Speech By George Ball

**Jeff Ball j*@usol.com**

Suzie McCoy sent out a copy of the talk given by George Ball (no  
relation), owner of Burpee, at the garden writers meeting at the  
Philly Flower Show.  I was disappointed.  I truly believe his  
statistic that gardeners start in their mid-forties and garden thru  
the sixties.,

My problem with his talk was that it seemed like he was going to  
convince us that the Boomers were going to start gardening.  My  
observations are that the Boomers have gone thru their forties and  
did not pick up on gardening.  The Why is conjecture of course, but  
George offered one reason and that is there are many too many more  
very interesting activities to pursue than there were twenty years  
ago.  Nancy and I have chatted over the topic of "the state of  
gardening in the U.S." and generally concede that the industry is on  
a downswing and gardening is on a downswing.  Neither of us see much  
evidence of a reversal of that trend.  We don't like it, but we are  
having to face up to the fact that the opportunities for garden  
communicators are changing, and in many instances becoming more  
limited.  We look at the MacMansions that have been built in the  
Detroit area over the last ten years and there is usually very little  
land on which to have a garden.  We live in a very rural area of  
south central Michigan where agriculture was domanent and is now  
receding.  We see all these double wide factory homes being set on  
five acres previously filled with corn.  The older farm houses in the  
area almost always have a garden.  We see few gardens around the new  
homes where there is plenty of space.  We are seeing a swing away  
from starting one's own seed to buying containers already planted;  
that is not gardening, it is decorating.

It's clear from his talk that George himself is crazy about  
gardening.  I don't think he showed that the Boomers have any  
interest in gardening.

Jeff Ball 
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