News from Other Blogs

Our new friends at Open Register report on the Garden Writers Association's latest survey:

• For the first time in years, more respondents say they choose garden centers over mass merchants (Big Boxes) when they shop (47 percent to 44 percent), with garden center preference up from 39% in 2005 and box preference down from 52%.  This is declared a Major Shift that GWA says is due to "quality-driven consumers."  Can this good news be true?
• Organics are hot, hot, hot.  19% of garden shoppers want their flowering plants, trees and shrubs grown organically - amazing.  Less surprising is that 29% want organic fertilizers and 28% would choose organic fruits and vegetables if they were offered.  So the good news keeps rolling in.

I'd love to link you to the GWA survey  but it's available for members only and I seem to have let my dues lapse.   I will note that this survey has been suggested by some GWA members as a service to drop so that the yearly $80 dues can be spent on the looong list of suggested new services - like helping members get work.  They might also save money by switching to e-newsletters but that would require GWA moving into the 21st Century - apparently a radical notion.

Open Register also reports on a European survey of gardening trends that falls into the category: Surveys That Make No Fricking Sense.  People in the gardening biz must be shaking their heads and cursing at these bizarro results.  But maybe GardenRant readers can explain them?

Doug Green (a favorite Boomer Boy of Gardening) reads widely so we don't have to.  He points us to a Scientific American report on genetically modified corn and the news isn't good.  And a Christian Science Monitor story on plant intelligence has Doug wondering if vegetarians can survive after they read it.

And finally, my favorite gardenblog photo of the week - a nongardening photo from a mainly nongardening blog.  But who can resist Marie Freeman's images from Boone, NC over on Blue Ridge Blog? 

Comments

[Ed Bruske]

Another site for great farm animal photos is Farm Girl Fare at http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/. Interesting story: cook who moved from California to buy a farm in the middle of Missouri. She won "Best Food Blog: Rural" last year. Great especially if you like pics of little lambs. She's starting an on-line bread baking class this month if you are so inclined.

[ginger]

Love the photos! Organics rule! Check out www.garden-guys.com for organic products and info!

[Ellis Hollow]

I love surveys that categorize gardeners. There are lots of ways of doing it for different reasons. They're all messy with some overlaps and leftovers. Some have nuggets of truth, but all fall at least a little short. But that European survey? You're right Susan. I have no clue what they're trying to get at.

[Yolanda Elizabet]

It's not so much an European survey as a Dutch one. I read the original report, I'm Dutch and that helped a bit. ;-)

This whole categorizing gardeners thingy is meant to help those that work in the gardening biz to specifically target certain types of gardeners and sell them the products they need/want/like/love. Whatever!

It's about money, what else is new? BTW, the survey was last year's. I have no idea what they thought up for this year and don't want to know either.