The past 12 or so months have been record-breaking for interest in and the popularity of gardening! People are ripping up their backyards to plant fruits and vegetables. Google searches for “Garden Design” and “DIY Gardening” have been steadily climbing since lockdown orders were first announced. If there was ever going to be another event that introduced a mass appetite for gardening, the past year was most certainly it. So, the question on many minds is what exactly do these new gardeners look to get out of the hobby?
As far as hard information, there is no clear customer base or plant varieties driving this wave of increasing sales. Younger people may be coming in greater numbers than before, but so is every other age group to a lesser degree. Both edible gardening as well as color and foliage related purchases are up. Without anything directly linking one group or interest to the increasing sales, it might do us better to take a top-down view of the industry we all call our hobby! Gardening really is a leisurely activity, and it can be done from the home. People were and still are physically working less than before but are more stressed and anxious than ever. The corona virus was a catalyst to start a new hobby for the millions who just didn’t have the bandwidth before.
To be brief, I believe a wave of free time, introspection, and industriousness came over each one of us at some point in the past 12 months. A lot of those people realized there are benefits to a gardening lifestyle. Some probably looked to mix a new routine in their day. The one that makes me happiest, I can imagine a few people just popping into a nursery solely because they had nothing to do for the first time since they could remember. That is not the story for everyone of course, but I think that is a more wholistic view of why garden centers are going gangbusters than chopping it up to one gardening trend or another. At the end of the day, there are more people reading, writing, and talking about gardens. There are going to be more DIY projects throughout the community. I hope all of them are here for the long haul!
