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HomeTrend Forecast
April 14, 2009 Issue
Gardening Trends
Marketing Daily ran a piece on "America's avid new vegetable gardeners" a couple of weeks ago.
According to the article, a new survey from the National Gardening Association (NGA) found that almost 7 million more American households are planning to plant a vegetable garden this year -- a 19% increase over last year. What's more, 21% of these households will be brand new to gardening. Last year, 31% of households had a garden.
Is this a long-term trend that reflects a longing for safer simpler time, a natural extension of the emerging locovore movement, or a short-term way to cope with rising food prices and economic uncertainty? I decided to conduct a survey with my proprietary Home Trend Influentials Panel (HIP) to find out.
The first thing I found out is that vegetable gardening is even more popular among this trend-setting, trend-spreading group of consumers than it is among the mainstream population. More than half (56%) of the HIPsters are planning to plant a vegetable garden this year (compared to 37% of total U.S. households). What's more, half of those who are not planting a vegetable garden this year have an interest in growing vegetables in the future.
I also found out that vegetable gardening is not some trendy new activity that the HIPsters are jumping on the bandwagon of. Almost half of them have had a vegetable garden for five or more years. Only 26% are newbies to vegetable gardening, having never planted a garden before.
I learned that saving money, the recession, and the rising cost of food are not reasons why most HIPsters garden. While a handful grow vegetables strictly to save on the cost of produce, well over half of the HIPsters plant vegetable gardens because they like the taste and freshness of home-grown vegetables. One HIPster said her reason for having a garden is to "have our own fresh vegetables we can cut from the garden anytime." Another grows vegetables "so we don't have to eat pesticides and can get different varieties of vegetables that are not available in stores."
A number of these HIPsters have a second equally important reason for planting a vegetable garden -- because it is an activity that they can do with their children -- or as one HIPster put, "for the experience of teaching the kids to maintain a garden and watching it grow." Another HIPster said that they plant a garden every year "to show our children where their food comes from."
Vegetable gardening is a golden opportunity. More and more people will be taking it up over the next couple of years, whether they are planting a garden in thier backyard, in containers on a patio or balcony, or in one of the community gardens that are popping up around the country.
By the way, I highly recommend Marketing Daily. It's a great way to keep up-to-speed on what's happening in the wide world of marketing and one of my favorite e-newsletters. Click here to sign up.
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