Where is it Trudy?

I can't find it.

Doh!

Looks like I didn't put the link in (even though I thought I had--eek!)

I need MUCHMORECOFFEE!!1!

Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Shortcuts

That's a lovely article!

I think one of the reasons fewer people are gardening is because people have no yard to speak up. They go out once a week and mow a green postage stamp! =x

Loved the article. The "cheap" soil made me cringe though. Hopefully it will get people to come look? Congrats!
Monica

Cheap doens't have to mean low quality. When I say cheap I mean cost per pound/quart, not reduced quality. I always tell folks to buy the largest bags or bales they can find and that makes it economical.

WOW what a really nice article, I sure hope it will help to get people more interested in gardening..with the costs of everything go up, I would think MORE people would get into growing their food..

I know I have been telling lots of people how to wintersow..and I am really enjoying it !

So glad people are becoming more and more aware of your site Trudi !

Nice! Gardening on the decline? Ask our newbies.

GO Trudi!!!!!!!

Bakemom,

Apparently they think gardening is on the decline because they are asking the wrong people. A lot of people want instantaneous results (I admit I can be that way also). Gardening is a hobby or a way of life that requires patience. Since we moved into our house two years ago, I have ripped out about a quarter of the grass and eliminated all the bushes that were here originally. I had to, they were diseased and rotted due to neglect. But I pretty much had a clean slate as it was just all lawn. This stuff takes time.

And with the economy going the way it is, maybe more people will come back to gardening to relax and ease their minds and just slow down.

(Time to get off my soapbox)

I thought it was a great article!!! Go Glad to see TRUDI in it.
I can't believe that gardening is on the decline!!! It is such a wonderful hobby!!! i just live for spring, just can't wait to get out in the sun and in the dirt!!!!

That was a great artical,every one i know gardenes,where is the decline?

When spring time is here,you will not find me in the house all the rest of the season,i am out from sun up to sun set.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, just the thought of dirt makes me smile.

Nice article! : ) Thanks for sharing it Trudi. Maybe sales at the garden centers are down because so many of us are winter sowing.

Very nice article! I particularly love this line:

"She lays out the fundamentals in delightfully plain English"

Linda

What a great article.

Regarding whether gardening is on the decline, I don't think dollars spent is an accurate indicator! If people spend fewer dollars at restaurants, does that mean eating is on the decline? Probably not. Dollars spent on a pastime does not equate to how many people do it, or their level of involvement. In fact, that decline may be because all us wintersowers are only spending a tenth of what we used to spend at the garden center!

I agree with you Stage. Add to that the big box retailers that churn out common basic landscape plants on the cheap. This puts the higher priced, but in many cases, better quality specialty places at a disadvantage and showing significantly lower sales.

So, equal or even greater quantity, but lower priced more common nurserystock instead of the more specialized stock.

I don't know about most of the country, but I have noticed a decline where I am locally. (Of course, I don't call planting a row of taxus in front of a house "gardening" but I digress). In my area of the neighborhood, I've spotted 2 houses who really have gardens besides mine. One woman actually paved over her little porch island of dirt!! I couldn't believe it! I fill mine with Caladiums. =x

Down the street a lady has a beautifully tended area of rododendrons and spring blooming bulbs and transitions nicely to summer with rows of liriope and impatiens. Across from her, the plastic plants stuck in the ground around a mangled forsythia don't change. (The forsythia never blooms because they mangle it in summer.)

Behind me, spring is for peony, summer blossoms with gladiolus and hollyhocks. Everyone else has a barely surviving lawn.

Among my friends are the too busy, too poor, too tired, too frustrated, and too confused gardeners. When they try to garden, they buy big coffee table books about landscaping. After biting off more than they can chew, they melt in the summer and leave the garden to the weeds. April's freeze last year killed one of my friend's desire completely. (Though she wants me to prune her trees tomorrow), After losing all her indoor grown toms, she said, "I can't garden. Whatever I plant dies. I don't have time to waste on it."

I remember driving down a new subdivision and being amazed to see how many flowers were sprouting in one persons yard. Soon though, it was gone. I asked about it. The lady said that the homeowner's association limits gardens to the rear.

So in my experience what the article says is true. It's not likely to be true everywhere. (After all, I've seen gorgeous gardens in the most down trailer parks. I saw a trailer covered in purple flowers of Jackmanii and White Sweet autumn. The guy had strung fishing line over it. It sounds weird but under the porch purple flowers hang in your face. It's awesome.) But I'm afraid that for too many people gardening is a foregone past time.

Very nice! Thanks again Trudi.
George

ClumsyG...Admittedly, our neighborhood is starting to go down hill. It's depressing. There are a couple hundred houses in my neighborhood and there are less than 5, including myself, that bother with anything more than the popular annuals. Many houses don't even have shrubs and one had a huge tree limb (think half the tree) lying in their front yard for over a month.

We plan to move within 2 years and I want out of a subdivision and onto a small patch of land.

Most of my neighborhood has given up to the bunnies. West Nile WIPED OUT most of the crows and there arent enough predators to keep the bunnies on their toes and off their backs. hee!

Ive said it before, my neighbors ideaof gardening is going to Target when the landscaoers come to mow the lawn.

Great article.

There is a house near where I take my walk - the entire front yard is a garden!
Even in the winter it is interesting to look at. And this time of year, I look it over every time I go past, looking forward to seeing the new growth, almost as much as I do at my own garden.

I keep hoping one day I will see the gardener outside, so I can tell her/him how much I enjoy their yard.

It makes all the other houses' front yards (lawn) look boring.

ellen

Thank you Trudi! Wonderful article. I am not sure how I missed that article! After all, I do live in MN.

I was actually at that class. Apparently the author was also there!

Thank you again!
Caarin

That is a nice article. I'm glad they give credit where due. Thanks, Trudi. If not for you my garden wouldn't be half as nice!

As for the decline in gardening thing. They measure that based on sales in big box stores. Well, I don't know about where you live but last year it was impossible to find plants in those stores around here. You could still buy pesticides but not six-packs. I asked in one place (Lowe's) and was told, "Oh, we can't stock the small plants anymore because it costs too much in personnel to keep them watered." Thanks for the honesty. No thanks for the attitude. Don't get me started about the backward "logic" of failing to offer a product and then drawing conclusions about the low sales of it.