Home gardening takes root in weakening economy

Tag : agricultural hardware

Anticipating the winter seed catalogs like a child waits forChristmas, gardeners  an increasing number of them first-timers dream about vegetable varieties they have yet to grow.
Agricultural experts and sales numbers indicate there's a renewedinterest in home gardening.
David Cook, the University of Tennessee Extension agent inNashville said the reasons vary and, in some cases, may overlap.
Cook said the popularity of television gardening and cooking showshelps propel the interest as do people moving from northern statesinto a longer growing season.
"Food safety is also an issue, with many people asking aboutorganic gardening," Cook said and offered another enticement. "Itseems like everything is pricey these days. Food is."
The agent also rattled off the enjoyment of an outdoor activity,exercise and sharing produce with neighbors as reasons peoplegarden.
And he's noticed a change in the telephone calls he gets  youngervoices.
"A lot of those of first-time gardeners, and they're younger inage," Cook said, saying he receives 3,000 to 4,000 calls per year. Garden supplies sales up
The growing interest in growing is good news for the companies thatsell to gardeners.
In Fulton, Ky., the Ferry-Morse Seed Co. is enjoying a harvest of adifferent kind.
"This year just exploded in our vegetable line," said John Hamrick,vice president of sales and marketing of the company, who saidsales increased by about 30 percent.
Hamrick said there has been a steady increase over the last fewyears in Ferry-Morse's certified organic products.
There have also been brisk sales of gardening products such as petpots, growing media and fertilizer.
The more expensive hardware has been selling, too.
In Carthage, Cindy Cook, outdoor equipment manager at retailer D.T.McCall and Sons, said sales of garden tillers were "tremendous"this summer  up 50 percent.
"I guess the economy forced them to," Cook said when asked why shethought more people were gardening.
Hamrick also sees the economy driving the desire to garden.
"We've heard economic conditions are unlikely to get better beforethe end of 2009," he said. "We're preparing for (2009 to be) asgood a year as we had this year."
Others see the economy as a factor, too.
Bruce Butterfield, research director of the National GardeningAssociation, said the group won't have statistics on the 2008 homegarden crop until the end of the year.
But Butterfield said, based on the association's monitoring ofgardening trends over the past quarter-century, uncertain economictimes prompt more home gardening.
The nonprofit group's 2007 statistics showed 22 percent of allhouseholds in the country put in a garden  about 25 million ofthem.
While the $1.4 billion they spent on gardening was up 20 percentfrom 2006, the number of households did not increase. Spending perhousehold did  by 10 dollars to an average of $58. Growing good food
Still, he said the reason most people garden is to get the foodthey crave.
"The main reason people give is better tasting, better qualityfood, he said."
A packet of seeds contains the germ of more vegetables than anyonecould eat.
"Most people graze from the garden until they hit what I call the'glut stage,' " said Tammy Algood, chief marketing specialist forthe UT Extension.
Then, they turn to preserving their bounty, Algood said.
"They generally try freezing first, then drying and then canning,"Algood said.
Algood said there no longer are as many people who "grew up at theapron strings" of mothers and grandmothers who canned. But there isa publication that provides advice on preserving the garden harvestavailable at her agency's Web site.
She also cautioned to preserve vegetables correctly for safety andflavor alike, including blanching most vegetables before freezingthem.
Algood also said drying is a good way to preserve some gardenproduce. She recommends buying a dehydrator.
Algood said dehydrators are readily available from retailers andsell for as little as $50 with top models going for above $200.
To learn more go the University of Tennessee Extension service Website: www.utextension.utk.edu .