own, not deceased like the dog,and the now 13 yr old only uses about 1/2 of it but DH won’t change his mind. Oh what I would do with 1500 feet more garden space. I could have a shade garden on the East side, expand my perennials add more trees and shrubs….
Digging the Dirt in Gardening Blogs
About lawns: one of my neighbors is trying to sell his house & he reports that some potential buyers are turned off by the large yard & lawn. Don’t know whether people object to lawn maintenance or the look of so much open space, but I have to wonder if some people actually like the McMansion look: huge house plopped down on a tiny piece of land.
I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. As someone who had the privilege of living in Japan for a number of years prior to returning to the United States, I am used to the Japanese version of gardening, so I, too, am perplexed by why people would seek to increase their lawn area rather than creating more garden beds or planting areas, which are so much more beautiful and satisfying in the long run.
I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. I wish more people realized the physical and emotional benefits of gardening. It’s so relaxing to de-stress after a long day at work by puttering around in my garden!
I could be way off target here, but I suspect that the more hectic and stressful our lives become in the future, the more people with look within their own “world” (such as their garden) for renewal, relaxation, and stress relief rather than outside of their “world” (such as going to a mall, a sporting event, or to a restaurant).
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