May 22, 2007

GWA Releases Late Spring Gardening Trends Research ReportSource: Garden Writers Association

The Garden Writers Association (GWA) Foundation has released its 2007 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report. This new study contains some very interesting information on this year’s consumer gardening attitudes and expectations for the current spring months.

Here are some of the findings in the report:

• Better mental health, nutrition or fitness is the primary reason 31 percent of households garden.
• The two leading additions households plan to make to their gardens this spring are more perennials (38 percent) and more vegetables (34 percent). Thirty-one percent of households plan on adding more annuals.
• The number of consumers planning to increase their lawn area dropped from 16 percent last year to nine percent this year, while the number planning to decrease their lawn areas rose slightly from nine percent in 2006 to 10 percent in 2007.
• More households plan to use weed control this spring (39 percent in 2006 versus 47 percent in 2007) while plans for insect control remains the same at 24 percent.
• The most significant change in spring garden preparation is the increase in consumer plans to “Fertilize Only,” which rose from 19 percent in 2006 to 31 percent this year.
• This spring and summer, 27 percent of households plan to prepare their garden areas with store-bought soil mixes.

For more information on the 2007 Late Spring Gardening Trends Research Report, go to www.gardenwriters.org or contact the GWA at (703) 257-1032 or [email protected].