SEVIER COUNTY, TN - We have all seen the figures.  Job losses, more people on public assistance, food banks and pantries with seriously empty shelves and unable to keep up with the demand. We have also heard that several seed companies have had sales of vegetable seeds at unheard-of highs.  Many homeowners have expanded or even started a vegetable garden.  Some are referring to these as “recession gardens” (It was “Victory Gardens” during the world wars.)
 
The Garden Writers Association Foundation recently conducted a national study to gather data on growing edible gardens by both experienced and new gardeners. 
 
Over 41 million US households reported growing vegetables in 2009.  In addition, 19.5 million home gardeners had an herb garden and 16.5 million grew fruit last year.
 
Of those that grew edible crops in 2009, 92 percent had previous gardening experience.  One-third of these grew MORE edibles in 2009 than the previous year.  46 percent grew about the same amount and 19 percent grew less than in 2008.
 
There were 7.7 million home gardeners that were new to this growing trend of raising edible crops in 2009.
 
As far as future plans,
 
Most edible crop home gardeners (37 percent) report that they plan to increase their crops in 2010, 29 percent will produce about the same and only 1 percent will downsize for this year.  Some (15 percent) say they haven’t decided on any change of plans in their 2010 edible crop production.
 
When asked why they will increase or maintain their production of edible crops in 2010, the main reason was to supplement household food supply.  The most common reasons given for planning to plant less in 2010 were: lack of success in 2009 (14 percent), cost (13 percent), loss of interest (8 percent) and time involved (4 percent).
 
The “new-to-edible gardening” group reported receiving gardening information from these sources: 43 percent depend on friends, 29 percent use gardening websites, 22 percent rely on magazines and books.  The number of home gardeners raising vegetables is greatest in the South; the number of “first-time” edible crop gardeners is also highest in the South and lowest in the Northeast.

--Leo Lubke, Sevier County Master Gardeners