We need credible and current statistics for people that are currently
not gardening. We classified these people as ?Gardener Wanna Bes?. We
have statistical information on gardeners from the 2002 National
Garden Survey & Kip Creel Independent Gardening consultant. We also
have information on garden trends, what people are buying and where
they are making their purchasing. But we have not been able to find
information confirming why, and how many, people do not garden.

We are ASSUMING that people do not garden for the following 5 reasons.
Your mission impossible is to obtain for us powerful, credible
statistics or quantifiable numbers that support our following
assumptions :

·	What number or percentage of people do not garden because of their
housing situation ? they have no land?

·	What number or percentage of people do not garden because they lack
experience/skill and have no confidence?

·	What number or percentage of people do not garden because gardening
conditions are unappealing ? getting dirty, breaking fingernails,
sweating, bugs are a nuisance?

·	What number or percentage of people do not garden because of lack of
time? ( Or: If gardening would require only a minimal amount of time,
how many people would begin to garden?)

·	What number or percentage of people do not garden because of changed
life circumstances, i.e. health, new home location, etc?

Bonus: you will get a very high tip if you can fill in the following
quote with real numbers from a credible source: ?for every gardener,
there are ?x? number of Wanna be gardeners.?

< Numbers of people not gardening.

According to the National Garden Association, 64% of all Americans
Garden. This means that 36 percent are not gardening.
http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20020213_trendtalk.htm

According to the National Garden Association, 85 million households
(79%) participated in indoor and outdoor gardening in 2002. Therefore
21% of households are not gardening.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/4/prweb63353.htm

---------------------------------------
Barriers to gardening.

The American Nursery & Landscape Association found that limited time
is the single major factor preventing people from gardening (60.5%).
Health and physical ability is second at 9.8%. The main motivations
for gardening are:
Enjoying watching things grow.
Relieving stress and relaxing.
Adding colour to a yard.
Contributing positively to the environment.
http://www.anla.org/applications/PressReleases/releases/0034.htm

According to Anna Ball, chairman of Ball Horticultural, the number one
reason that people don?t garden more is lack of time (60%).
http://gardening.about.com/cs/ideas/a/aa010203a.htm

Childhood experiences appear to affect the likelihood of an adult
becoming a gardener. This Australian study found that 99 percent of
gardeners learnt about gardening as children and 73 percent of
non-gardeners learnt nothing about gardening as children. 86 percent
of those who grew up with a garden are gardeners now and only 66
percent of those who grew up without a garden are gardeners now.
(Source: The Consumer, the Environment and the Nursery Retailer, Bell
Dignam Pty Ltd, 1997)
http://www.ngia.com.au/np/2000No14/00-14.html

Gardening products market
According to Organic Gardening Magazine, 78 million US adults
participate in gardening. According to Mintel 95% of their respondents
had a garden space. This suggests that 5% are prevented from gardening
due to lack of a suitable space.
http://www.marketresearch.com/researchindex/844712.html

Reasons for not continuing with a leisure activity.
Less leisure time ? 32%
Family ties ? 25%
Lost interest ? 22%
Health reasons ? 21%
Less money ? 20%.
http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/consultation/citizenspanel/survey-five/citizens-panel5-1.htm

A study of leisure activities in New Hampshire found constraints were
lack of time, money, skills and/or equipment.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:mo-zmIOc3TAJ:www.state.nh.us/osp/recreation/APPENDIXA.pdf+%22lack+of+time%22+gardening+reasons&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Reasons for lack of gardens in schools.
78.6% - teacher overload
71.4% - lack of space
57.1% - lack of a coordinator
39.3% - lack of gardening experience and maintenance problems.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:O6YdBey0ROYJ:departments.oxy.edu/uepi/cfj/resources/place_to_grow.pdf+%22would+like+to+garden%22+%22lack+of+time%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

-----------------------------------------------------
Wannabe gardeners.

There have been a number of surveys carried out that gauge the level
of interest in gardening.

A survey carried out to gauge the interest in a beginners gardening
program found that 47% of survey respondents indicated that they were
very interested and 47% reported that they were ?somewhat? interested.
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/marion/web/impact03/citygdn.html

A survey of Seattle and Purveyor residents found that among those who
have yards, 41% are very interested and 35% are somewhat interested in
gardening. 71% have yards.
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:oKZYNCQhz2QJ:www.cityofseattle.net/util/RESCONS/papers/Res_Eval_2001_Vol3.pdf+%22interest+in+gardening%22+respondents&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

A survey carried out by Mori, the largest independent research company
in the UK questioned 1885 adults which included 1,224 active
gardeners.  The final results were weighted to the Great Britain
population. It found that of those who do not have a garden, 6 percent
are interested in gardening. For those that have a garden, 64% are
interested in gardening. Of those that have a garden, 19% are not
interested in gardening. Those that do not have a garden and are not
interested in gardening accounted for 10%.
http://www.mori.com/polls/2003/rhs.shtml

This study shows that 6 out 10 people who don?t own a garden are
wannabe gardeners. For these wannabe gardeners it would appear that
their major constraint is not having a garden.

According to a 2001 survey by internet research firm @plan Inc. 33% of
all internet users are interested in gardening.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2001/mar01/03-23NewVersionPR.asp

A study in Louisiana found that 20 percent more households would be
suitable to home gardening.
http://www.lsuagcenter.com/Communications/news/NewsArchive/7nws0225.htm

A 1995 survey of Virginia teachers found 88%  in favour of
incorporating gardening into the classroom.
http://www.hort.vt.edu/HORT6004/network/schoolgardens.html

-------------------------------------------
Least liked gardening jobs.
According to the Harris Interactive Survey the least liked garden jobs
are weeding (36%), edging and sweeping driveways, walkways and patios
(22%), cutting grass (22%). Last on the list is tilling soil for new
planting.
http://appraiserscafe.com/article.php?sid=2633

A study by Which! Found that the least liked gardening jobs were
mowing, pruning and weeding. The main reasons why people employed
gardeners was poor health, lack of time or simply not wanting to do
gardening chores.
http://www.which.net/media/pr/aug99/gardening/help.html


<Additional links:>

<Profile of an American gardener.>
<http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/amergard.htm>

<A reseach report by the International Furnishings and Design
Association found that 91% of respondents foresee more low maintenance
landscaping as likely or very likely. 69% see a movement towards more
functional gardening. 53% expect people will spend more time
gardening. 52% believe less space will be given to lawns as bigger
homes take up land.>
<http://www.ifda.com/news_03-07-2001_1.php>

<Home owners and their choice of information sources for gardening.>
<http://www.joe.org/joe/2002june/a7.html>

<Report - Gardening US 2003>
<http://reports.mintel.com/sinatra/mintel/new/report/repcode=0158&anchor=a11/doc/48801463&repcode=0158>


<Search strategy:>

<gardening respondents>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=gardening+respondents>

< gardening respondents -uk ?canada
://www.google.com/search?as_q=gardening+respondents&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=uk+canada&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images>

<health gardening respondents -uk -canada ?Slovak>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&as_qdr=all&q=health+gardening+respondents+-uk+-canada+-slovak&btnG=Google+Search>


<"lack of time" gardening reasons>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22lack+of+time%22+gardening+reasons&spell=1>

<"an interest in gardening">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22an+interest+in+gardening%22>


<Hope this helps.>

---

Request for Answer Clarification by deeper-ga on 14 Jan 2004 16:37 PST

Hello Belinda!

Thanks for providing such an extensive list of gardening reports. 

There are two of us working on this research, looking for different information. 

I'm looking at the number of wanna-be gardeners out there. I noticed
in your report the following statistic:
"This study shows that 6 out 10 people who don?t own a garden are
wannabe gardeners. For these wannabe gardeners it would appear that
their major constraint is not having a garden."

It appears to be taken from the following study:
A survey carried out by Mori, the largest independent research company
in the UK questioned 1885 adults which included 1,224 active
gardeners.  The final results were weighted to the Great Britain
population. It found that of those who do not have a garden, 6 percent
are interested in gardening. 
http://www.mori.com/polls/2003/rhs.shtml

Is the first quote (6 out of 10 people are wanna-bes) your
interpretation of the Mori study? Or was it taken from a different
study?

If it was taken from the Mori study it appears that 6 out of 100 are
wanna-be gardeners.

Could you please clarify and let me know which statistic is correct
(or whether both are correct).

Thanks again for help.

-JoAnne

---

Clarification of Answer by belindalevez-ga on 15 Jan 2004 03:35 PST

<It is taken from the Mori survey and it should read six out a hundred.>

<Hope this helps.>

BAsic information uncovered but the depth of the question was not
fully explored to my satisfaction. I realize the difficulty of the
research. Combining stats from two different sources often caused
confusion and incorrrect assumptions.