trends in gardening, 2010

[digitS']

You can look at this and decide what it is worth for you.

Garden Media Group - 4 page, pdf

Don't fall for all the ads, please. If "belt-tightening and down-sizing" is the major trend, I can't see how the very-first-thing that we are supposed to do - is BUY something!

But, this is the age of free media and the author has done some research and probably gotten a lot of the trends right. And, she has to make a living somehow.

What do you think about the trends in gardening, 2010?

Steve

 

[patandchickens]

What do you think about the trends in gardening, 2010?

Huh, primarily what I think is that it is just awful the degree of mercenary professionalism and energy invested in finding ways to pry people loose from their hard-earned money in our society. Sheesh. (I am not sheeshing *you*, Steve, I am sheeshing the article in particular and an economy hinging on out-of-control consumerism in general)

What the article says may certainly be true of the group of people who are the primary buyers of garden-related products.

I suspect however (HOPE, certainly!) that there is a world of difference between that demographic, and the demographic of those who ACTUALLY garden or will ACTUALLY get into doing so.

I would like to think that ACTUAL gardeners, existing or coming-into-the-fold, would not be particularly trend-driven at all, nor product-driven. And thus kind of irrelevant to the whole "sell ya things" industry that composes lists and invents trends

Just my cranky ol' opinion of course,

Pat

 

[bid]

Huh, primarily what I think is that it is just awful the degree of mercenary professionalism and energy invested in finding ways to pry people loose from their hard-earned money in our society.

P. T. Barnum would be proud. I think it's a product of increased interest, new money from new gardeners and the old monkey see monkey copy attitude from business. Can't blame them, money to be made lets get it while it's there.

 

[journey11]

I got a pretty good chuckle out of the tone of the article. It's only "trendy" if you live in the concrete jungle.

Thank God I'm a country girl!

 

[Hattie the Hen]

I agree with you about the gardening companies jumping on to certain trends but they are there to make money -- we should not be the MUGS who buy into all this over-priced rubbish. New gardeners need a little bit of gentle help & direction from us to point them in the right direction .......

I have been amazed just how quickly there has been a resurgence of interest in allotment vegetable gardening there has been in the UK over the last few years. Around 10 years ago their were many empty plots but now there are very long waiting lists. On these allotments are many old-timers who take great pleasure in helping the youngsters along & have benefitted themselves from trying out new trendy varieties of vegetables -- it's a two-way adventure.

Have a look at the links I have posted on:

http://www.theeasygarden.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=27452

You will see a lot of interesting photos within the links. I hope you enjoy them.

:rose Hattie :rose

 

[vfem]

I printed this up to read yesterday, I've only made it 2 pages in and just see the obvious push in the article right off the bat... they want EVERYONE everywhere to jump on a bandwagon. Its been the same old song for years now... tighten the belt, but in the process stop buying new technology for your office, and now buy new technology for your garden.

I know these are actual trends and you can't stop what they are saying, because... it is TRUE trends.

This is where we should be stepping in and showing interested people the ropes... the how-to's and the whys!

The problem I am seeing is, a trend of people flocking to this ideal, going to buy whatever they need to get started, not get the help they need... have a hard first year and QUIT!

Not the kind of movement that works... so its not a movement at all... it just is a 'TREND'. The seed/gardening companies are trying to cash in while they can... I have a feeling even they know it won't last... they are not trying to make these people customers for life.

P.s. - Thank you Hattie for the links... I've been digging through them slowly. Everytime I find your links I wonder off TEG and become lost in cyber space for hours reading!!!

 

[boggybranch]

VERY well put, v.

 

[ninnymary]

As a new veggie gardener that lives in a concrete jungle, I suppose I am part of the "new trend". My grandmother loved to grow her flowers and save her seeds. Was she part of the "new trend" back then? I don't think so. She was "green" before the movement began. She only used vinegar to clean and hung her clothes out on a line and never bought anything she didn't need.

As a child watching her garden and saving her seeds helped me to learn to be frugal and that you didn't need any fancy gadgets to garden. I suppose my age (mid 50's) and my income has something to do with the fact that I don't get suckered into buying things I don't need. It is true, as mentioned before, that we don't need all the commercial products out there to garden. All I need is the wonderful advise from you experienced gardeners, my compost, and my hard work. That to me doesn't cost much.

mary

 

[patandchickens]

As a new veggie gardener that lives in a concrete jungle, I suppose I am part of the "new trend"<snip>I don't get suckered into buying things I don't need. It is true, as mentioned before, that we don't need all the commercial products out there to garden. All I need is the wonderful advise from you experienced gardeners, my compost, and my hard work.

Thus proving that you are NOT part of any trend, merely someone who happens to have found gardening (and is becoming a gardener) at the same time that coincidentally a small pop-culture trend for garden stuff has also become fashionable. Seriously

The sad thing, to me, is that there seem to be a reasonable number of people out there who *might* (or might *have*, in the past) become actual gardeners -- except that our modern habit of figuring that everything comes in a catalog or store has diverted them into spending uncomfortable amounts of money on stuff that turns out not to be a magic wand after all. And they give up without having ever really found out what it's like.

I can't tell you how many people I've run into who say MOST SINCERELY that they just cannot afford to have a garden, or that they had one but it got so expensive without really doing anything much for them that they figured they were just not cut out for it and can't face trying again.

Whereas, IMHO, if you start out with few or no commercial products (other than a few, just a *few*, packets of seeds) and the assumption that what you need to acquire is not Stuff but rather PERSONAL EXPERIENCE... it is a lot easier to avoid discouragement and find enjoyment.

Unfortunately it is up to each of us on our own to learn (or not learn) to ignore and dismiss advertising and magazines and catalogs and storefronts... it's not like there is any much cultural support for helping a person figure that out.

Pat

 

[bid]

My grandmother loved to grow her flowers and save her seeds. Was she part of the "new trend" back then? I don't think so. She was "green" before the movement began. She only used vinegar to clean and hung her clothes out on a line and never bought anything she didn't need.
As a child watching her garden and saving her seeds helped me to learn to be frugal and that you didn't need any fancy gadgets to garden.

That's a very good point. My 2 grandmothers was very different but I can think of at least 2 things they shared; They both loved to garden and they didn't waste anything. The not wasting I think came from living through the "Great Depression". My parents had a very similar attitude about waste and spending. That got passed along to me because they had lived it. A bit off topic maybe, but 20 years ago I was cheap, now I am frugal. I haven't changed. The times and the terminology have.