If it's really true, it could be the start of new gardening revolution. A new survey by the Garden Writers Association (of which I'm a member) Foundation says consumers are planning to spend more this year on vegetable & fruit gardening than on their lawns! It's the first time since 2003 that spending on lawns has dropped to second place.
Thirty-five percent of consumers said they anticipated spending most on fruits and veg, while 29 percent said top spending would be on lawns & grass.
HOWEVER, a very cautionary note: when the top two spending categories are combined, lawn and grass still comes out on top -- at 53 percent -- compared to 47 percent for veg and fruits. Overall lawn spending stayed around the same as in 2008, but there's been an eight percent increase over the past year in spending on fruits and veg. People mostly opted for more spending on vegetable gardens because they believe they'll get better quality, taste and nutrition. But they also said that growing your own is cheaper than buying produce in stores, and they also believe home-grown is safer.
Nevertheless, we garden writers certainly need to do more to persuade clients to convert their lawns into groundcovers, shrubs, perennials, what have you ... anything else is better than all those chemicals spent for no good reason.
(image ©Jane Berger)
The drop in people having lawns is because of the constant bombardment of garden writers telling us how bad they are and to get rid of them! I have a modest lawn and only add natural fertilizers (bonemeal and mushroom compost) and hand weed. It's not a putting green but it looks good.
Posted by: Phil | May 07, 2009 at 11:06 AM
It floors me how much money my husband (Lawn Man) spends on the lawn. It's definitely his pride and joy, and I doubt that will be changing anytime soon. I'd settle for half lawn, half garden, but that's unlikely too!
Posted by: linda | May 06, 2009 at 08:30 AM