Home Gardeners Growing Healthy Food
The results are in from the January 2009 Impact of Home and Community Gardening In America study, which was conducted by Harris Interactive for the National Gardening Association.
In their research, they contacted 2,559 households nationwide to determine how many home gardeners there are in America and what the impact of that might be.
In fact, they found that 7 million more households plan on growing plants for food, including fruits, vegetables, berries and herbs in 2009, compared to 2008. Thirty-seven percent of all US households are actively engaged in food production now.
Among active home gardeners, 11% say they’ll increase the amount and variety of vegetables they’re growing in 2010, as well as share more of their produce with others. About 10% say they’ll spend more time on their gardens and do more preserving this year.
Of the 21% of households who are beginning their first gardens, 11% say they’ll start by growing herbs, 10% say they’ll start with vegetable container gardening, 5% are beginning a full backyard vegetable garden and 4% will try their hand at berry growing.
Today’s home gardeners have been growing food for 12 years on average, and they spend about five hours per week on their gardens. Twenty percent of those surveyed say this is their first year growing plants, while 39% said they’ve been gardening for 1-5 years.
Some gardeners spend over 20 hours in their gardens each week, but the norm seems to be closer to 3-5 hours. Surprisingly, 43% of respondents said they spend less than two hours in their gardens.
An estimated 5 million households are “extremely” or “very” interested in having a garden plot in a community garden located near their homes. Is communal gardening the way of the future? The National Gardening Association seems to think so.
Many people believe that locally grown food can deliver safer, fresher and better quality produce.
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December 30th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
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