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Husqvarna Australia has released the results of its 2010 Global Garden Report. This year’s study is unique because it has delved into the ever growing social media landscape to reveal the top gardening trends across the globe, as well identifying the key areas of interest for Aussie gardeners.
Thousands of gardening blogs across the world were monitored with over one million posts being used to create the most up-to-date picture of our planet’s gardens. The report focuses on thirteen countries with the aim of discovering the passions, drivers and expressions of modern gardeners. From this research, Husqvarna has identified the top ten global trends, according to the online garden community.
Dan Carman, General Manager of the Husqvarna Outdoor Retail Division, said: ‘Gardening as a subject for bloggers is constantly on the increase. These are some of the most passionate gardeners out there and Husqvarna recognised that this wealth of untapped information was quite literally at our fingertips. The results provide a great insight into the opinions of this dedicated section of the gardening world.
‘This years’ report has re-affirmed the prominence of trends that we have noted in recent times. Research like this allows us to ensure that the products of our leading brands, such as Gardena, Flymo and McCulloch, remain relevant and gives us an invaluable understanding of how best to keep meeting our customer’s needs and enhancing their gardening experience with innovative products.’
Key findings
The report showed an overwhelming shift towards individualism in the garden worldwide, which is fast replacing the conformity of past eras. Gone is the obsession with ‘keeping up with the neighbours.’ Modern gardeners are expressing themselves in a much more unique way, encouraged by online friends.
It came as no great surprise to Husqvarna that the top two trends in contemporary society were found to be kitchen gardening and the organic garden. Derived from the desire for a more sustainable, cost-effective and healthier way of life, these two trends showed up as being particularly in vogue in Australia where over 118,000 blog posts were analysed. Up there with kitchen and organic gardening on the top of Australia’s gardening wish-list was the desire to re-create wilderness.
More and more Aussies are growing their own organic vegetables and herbs in kitchen gardens, in order to have easy access to the freshest ingredients to use in their cooking. Historically, kitchen gardens have been found in designated areas of the garden itself, but they are increasingly being found on balconies, terraces and window boxes. This type of gardening is a clear consequence of the need to keep food costs down and the want to ensure vegetables are organic and pesticide-free.
The desire to recreate the wilderness in the garden has meant that instead of growing flowers in neat flower beds, many Aussie gardeners prefer to ‘go wild’ and let nature run its course, thereby declaring their independence from traditional gardening conventions. The wild garden is a good option for garden owners who don’t have unlimited time and budgets. People are, however, finding ways to attain that unkempt look without leaving the garden completely to its own devices. Some bloggers, particularly in the US, describe what could be referred to as ‘constructed wilderness’ with a garden that is wild mainly in style.
Predictably, the report confirms that the drought and consequently the desire to use water responsibly have had a big impact on Australian gardening. Many are turning to drought-tolerant native plants which extract moisture from the soil much more effectively than their non-native counterparts, thus keeping the garden lush and green. Celebrating Australia’s unique native fauna in this way also requires less maintenance. In fact, Aussie bloggers appeared to lean more towards taking it easy in the garden in comparison to other countries!
