What Are New Gardeners Thinking?

Jennifer Polanz

Axiom Marketing wanted to find out, so they surveyed 300 new and novice gardeners who’ve gardened for four years or less, who own a home and who purchased a garden plant in 2023. Most of them, nearly 74%, were between 19 and 41 years old. What did they find out? Here are the highlights:

• 83.1% of respondents were highly satisfied or satisfied with the quality of their flowers, fruits and vegetables  

• 70.8% of respondents felt very successful or successful in their garden activities

• 69.7% of respondents said they’ll plant more and expand their gardens in 2024

• 52.1% of respondents said they’ll spend more time gardening in 2024 compared to 2023, and 34.5% said they’ll spend the same amount of time in 2024 as in 2023

• 48.3% of respondents say they’ll spend more money on gardening in 2024 compared with 2023, and 40.5% said they’ll spend the same amount of money in 2024 as in 2023.

Axiom Marketing CEO Mike Reiber sees a lot of positives in the survey results. “Feelings of success and satisfaction are integral to keeping new and novice gardeners involved in gardening,” he said in the survey’s announcement. “It’s great news for the industry that our respondents plant to expand their gardens, plant more, spend more money and spend more time gardening in 2024.

“This bodes well for 2024 and beyond, however, it will be important to continue to learn more about their needs, desires and shopping habits.”

Other key findings include 7 out of 10 respondents said organic and locally grown plants were extremely important or important, nearly 75% said they would pay more for the specific color of flower or specific variety of vegetable plant they were looking for, and 40% said they would drive 6 to 10 miles to find their desired plant.

One bummer for independents? Nearly three-quarters said they purchased most of their garden plants in 2023 from Home Depot, Lowe’s or Walmart. That number increased to 81% for garden supply purchases. GP