In 2006, homeowners spent a record $44.7 billion to hire professional lawn and landscape services. Taken together, these figures represent a dramatic increase in gardening interest and expenditures.

Where is this growth coming from?   According to many publishers, authors and educators, is young people.  “In a world going green, the under-35s have taken it upon themselves to make positive use of their natural surroundings.”

Pam Art, president of Storey Publishing, believes that two factors are responsible for the surge of young gardeners: a heightened awareness of green issues and an interest in preserving natural resources—and the ability to do it in one’s own backyard.

With an ecological crisis looming, Cool Springs publisher Roger Waynick sees young people turning to gardening as a means of “nurturing the planet back to health.” Each individual gardener, he says, believes he or she is “taking care of their little piece of earth.”

Firefly publisher Lionel Koffler offers an additional reason for this spurt of gardening newcomers: first-time home ownership. “Starter homes’ front and back gardens have almost nothing in them,” he says. “There are millions of these houses whose owners don’t have a clue as to what it takes to make a mature shrub and perennial garden five and seven years hence.”

If any of you home owners are in the above category and want to improve your landscaping as well as the value of your home, you may want to visit the Red Dirt Gardening Blog for info and tips to grow healthy plants and turf.  

Spring is here!  What can you do to take care of this little piece of planet earth?

(Much of this content was taken from an article by Juan Martinez, Publishers Weekly, Feb. 2008.)

Ever wonder how the mess next door might effect your home’s property value?
See this short three minute video on Yahoo: “Ugly Neighbor Dispute”