Did you know there are approximately 1.3 million regular
gardeners in Ireland? We have an average
age of 49 years and of which 63% are women.
How do I know this? I hear you ask. It’s because we are being watched, monitored
and assessed by Bord Bia’s Insight Centre with the catchy title of “The
Thinking House”
Their latest state-of-the-art Consumer Research Centre was
set up a while ago to find out just what we like and how much money we have in
our pockets to spend on the garden in the kitchen and on other “lifestyle”
products.
Gardening in Ireland
The gardening aspect of it has been specifically set up to
help garden centres and companies in the business to know their market and
react accordingly, which stretches to exports too.
'The Thinking House' in their consumer research titled The
“Gardening in Ireland” summary report
revealed the most popular types of gardeners have mature families or are in (as
they affectionately say) the ‘twilight’ stage of their life, accounting for 44%
of all gardeners. The report also broke down the gardeners by their activities:
- 83% Plant flowers and shrubs
- 74% Carry out lawn maintenance
- 66% Design & Place hanging baskets / window boxes
- 60% Sow or plant herbs
- 57% Carry out hardscaping, paving, and maintenance
- 52% Sow or plant vegetables / fruit
- 52% Plant hedging or trees
Planting flower and shrubs is the most regular activity of
the Irish gardener. Designing and placing hanging and window boxes came in
second with lawn care, and sowing or planting seed tied for third.
Gardener of the
Future
The gardener of the future will be eco-aware and see
anything that will maintain a “good looking” and “productive” garden with less
effort as more appealing, said the report.
The gardener of the future will also have a compact style,
but that is up to the trade world to provide them with the means to garden in
compact spaces. A third of all pre-family life stages have “limited or no”
gardening space to grow and 59% say that 59% say that if they could garden in a
small space it would encourage them to garden more.
The gardener of the future will be connected and utilise
online forums and support to curate ideas and develop solutions for their
garden. The online retailing sector is still in its infancy according to the
report but as technology usage amongst gardeners grows this market is set to
expand.
57% of adults see their garden as another room for
entertaining and 80% of adults with children see their garden as a playground,
according to the report.
Bord Bia’s report provides retailers and trade professionals
with a key insight into the current gardening industry and the future of the
everyday gardener. With the online marketplace for gardeners expected to expand
as connected gardeners do, the trade industry feel they are in a great position
to capitalise on the findings.
One thing that the report doesn’t seem to highlight though
is most people now shop at pound shops or “Bargain” stores for their gardening
products and plants. Garden centres, manufacturers and growers will need to be very
competitive if they want some of our hard earned money which won’t be an easy
task as the “Buy Cheap, Buy Twice” motto seems to be getting more common.
Cute Plants
We humanize animals and now plants are becoming anthropomorphised.
There are a couple of succulents doing the rounds that have the cute factor. These
quirky little plants have gone down a storm in Japan, a country where cuteness
(or “kawaii”) is a prominent aspect of popular culture. One is called Monilaria obconica and looks like small
bunny rabbit ears popping out of a tube when the leaves are young.
Another cutie is called the Senecio peregrinus, this plant has a bunch of tiny leaves that look
like little dolphins jumping in the air. Of course when I saw this plant I
thought it could be another one of my “get rich quick” schemes and sell them on
EBay but try as I might I couldn’t get a hold of any to propagate.
It was only today when I was in the polytunnel that I
realised I have had a couple of poor, neglected specimens of the plant for the
last four years! Indeed, they do look like dolphins if you use your imagination
at a particular angle, but it’s too little too late for selling as it’s take at
least six months to produce offsets and by that time the fad will have passed.
They are the Fidget Spinners of the gardening world.
