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National Passtime

While the National Gardening Association and most public relations people
love to tout gardening as the top outdoor national pastime, in fact it is
not and never has been.  NGA defines a gardener as anyone with a single
plant.  I define a gardener as someone for whom gardening of some kind is an
active hobby.  There are over 65 million households in this country with
property on which there might be a garden.  I calculate that something
between 6 and 10  million are in fact gardeners of one sort of another and
that includes the orchid growers living in apartments or condos.
Here is the logic.  Picture 60 million homes with property.  Ten percent is
6 million.  If you could drive down the suburban neighborhood and count one
garden among every 10 houses, that is 10%.  Some annuals planted along the
front of the foundation plantings is not a garden in my view.  I live in
rural Michigan and while I don't see many flower gardeners I see a vegetable
garden in about a one in ten ratio.
If there were 60 million gardeners as is touted on many fronts, then there
would be a serious garden in every single home in America; that is not the
fact.  I suspect there are more golfers, tennis players, and maybe even
hunters and fisher persons than there are gardeners in America.
Now does that mean we garden writers should fold up our tents and go home?
No way.  With maybe 10 million gardeners, and over 40 million yardeners with
properties to care for, there is plenty of work to be done.  I don't even
mind when the PR folks keep saying "gardening is the largest outdoor
activity in America".  White lies for a good cause.
I just don't think professional garden writers should delude themselves
about the size of their own market.
Later,

Jeff Ball

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