Gardening Trends for 2019
By Leonard Perry, PhD
E
ach year for the past couple decades, experts from the Garden Media Group — a marketing firm for the home and garden industry — identified key gardening trends for the coming season. For 2019, they’ve pegged eight trends based around the overall theme of people reconnecting with the natural world. Gardening is one way many are awakening to connect with nature, often to combat work, stress, and excessive internet time. The report’s authors state that these trends will create new environmentalists awakened to our responsibility to save the Earth. According to author Michael McCarthy, a modernday Rachel Carson, “finding joy in nature will help save the environment, and in turn, save us.” The report describes this as a trend from self-care to care for Mother Earth; a trend from ME to SHE. More people are gardening — and gardening more than ever before — according to the National Gardening Association’s annual survey. Many of these people are millennials (also called Gen Y) born roughly between 1981 and 1996. “Average households set a spending record of $503, up nearly $100 over the previous year,” the survey states. “Almost a third of all gardening households were those 18 to 34 years old — another record.” Within gardening, one of the hottest trends is sustainable landscapes using native plants.
Trend 1
The first of the specific trends pegged for 2019 is the “Indoor Generation.” This generation consists of nearly 90 percent of people worldwide who spend at least 22 hours a day inside. Americans spend most of their time (93 percent) either indoors or in vehicles. Children spend less than one hour daily outside, which is
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50 percent less than their parents did as children. The result of all this time inside is higher rates of obesity, high cholesterol, and mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Yet there is hope as the indoor generation brings nature indoors in the form of houseplants. Last year, 30 percent of households bought at least one houseplant, with terrariums, cactus plants, and tropical plants among the top sellers. Previously considered old-fashioned, houseplants have become the new connection with nature, with about one third of purchases by millennials.
Trend 2
The second trend, “Screen Age,” refers to too much time in front of computer screens and similar devices, an addiction that can cause physical and psychological problems. “Blue light from screens can cause lack of sleep, obesity, stress, and depression,” the report states. One fact from this report is that adults now spend, on average, 11 hours a day looking at screens, and they check their phones every 10 minutes. Gardening is recommended to counteract the screen age, especially for younger generations. It can teach many skills and habits, from responsibility to patience, trust, confidence, and good earth stewardship. The report suggests several means to engage youth, including choosing colorful fruits and vegetables and planting containers with kid-friendly plants such as compact berry plants.
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