Hi

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! So much so that Yell.com have refined Garden Centres as a specific key word search in their directory.

Do you think it’s part of the home improvement trend, are people valuing their gardens more, and spending more time in them?

(Hope it’s ok to post the link – thought you guys might be interested in seeing what comes up )

http://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAct...chType=advance

In article , ShinyRed says...

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! So much so that Yell.com have refined Garden
Centres as a specific key word search in their directory.

Do you think it?s part of the home improvement trend, are people
valuing their gardens more, and spending more time in them?


I'm sure people spend more money and/or time in gardens for a variety of
reasons. I can think of the following, in no particular order:

1. A place to relax and "get back to nature" - or as close as many urban
dwellers can get to nature at the end of a working day.

2. A place to raise quality vegetables, cheaply.

3. A chance to get away from the spouse!

4. Exercise.

5. A love of flowers and seeing beautiful gardens.

6. Some create gardens to attract and nurture wildlife.

7. I think some even have the garden "done" by someone else as a way of
keeping up with the Jones's - I know at least one family that fit this
category.

8. Add value to a property.

9. Somewhere for the kids to play and be outdoors but still under the
watchful eye of parents.

Any more reasons? I bet there are.
--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

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

Hi

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! So much so that Yell.com have refined Garden
Centres as a specific key word search in their directory.

Do you think it's part of the home improvement trend, are people
valuing their gardens more, and spending more time in them?

(Hope it's ok to post the link - thought you guys might be interested
in seeing what comes up )

http://tinyurl.com/yqza34

The trend I have noticed in Surrey, where I spend far too much of my spare
time, is that people build houses in their gardens. They then sell these as
a "pension", and retain the original house, less its garden.

It is not a trend that I like to see.

I was thinking of starting a magazine called "House In Garden". Do you think
it will catch on?

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

Any more reasons? I bet there are.

My main reason is that I like to plant a seed and see it turn into a plant.
Simple, but there's else quite nothing like it.

In article , Uncle Marvo says...
In reply to ShinyRed ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Hi

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! So much so that Yell.com have refined Garden
Centres as a specific key word search in their directory.

Do you think it's part of the home improvement trend, are people
valuing their gardens more, and spending more time in them?

(Hope it's ok to post the link - thought you guys might be interested
in seeing what comes up )

http://tinyurl.com/yqza34

The trend I have noticed in Surrey, where I spend far too much of my spare
time, is that people build houses in their gardens. They then sell these as
a "pension", and retain the original house, less its garden.

It is not a trend that I like to see.

I was thinking of starting a magazine called "House In Garden". Do you think
it will catch on?



That trend is standard across the UK. It is the one main reason we left
to come to France. I believe the catchphrase is "affordable space". We
did try to find a property in the UK that had a big garden that fitted
our budget but surprisingly the estate agents and online sites in the UK
just can't handle "big garden" as a criterion.

Rightmove and similar web sites were complete rubbish for finding
anything suitable. We spoke to a number of estate agents giving them our
criterion but the common reply was that "what may be a big garden to one
person may be a small garden to another".

One estate agent said they had the perfect property for us and showed us
a picture (the house was of secondary interest to the garden). The photo
showed a lovely big garden, so we went along for a viewing. We didn't
even ring the doorbell. Looking over the fence the photo had clearly
been taken with a special lens and made the garden look ten times bigger
than it actually was.

Finding a suitable property here in France was a doddle. The internal
area of houses and total property area including land is always part of
the standard specification. Why don't estate agents do this in the UK?

--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

In article , Uncle Marvo says...
In reply to David in Normandy ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

Any more reasons? I bet there are.

My main reason is that I like to plant a seed and see it turn into a plant.
Simple, but there's else quite nothing like it.




I agree. I think that is where I got the gardening bug from as a child.
I planted some acorns in plant pots and was thrilled when they came up.
I nurtured them and potted them on to bigger pots until eventually they
were planted in the ground. One is still there and is around 30 feet
tall now.

--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

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

[snip]

Finding a suitable property here in France was a doddle. The internal
area of houses and total property area including land is always part
of the standard specification. Why don't estate agents do this in the
UK?

Hmm. I think the only person who would argue with the real reason would be
an Estate Agent.

I don't think we have one of those in stock.

[thinks about posting one of Marvo's story links; bites tongue - no, not
worth the hassle I'd get]

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...
In article , ShinyRed says...

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! So much so that Yell.com have refined Garden
Centres as a specific key word search in their directory.

Do you think it?s part of the home improvement trend, are people
valuing their gardens more, and spending more time in them?


I'm sure people spend more money and/or time in gardens for a variety of
reasons. I can think of the following, in no particular order:

1. A place to relax and "get back to nature" - or as close as many urban
dwellers can get to nature at the end of a working day.

2. A place to raise quality vegetables, cheaply.

3. A chance to get away from the spouse!

4. Exercise.

5. A love of flowers and seeing beautiful gardens.

6. Some create gardens to attract and nurture wildlife.

7. I think some even have the garden "done" by someone else as a way of
keeping up with the Jones's - I know at least one family that fit this
category.

8. Add value to a property.

9. Somewhere for the kids to play and be outdoors but still under the
watchful eye of parents.

Any more reasons? I bet there are.
--
David in Normandy.
(The free MicroPlanet Gravity newsreader is great for eliminating
rubbish and cross-posts)

Well AFAIK gardening is a hobby for the slightly more mature person and as
we are all living longer it follows that there will be more gardeners:-)

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...
In article , ShinyRed says...


I'm sure people spend more money and/or time in gardens for a variety of
reasons. I can think of the following, in no particular order:

In my case it's for:

2. A place to raise quality vegetables, cheaply.


9. Somewhere for the kids to play and be outdoors but still under the
watchful eye of parents.

In the past that was true.

Any more reasons? I bet there are.

In our back garden:

Somewhere to raise the hens

Somewhere to eat.

Somewhere to cook bread.

Somewhere to try out things (such as tents) which we're making.

Somewhere secure to put the scooter when we go away.

In the front garden:

Somewhere to keep the caravan.

Mary
Mary

In article ,
David in Normandy wrote:


snip

That trend is standard across the UK. It is the one main reason we left
to come to France. I believe the catchphrase is "affordable space". We
did try to find a property in the UK that had a big garden that fitted
our budget but surprisingly the estate agents and online sites in the UK
just can't handle "big garden" as a criterion.

Rightmove and similar web sites were complete rubbish for finding
anything suitable. We spoke to a number of estate agents giving them our
criterion but the common reply was that "what may be a big garden to one
person may be a small garden to another".
snip

Finding a suitable property here in France was a doddle. The internal
area of houses and total property area including land is always part of
the standard specification. Why don't estate agents do this in the UK?

The innumeracy of the British and particularly their estate agents
always amazes me. No-one here ever seems to know how big their
gardens are in square feet, square metres, roods, acres or hectares
or anything else.
The same is true with houses. "Four bedrooms" is as much as you ever
get. "Four big bedrooms or four small bedrooms?" Ah "what may be a big
bedroom to one person may be a small bedroom to another".

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

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

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.

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 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