Reaching the Youngsters
June 7th, 2016
I talk to a lot of gardeners, and the common thread running through most of them – besides being the nicest, most nurturing cluster of people I know – is that they have gray hair.
Here’s a sight we don’t see often enough… youngsters working in a garden.
Maybe it’s because I’m also in that rapidly aging category, but it sure seems as if very few people under the age of 50 are into gardening.
Some of the research indicates that’s because dual-working couples with kids just don’t have the time. So it’s not until empty-nest and retirement that people turn to the soil.
Does that mean young adults aren’t interested?
No, although the way they see gardening and how they get involved with it is apparently much different than the “old folks.”
Michigan State University, the garden-center industry and others have been trying to figure out this next generation of would-be gardeners – especially “millennials,” those born after 1980 and now aged 16-35.
This is the age group that has been reared on smart phones and Facebook. For one thing, they take for granted that technology is going to be woven into gardening.
That’s opposite the prevailing over-50 attitude that the garden is still one place you can go to find solitude from the fast pace and constant clatter of the high-tech world.
According to the research, millennials are drawn to things like self-watering pots, phone apps that remind them to fertilize a plant, and especially tips, reviews and feedback via social media.
Greenhouse Grower magazine (a publication geared toward the growing and garden-center industry) claims that 60 percent of the plants and gardening items that millennials buy are influenced by reviews they read from other social-media or online users.
Millennials also commonly post pictures of things they’re thinking of buying as a way to get the pre-approval of their social network, Greenhouse Grower says.
That network seems to have replaced the previous homework system, which involved reading gardening books and magazines, going to seminars, gleaning tips from TV or radio hosts, and talking over the fence to the neighborhood plant geek.
I’m surprised at how big these social networks are getting.
According to the Greenhouse Grower article, the average millennial has a Facebook network of 696 people compared to the overall average of 140.
I’m not convinced this is the best way to learn gardening because I see a ton of confusing, misguided and flat-out wrong information in the digital world. Some excellent information is out there, but it’s blended in with guesses, opinions, myths and short-sighted observations.
Millennials seem to realize that, too, though. Michigan State’s surveys indicate that millennials often admit they don’t know much about gardening but also hate feeling ignorant about it.
I think at least part of that traces to their parents – the Baby Boomers – who were too busy to garden and who hired out yard chores instead of passing along the hands-on knowledge of the Victory Garden generation.
The bright light is that millennials say they are interested in learning, they want to “go green,” and they want their own children to reconnect with nature and grow up knowing where food comes from.
The latter is one reason why edible gardening is the leading entry gate into the garden for many millennials these days.
Another reason is that millennials tend to want to do and make – even with their limited time and budgets.
“From baking and cooking to gardening and making beer, this generation is into growing their own food, grilling, growing herbs, and creating trendy outdoor spaces to entertain,” according to Greenhouse Grower.
Their edible gardens might be little more than a few pots on a patio instead of yesteryear’s big rectangle, but it’s digging in the dirt nonetheless.
It’s also a beginning. Maybe the “kids of the kids” will grow up again taking for granted that everyone grows some of their food and grows a few flowers just for the beauty of it… even if it is with the help of an Iphone app.