Gardening Is Enjoying A Sharp Increase, National Garden Survey Shows

Woman holding vegetable harvest Stock photoIan Baldwin’s annual analysis of the National Garden Association’s (NGA) annual National Garden Survey is out, this year in Green Profit, and the news is good.

You may remember that Baldwin put a big asterisk next to his coverage of the increase in garden sales in the 2014 survey, since gardening had been in a multi-year decline. And in 2015, his fears were realized. This year, thankfully, shows very strong garden garden sales, and perhaps a beginning of a trend.

Advertisement

I should mention here that the NGA study reflects the previous year’s behavior, so the 2016 NGA Study actually reflects 2015 buying behavior.

Here are the key findings he found:

1. Gardening activity is at near-record levels. Three fourths of U.S. households do some type of gardening. That means, Baldwin says, that the garden industry is maintaining its market share of consumers’ spare time.

Top Articles
Vestaron Receives EPA Approval for Second Active Ingredient, Basin Bioinsecticide

Now, that’s all about participation. How much money was spent?

2. Spending increased to $401 per household, well above the past-five-years’ average. Baldwin says this brings the industry back to pre-recessions levels.

3. Food gardening outstrips flower gardening. Food gardening has been neck and neck with flower gardening over the past few years. It now has a sizeable lead — $3.6 billion spent compared to $2.7 billion on flower gardening.

4. The surge in gardening came from 18- to 34-year-olds. There were 6 million more garden participants, the study shows, and 5 million came from Millennials.

0