Though exact numbers are still being crunched, a Scotts Miracle-Gro survey revealed that during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, 55% of all U.S. adults spent time outdoors gardening and caring for their lawns, and another 20% were seriously contemplating doing the same. Bonnie Plants estimated that at least 20 million first-time gardeners picked up the hobby last year, and more were expected to start this year.
According to an estimate from Bonnie Plants, 20 million Americans tried gardening for the first time last year. (contributed)
The reasons people turned to gardening in 2020 were diverse. Some were interested in creating victory gardens to grow and share food. Others wanted a distraction during lockdown. Others wanted to improve the habitat of their yards and outdoor spaces for themselves and for wildlife.
Whatever the reasons, as more and more people picked up the gardening game, the demand for gardening resources also increased, which created a vegetable seed shortage that reached toilet paper-hoarding proportions. But the most valuable resource, especially for first-time gardeners, was access to gardening coaches, who were in abundant supply through organizations such as the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES).
In fact, ACES employees were inundated with questions about everything from growing vegetables to caring for the landscape, says Bethany O’Rear, a Birmingham-based regional ACES agent whose job focuses in part on home gardening issues. Auburn-based Kerry Smith, who coordinates the state’s Master Gardener program and ACES’ Home Grounds Team, had a similar experience, and they were both thrilled.
Smith and O’Rear are cheerleaders for the many physical and mental benefits of gardening—fresh air (and often fresh food), exercise and a break from life’s other stresses. It’s also a hobby anyone can pick up, regardless of physical limitations, access to land, past experience, age or other factors. “There are no barriers in gardening,” O’Rear says.
She is also a fan of gardening because it helps people reconnect to nature and to their food systems. “The more we can get back to our roots—no pun intended—the better,” she says. “Anything I can do to help bring that back, even if on a very small scale, and to get people gardening, that’s what I want to do.”
Read the complete article at www.alabamanewscenter.com.