7 Million More Homes are Taking Part in Vegetable Gardening!

According to the National Gardening Association’s 2009 Impact of Home and Community Gardening In America report, 7 million more households are participating in home vegetable gardening, as well as fruit, herbs and berry cultivation this year, compared to last. This means that 37% of all US households are doing some of their own food production. The number of home gardeners has increased 19%, compared to just 10% from 2007-2008. “More Americans are recognizing the benefits of growing their own produce, including improved quality, taste and cost savings,” the NGA report concludes.

So just who are all these new gardeners? “The demographics of today’s food gardening households include a broad cross-section of the U.S. population. There are few other outdoor activities where virtually every demographic group is so well represented, no matter what their age, education, income, marital status, household size, gender, or regional location,” concludes the NGA report. The food gardening experience is enjoyed primarily by women (54%), those ages 45+ (68%), college students (43%) and married couples with no children at home (67%). The gardeners are pretty evenly spread across the South, Midwest, West and Northeast. Those making $35,000 – $49,999 in household income are the most common gardening group (24%), although many who make over $75,000 (22%), under $35,000 (21%) and between $50,000 and $74,999 (16%) are also represented.

Among active home gardeners, 11% say they’ll increase the amount and variety of vegetables they’re growing in 2010, as well as share more of their produce with others. About 10% say they’ll spend more time on their gardens and do more preserving this year. Of the 21% of households who are beginning their first gardens, 11% say they’ll start by growing herbs, 10% say they’ll start with vegetable container gardening, 5% are beginning a full backyard vegetable garden and 4% will try their hand at berry growing.

Today’s home gardeners have been growing food for 12 years on average, and they spend about five hours per week on their gardens. Twenty percent of those surveyed say this is their first year growing plants, while 39% said they’ve been gardening for 1-5 years. Some gardeners spend over 20 hours in their gardens each week, but the norm seems to be closer to 3-5 hours. Surprisingly, 43% of respondents said they spend less than two hours in their gardens. An estimated 5 million households are “extremely” or “very” interested in having a garden plot in a community garden located near their homes. Is communal gardening the way of the future? The National Gardening Association seems to think so. Many people believe that locally grown food can deliver safer, fresher and better quality produce.

A short credit note about Stuart Downing, the Author of this Article:

Stuart is a long term keen gardener. Both Stuart and his wife spend many hours a week in the garden. To relax, Stuart enjoys blogging about gardening issues and is an active member of many of the most popular gardening forums.

At work, Stuart is an IT specialist in the world mp4 and the video streaming server for a well known international streaming video server provider. Luckily for Stuart, most of his work is done from home via the internet. For more info on streaming video servers please check out http:// videostreamingserver.org for more about this great technology.