In article , says...
In article , ShinyRed
wrote:

I?m new to this forum, but thought you might be interested that
gardening is more popular than ever, despite the fact that less and
less of us have gardens!

Unfortunately, that's a load of tosh. The UK garden market has been in
decline by value every year since 2001/2, ie since the highly
influential (like it or not) Ground Force TV programme was taken off
air.

For the actual picture, see
http://www.the-hta.org.uk/index.asp?...86&s_idno=1079

Surely how much we spend does not give a good indication of how much we
garden? At its basic level it cost virtually nothing to garden. I do
accept that the garden sector has been in decline but see that more from
the point of view that gardeners have wised up to the garden centres
trying to squeeze money out of them all the time, I think Ground force
missed an important point and know severall dissapointed families that
decided to give their neglected garden a makeover, most were quite
succesful but the programme never made it clear that the glass of bubbly
at the end was not the end, and in all cases these gardens now look as
bad or worse than before the money was spent for the simple reason that
the original garden was neglected because no one liked to garden in the
first place and was not about to start, they had no idea of the ongoing
care required for something to look nice all year.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

Hey guys

Thanks for all your responses, they've been great to read, it seems to be a really interesting issue.

We saw the increase in searches, and weren't sure if it was maybe partly the 'Ground Force' effect as Stan the Man said. Hopefully the people we've found taking it up as a hobby will keep their enthusiasm up - gardening needs an ongoing commitment as you say!

It's been great to see your thoughts on this.

Thanks

In reply to ShinyRed ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Hey guys

Thanks for all your responses, they've been great to read, it seems to
be a really interesting issue.

We saw the increase in searches, and weren't sure if it was maybe
partly the 'Ground Force' effect as Stan the Man said. Hopefully the
people we've found taking it up as a hobby will keep their enthusiasm
up - gardening needs an ongoing commitment as you say!

I think they will. Gardening is more addictive than fags, any day (with
apologies to Helene)

In article , Charlie
Pridham wrote:

In article , says...
In article , ShinyRed
wrote:

I?m new to this forum, but thought you might be interested that
gardening is more popular than ever, despite the fact that less and
less of us have gardens!

Unfortunately, that's a load of tosh. The UK garden market has been in
decline by value every year since 2001/2, ie since the highly
influential (like it or not) Ground Force TV programme was taken off
air.

For the actual picture, see
http://www.the-hta.org.uk/index.asp?...86&s_idno=1079

Surely how much we spend does not give a good indication of how much we
garden?

Can you suggest a better indicator? Don't be misled by your personal
experience - the number of gardeners who don't buy seeds or plants
because they collect their own or take cuttings is a tiny fraction of
the total.

In article , says...
In article , Charlie
Pridham wrote:

In article , says...
In article , ShinyRed
wrote:

I?m new to this forum, but thought you might be interested that
gardening is more popular than ever, despite the fact that less and
less of us have gardens!

Unfortunately, that's a load of tosh. The UK garden market has been in
decline by value every year since 2001/2, ie since the highly
influential (like it or not) Ground Force TV programme was taken off
air.

For the actual picture, see
http://www.the-hta.org.uk/index.asp?...86&s_idno=1079

Surely how much we spend does not give a good indication of how much we
garden?

Can you suggest a better indicator? Don't be misled by your personal
experience - the number of gardeners who don't buy seeds or plants
because they collect their own or take cuttings is a tiny fraction of
the total.

Thats the point, sales of plants have been there highest for 15 years
this year, its all the other stuff people are not buying.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

In article , Charlie
Pridham wrote:

In article , says...
In article , Charlie
Pridham wrote:

In article , says...
In article , ShinyRed
wrote:

I?m new to this forum, but thought you might be interested that
gardening is more popular than ever, despite the fact that less and
less of us have gardens!

Unfortunately, that's a load of tosh. The UK garden market has been in
decline by value every year since 2001/2, ie since the highly
influential (like it or not) Ground Force TV programme was taken off
air.

For the actual picture, see
http://www.the-hta.org.uk/index.asp?...86&s_idno=1079

Surely how much we spend does not give a good indication of how much we
garden?

Can you suggest a better indicator? Don't be misled by your personal
experience - the number of gardeners who don't buy seeds or plants
because they collect their own or take cuttings is a tiny fraction of
the total.

Thats the point, sales of plants have been there highest for 15 years
this year, its all the other stuff people are not buying.

The data I pointed to obviously doesn't include the current year so
perhaps there will be an upturn when all the figures are in. Until
then, everything is anecdotal. I agree that this year has been
exceptional in several ways including:

- Lifting of widespread hosepipe bans
- Record April weather
- Refurbishment of flooded gardens

However, the historical data I pointed to does separate out plant sales
so even based on that measurement, gardening has declined since 2001/2.