LONG BEACH, Calif. — With the recession in
full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots — literally —
cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of
their food budget.
Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home
gardeners this year and mail-order companies report such a tremendous
demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as
onions, tomatoes and peppers.
"People's home grocery budget got absolutely shredded and now we've
seen just this dramatic increase in the demand for our vegetable seeds.
We're selling out," said George Ball, CEO of Burpee Seeds, the largest
mail-order seed company in the U.S. "I've never seen anything like it."
Gardening advocates, who have long struggled to get America grubby,
have dubbed the newly planted tracts "recession gardens" and hope to
shape the interest into a movement similar to the victory gardens of
World War II.
Those gardens, modeled after a White House patch planted by Eleanor
Roosevelt in 1943, were intended to inspire self-sufficiency, and at
their peak supplied 40 percent of the nation's fresh produce, said
Roger Doiron, founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International.
Doiron and several colleagues are petitioning President Obama to
plant a similar garden at the White House as part of his call for a
responsible, eco-friendly economic turnaround. Proponents have
collected 75,000 signatures on an online petition.
"It's really part of our history and it's part of the White House's
history," Doiron said. "When I found out why it had been done over the
course of history and I looked at where we are now, it makes sense
again."
But for many Americans, the appeal of backyard gardening isn't in its history — it's in the savings.
The National Gardening Association estimates that a well-maintained
vegetable garden yields a $500 average return per year. A study by
Burpee Seeds claims that $50 spent on gardening supplies can multiply
into $1,250 worth of produce annually.
Doiron spent nine months weighing and recording each vegetable he
pulled from his 1,600-square-foot garden outside Portland, Maine. After
counting the final winter leaves of Belgian endive, he found he had
saved about $2,150 by growing produce for his family of five instead of
buying it.
Adriana Martinez, an accountant who reduced her grocery bill to $40
a week by gardening, said there's peace of mind in knowing where her
food comes from. And she said the effort has fostered a sense of
community through a neighborhood veggie co-op.
"We're helping to feed each other and what better time than now?" Martinez said.
A new report by the National Gardening Association predicts a 19
percent increase in home gardening in 2009, based on spring seed sales
data and a telephone survey. One-fifth of respondents said they planned
to start a food garden this year and more than half said they already
were gardening to save on groceries.
Community gardens nationwide are also seeing a surge of interest.
The waiting list at the 312-plot Long Beach Community Garden has nearly
quadrupled — and no one is leaving, said Lonnie Brundage, who runs the
garden's membership list.
"They're growing for themselves, but you figure if they can use our
community garden year-round they can save $2,000 or $3,000 or $4,000 a
year," she said. "It doesn't take a lot for it to add up."
Seed companies say this renaissance has rescued their vegetable
business after years of drooping sales. Orders for vegetable seeds have
skyrocketed, while orders for ornamental flowers are flat or down, said
Richard Chamberlin, president of Harris Seeds in Rochester, N.Y.
Business there has increased 40 percent in the last year, with the
most growth among vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and kitchen
herbs that can thrive in small urban plots or patio containers, he
said. Harris Seeds recently had to reorder pepper and tomato seeds.
"I think if things were fine, you wouldn't see people doing this.
They're just too busy," Chamberlin said. "Gardening for most Americans
was a dirty word because it meant work and nobody wanted more work —
but that's changed."
Harris Seed's Web site now gets 40,000 hits a day.
Among larger companies, Burpee saw a 20 percent spike in sales in
the last year and started marketing a kit for first-time gardeners
called "The Money Garden." It has sold 15,000 in about two months, said
Ball.
A Web-based retailer called MasterGardening.com
is selling similar packages, and Park Seed of Greenwood, S.C., is
marketing a "Garden for Victory Seed Collection." Slogan: "Win the war
in your own backyard against high supermarket prices and nonlocal
produce!"
Cultivators with years of experience worry that home gardeners lured
by promises of big savings will burn out when they see the amount of
labor required to get dollars from their dirt. The average gardener
spends nearly five hours a week grubbing in the dirt and often contends
with failure early on, said Bruce Butterfield, a spokesman for The
National Gardening Association.
"The one thing you don't factor into it is the cost of your time and your labor," he said.
"But even if it's just a couple of tomato plants in a pot, that's worth the price of admission."