The People Have Spoken: Most Want to Garden in 2023

Jennifer Polanz

Axiom Marketing has released its annual Gardening Outlook based on an online survey of 500 people across the U.S. and the outlook is promising for 2023.

According to the survey, 88% said they would spend the same amount of time or more time gardening this year than they did last year.

Along those same lines, more than 80% said they would spend the same amount of money or more money this year on gardening, with nearly half of both Generations Y and Z saying they would spend more this year. Men also were more likely than women to say they would spend more in 2023. Breaking the data down in a different way, first-time gardeners (48.5%) and those who have been gardening two to four years (52.5%) were likely to spend more, too.

“We see that as encouraging news,” says Kathleen Hennessy, chief marketing officer at Axiom. “This could be a sign that the industry is on track to keep many of the millions of new gardeners who entered the market during COVID. Based on positive feedback from first-time gardeners, those who are newer to gardening, Gen Y and Gen Z respondents, it appears that pandemic gardeners are hooked, and their interest, time and spending will continue to grow.”

But (you know there’s always a but) one of the downsides from the survey is independent garden centers lost market share when it came to where respondents made their purchases. Among all respondents, Home Depot took the top spot, with IGCs coming in second. Among those who purchased more in 2022, IGCs fell to third behind Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Also of note, younger customers in particular wanted to expand their gardens and they wanted to try new varieties in 2023. This report is mostly great news for independent retailers. You can see the whole report by visiting axiomcom.com/2023-gardening-survey. GP