Top reasons that gardeners cite: They enjoy being outside more; like growing things; and want to produce their own fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs.
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As we’re about to enter a new year, it’s a good time to take a moment and consider all the wonderful beauty, colour, fragrance and flavours that our gardens will bring. It’s also interesting to get a sense of how the demographics of the gardening community have changed and how their interests have evolved.
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Axiom, an American marketing company, has for many years produced an outlook study of American gardening demographics to provide an understanding of who is gardening, their level of interest, their likelihood of continuing, where they get their gardening information and where they shop.
Although it’s an American study, after being involved in the American gardening industry for so long, there are many similarities in gardening trends between the Canadian and the American gardening communities.
Many folks are unaware of the various millennial demographics and how each age group differs in their gardening perspectives. Here are the age-related groups: the Boomers with an age range of 59 to 78; generation X, ages 42 to 58; generation Y, ages 27 to 41; and the youngest generation, generation Z, ages 19 to 26. Of all the age groups that gardened, 21.7 per cent were Boomers; 37 per cent were generation X; 32 per cent were generation Y and 8.6 per cent were generation Z.
Axiom’s executive summary had a few interesting tidbits. All respondents spent more time gardening in 2024 than in 2023, but less time than in 2022. The COVID-19 years might have been a factor in this fluctuation, but it’s encouraging to see that the numbers are up this year.
The top three reasons were: they enjoy being outside more, like growing things, and want to produce their own fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs. It is interesting that time was the No. 1 barrier preventing them from gardening more, as well as working longer hours and poor weather.
As for the coming year, survey respondents indicated that they were looking forward to allocating more time for gardening. Generation Z and generation Y were the top two groups expecting to spend more time gardening. The main goals that folks wanted to accomplish were improving their landscape’s curb appeal, creating more food gardens and adding outdoor lighting.
Overall, 55.9 per cent of the respondents were planning to plant more and to expand their gardens in 2025. Of all those surveyed, 74.1 per cent felt they had been very successful in their 2024 gardening pursuits, and 38.8 per cent indicated they wanted more blooms, more fruits and more vegetables. I found it interesting that a greater number of males were spending time in their gardens this past year.
As for garden information, it was not surprising that websites, particularly YouTube at 38.5 per cent, followed by Facebook at 18.4 per cent, Instagram at 12.2 per cent and Pinterest at 11.8 per cent, were some of the top sources of gardening information. It was equally interesting to learn that U.S. independent garden stores, at 25.7 per cent, were the most popular source of garden information, followed closely by Home Depot at 23.7 per cent. Box stores, particularly Home Depot, are dominant in the U.S. market, but in Canada, independent garden stores are perhaps still stronger as a source of gardening information and plants. However, it does demonstrate the trend of box store growth in gardening circles.
Of the folks who participated in the survey, 51 per cent were suburbanites, 27.6 per cent city dwellers, 14.8 per cent lived in rural communities and 6.6 per cent were from small towns.
Although this was simply a survey, as an indicator, it documents a healthy picture of the current interest and the ongoing benefits of gardening, and it’s great to see the diversity of the demographics engaged in gardening.
It has been a pleasure sharing gardening with you this past year, and I would like to wish you all a great new year ahead.