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The growing food gardening market

April 28, 2009 – The National Gardening Association and ScottsMiracle-Gro Company recently conducted a survey in the U.S. that looked at the impact of home and community gardening in America.

The National Gardening Association and ScottsMiracle-Gro Company recently conducted a survey in the U.S. that looked at the impact of home and community gardening in America. The report focused on the rise of food gardening (growing vegetables, fruit, berries or herbs) and compiled statistics on a variety of areas. Here are some findings from the report:

2008 Household Participation in Food Gardening
The report found that 31 per cent of all U.S. households, or approximately 36 million households, participated in food gardening. The average spent on all types of food gardening in 2008 was $70 per participating household while the total spent by all households was $2.5 billion in 2008.

The Outlook for Increased Participation in Food Gardening for 2009
This year, 37 per cent of U.S households are hoping to grow their own vegetables, fruit, berries or herbs compared to 31 per cent in 2008. When it comes to households that already grow their own food, 11 per cent are looking to increase the amount and variety of veggies that they will grow in 2009. New gardeners are also planning to get dirty with food gardening as 21 per cent are hoping to start a food garden plot.

Who's Food Gardening?
The report found that today's food gardening households include a broad cross section of the U.S. population. Here's how the households measured up:

Breaking it down by income level, 22 per cent of food gardeners had a household income of $75,000 and over, 16 per cent were in the $50-$74,999 bracket, 24 per cent in the $35,000-$49,999 bracket, 17 per cent had an income of $35,000 and under and 17 per cent were undesignated. Sixty-seven per cent of food gardeners were without children, while 64 per cent were married, 20 er cent were single and 16 per cent of respondents were divorced.

Why Food Garden?
The number one reason given for why people grow their own food is better tasting food. Other reasons included:

The study asked households whether or not the recession was a motivating factor in good gardening to which 14 per cent of households said it was very much a motivator, 20 per cent said it was a fair amount of the reason, 28 per cent said it was somewhat, 36 per cent said not at all and 3 per cent didn't know.

Food Gardening Experience
The average food gardener has been growing food for almost 12 years and they spend nearly five hours a week digging in the dirt.

How Big is Your Garden?
The National Gardening Association found that in the U.S., 57 per cent of households have a food garden that measures 100 square feet or less, 26 per cent have a plot between 101 square feet and 500 square feet while 12 per cent have a space bigger than 500 square feet but less than 2000 square feet and an ambitious six per cent have a good garden larger than 2000 square feet. About half of all food gardening households (48 per cent) grow food in containers in addition to growing veggies, fruit, berries and herbs in the ground.

The majority of households locate their food gardens (91 per cent) at home, five per cent of households grow food at the home of a friend and three per cent use a community garden.

The Most Popular Vegetables
Here's a look at what the households are featuring in their food gardens:

Interest in Community Gardening
In the U.S., the report found that among households that do not participate in food gardening, few households are interested in having a community garden located near their home – only three per cent reported that they would be extremely interested, four per cent are very interested and 10 per cent are fairly interested. On the contrast, 51 per cent of households said they were not at all interested in having a community garden.

Gardening Activities in the Schools
Schools can be one of the first places that children are exposed to gardening. Nineteen per cent of all U.S.households were aware of gardening activities for students at their local school while 72 per cent of people said they did know of gardening activities at their local school.

Fifty-five per cent of households believed that gardening activities should be implemented in schools whenever possible and 20 per cent felt that these activities should be implemented in every school. Twenty-two per cent said that gardening should be offered as an extracurricular activity, 20 per cent said it should be set-up in school only when it is convenient and only a select few (three per cent) felt that gardening activities should not be offered at school.

Why Garden With Kids?
The last area the study explored were the attitudes and opinions that U.S. households had about gardening with kids. Here's what the NGA found: