RE: Yardeners

**"* B* <j*@starband.net>**

"Yardeners" are indeed "home landscapers".  I do not try to even suggest
they become gardeners, because that word turns them off; they are afraid
of it.  My goal is to help the yardener/home landscaper be successful
taking care of the plants in their yard.  If some get really interested
and become gardeners, then God bless.  But if they end up maintaining an
attractive healthy home landscape, then that is a good thing.  
I have some marketing numbers that might be of interest.  The National
Gardening Assoc asserts that there are 60 million gardeners in the
country and it is the largest outdoor hobby in America.  That is
nonsense because they define "gardener" as anyone owning a single plant.

There are roughly 70 million homes in this country with property
attached that the home owner must care for.
About 10 million of those homeowners have someone else or a company care
of their property, a very large number in my view.
That gets us to the gardeners.  My definition of a "gardener" is someone
that consciously considers "gardening" to be their hobby.  It is a
pastime that is enjoyable and to be looked forward to.  Without going
into my rationale or sources ( ask me off list if you want) I have
concluded that there are about 4 to 5 million "serious gardeners", about
2 million "vegetable gardeners", and 5 to 6 million folks who have a
garden, think of themselves as a gardener, but it is not their
overweening passion that takes up all of their spare time.  That adds up
to about 13 million "gardeners" in this country.
That leaves something around 45 million homeowners who I call
"yardeners", and they can rightfully be called "Home Landscapers".
These are folks who do not consider themselves to be gardeners.  At the
same time, most of them care about how their landscape looks and are
willing to take some time to keep it looking good.  
I believe that 70% of the money spend in the entire consumer based lawn
and garden industry is spent by yardeners, not by gardeners.  That means
that roughly 60 to 70% of the people walking into a garden center or
into the gardening section of a big box, are yardeners.  I find that
most signs in those stores are written for gardeners and most labels on
lawn and garden products are written for gardeners.  
Yardeners do not buy gardening books nor read gardening columns because
those info sources don't speak to yardeners for the most part.
Yardeners get their information from friends who say they are gardeners,
staff at the garden center, local television news broadcasts, and
newspaper articles (as opposed to columns).  Yardeners for the most part
have money to spend on their landscape but feel they have little time to
spend taking care of it.  So they are looking for help in developing
"low maintenance" landscapes.  
Here is the best part - I am firmly convinced that if we can find a way
to truly communicate to that huge market of yardeners, they will spend
more money because they will have some confidence that they know what
they are buying and why.  I believe there could be a 20 to 30% increase
in Lawn and Garden revenue in the next five years coming from informed
yardeners.  Yardeners offer a valid market for information that is not
being addressed very much at the moment.  
Later,
Jeff Ball

-----Original Message-----
From: gardenwriters-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[g*@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Stephen
Lamphear
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 2:08 AM
To: Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum
Subject: Re: [GWL] Yardeners

Thank you CL for bringing some compassion to this thread.  Perhaps I
have not been writing/presenting long enough to perfect the level of
cynicism I've read in this forum.

Stephen
The Lazy Gardener
Robinson Newspaper Group
Seattle, WA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C.L. Fornari" <clfornari@mail.com>
To: "Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum"
<gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 6:42 PM
Subject: RE: [GWL] Yardeners

> I describe most of my radio audience as being "home-landscapers" not
gardeners.  They want to be successful in their yards, but
> are not particularly entranced by the process or by plants in general.

> I
think my job as a garden communicator is to help these
> home-landscapers to be successful, so that some day they might become
gardeners.  I aim, at the very least, to get them to "do
> no harm."  At best, I want them to be able to see the miracles that 
> are
happening in their landscape.   Be they gardeners or
> home-landscapers, my listeners/readers/audiences respond to concise
information, good humor and common sense.
>
> Most of their questions boil down to:" what went wrong" and "how can I

> be
successful with ___________ (fill in the blank)." Once in
> awhile someone will ask a question that stems not from their own
garden/landscape experiences, but from intellectual curiosity.
> I love these infrequent queries because I usually learn something too.

> C.L. Fornari www.gardenlady.com
>
>
> --
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