I read the survey, but it seems to me that the author is going into it with a preconception that there is negative stereotyping about the gardening habits of the X and Y'ers by the boomers. Yet nobody is going to go to the horse's mouth and ask them (us the Boomers and war babies) what they are? I own a greenhouse and nursery. I can tell you the gardening habits by demographic. I have to project sales a year ahead and deal with clientele across the generation gaps. With the kind of profit margins the green industry has, you'd better have your finger on it, or you don't last very long. I'm heading into my 21st year of my own business, and a few years in somebody else's. I can tell you this much, gardening (and what kind of gardening) goes in and out of style, and is very market and lifestyle driven. It has less to do with age than social trends. I have also been obliged to take economics in university and agricultural-specific marketing and economics. One may have an hypothesis they're trying to validate, but beware surveys where the author has already clung to a mindset and is just trying to prove it. ;-)

I filled out your survey. How many responses have you received? I did not answer the question #4 about income. I believe questions about income, finances, race and religion are not anyone's business except (by act of law)the Census Bureau. I hope you will amend question #4 to include a response: "Prefer not to say".

I spend 40 hours a week as a special order expeditor for a major home renovations company, usually using a computer or talking on the phone so when I get home I usually stop to check for any new growth, have dinner and then do some weeding, watering and fertilizing. I am always on the lookout for new and exciting nurseries and garden centres, and usually spend Firday afternoon and Saturday's on "perennial plant roadtrips.

I think that it might be useful to cover What's Most Important, and also to tell them what can safely be ignored until later, when the gardener is looking for new challenges. For example, after some years at this, after which I still more or less consider myself a newbie, I now have a small set of "do this much right or don't even bother" priorities: - Decent soil. That doesn't mean that the gardener needs to do a fancy soil test and measure elaborate mixtures of mineral dusts and soil amendments and put in just the right amount of fertilizer. In fact, those things, for a new gardener, are just scarey distractions. It means, to me, that the gardener should get his hands on something that he can use to easily improve his soil (in my case, an organic planting mix with bat guano and compost and other items), dig into the dirt, and mix the good stuff in until the texture becomes something that he can happily run his fingers through. My rule for soil is Make It Nice And Fluffy. That seems to be good enough. - A steady supply of water. Sure, this looks obvious, but people do so very, very frequently water too little, too shallow, and either too seldom or too often. Lots of them also aren't sold on mulch. - Planting "thoroughly" Digging holes deep enough, making the spacing at least approximately correct, unwinding or hacking up rootbound rootballs, firming in the soil, watering the plant in, pruning flowers off of those poor overblooming sixpack plants, and so on. None of this is really obvious when you start. - Select plants that like the conditions I ignore reality: I've planted roses in full shade. I've planted daphne in full sun. I've planted endless moisture-lovers in underwatered heat. It's almost impossible to get somebody like me to stop killing plants this way until they learn the lesson on their own, but it's still worthwhile to emphasize that matching the plant to the conditions _really matters a whole lot_. Yes, you want roses. If you absolutely insist on planting roses in the shade, well, fine, get _one_. But meanwhile, throw in some hostas and Japanese anemones so you have something green next year when the rose is covered in mildew. Unfortunately, this already looks like too much for two hours. :) But going on anyway, to what I think can be ignored until later: - All of those soil distractions that I mentioned above. - Insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and all that. They are, again, complicated, scarey, and weird. If you're starting out, and your plant just got eaten by a bug? Plant something else. - Powdered, pelletted, liquid, and generally smelly and scarey fertilizers. Just dig in the bat guano, or the steer manure, or whatever. - Fancy pruning rules. When you find out what survives the first season, then look up how to prune it. Burnet