How common is home vegetable gardening? Who's doing it? Why? And what is everybody raising?
In 1971, 25 million households, or 39% of American families, were raising some of their own vegetables. That number quickly rose until, by 1981, 38 million — 47%, or almost half — of our nation's households were gardening. Then, however, the numbers started to drop. By 1985, 33 million households — 37% — were growing vegetables.
What happened?
To put the answer simply, when the economy is bad, people tend to garden. In 1981, interest rates were 20%, the nation was stuck in a deepening recession, and people were growing food to save money. (And gardeners do save money — spending about $32 a year per family while harvesting $356 worth of produce!) Today, the financial climate appears rosier, so the pressure to garden has slacked off.
The number one reason people garden today (30% gave this answer) is home vegetable gardening for fresh vegetables, and number two (25%) is to get better-tasting, higher-quality food. Even gardening for fun (22%) beats out saving money (15%) as a motive.
The top gardening problem? Insects (35% of those polled mentioned it). That's followed by weeds (23%) and water shortages (16%).
The most popular homegrown vegetable? The winner — far and away — the tomato! It's followed, in order, by peppers, green beans, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, summer squash, carrots, radishes, and — way down in tenth place — sweet corn.
What about non gardeners? Why aren't they growing crops? The leading reason people don't garden (35% of respondents) is lack of space. Lack of time comes in second (28%), and then in third place (a mere 13%) comes the opinion that it's too much work.
