The biggest hurdle in taking up gardening is having a location to do so. I'm 33, and until last year, it was not even an option - I had always lived in apartments without balconies or window boxes. Last year we got a coveted spot in a community garden (3 miles from our condo). This year we bought a house. And I'm now making up for lost gardening time :)

I'm gen X. I garden. I am a gardener, and am considered a master gardener. What I want is more time to garden, a little more space to experiment, and to be able to focus on specifics (been branching a bit more into botany). I'd love a mentor, as I've still got so much to learn. Accessibility in general is a problem - knowing where to go to find information, but being able to afford to buy the information...it is a problem. Going to read those articles immediately.

I agree with CRAFTYBEAVER. I grow what I can in pots in my apartment, but I don't have a yard of my own....and there isn't a community garden within biking distance. But soon........

Typical Gen Y apartment dweller, I don't have any outdoor space so the best I can do is a row of potted herbs in a sunny window in my kitchen...

Great post! Had no idea it was even an issue. I'm a boomer and I don't garden and I've a Yer and he's not blossomed enough yet to see where his interests are going, only 18. But now that you mention it, the gardening world at a retail level doesn't have much 'hipness' going on, except for a place like Terrain. If I found a killer container or something inspiring I'd def buy a plant to put in it.(sorry I know that's backward thinking to garden enthusiasts but that's how it is for me).

I'm 28 and only just started gardening for the same reasons that Craftybeaver noted. I only just moved to a place with outdoor space, for the first time in my adult life. Even then, most of my space is shade, the soil is hard clay (not even weeds were growing in it when we moved in), and most of the sun falls on the cement patio -- which means lots of containers. Lots of containers means a pretty big investment in soil alone. If you don't start out with the basics (space, sun, good soil) gardening is hard and expensive. I read something like 85% of my generation moved back in with their parents -- I'm pretty sure they can't afford to buy decent potting mix. Also re:compost -- everyone talks about how easy it is, but finding all the browns and waiting for it to actually turn into useable compost can be super frustrating.

Yes, part of the problem is that many members of the Gen X/Y generations are still renting. While living in apartments/condos, I've always tried to have patio gardens, but many rental communities are resistant to tenants having their own gardens. In the last condo I rented, the balcony rules were absurd - no hanging plants, no window boxes, can only have plants on the floor of your patio from May 1 - September 30... it made me want to not even bother. I now rent a 3 bedroom house with a yard, but my lease states that I cannot do any gardening in the yard. I'd love to plant perennials like peonies, iris, tulips, etc (and am willing to spend the money to do so) and have a vegetable garden, but it's not allowed. I can still have container plants on our front and back decks, but I'd love to do more and I know I would make the yard look better than it's current barren state.

Where do I start ? I'm an Y-gen non-gardener. I lived in Paris for 5 years in a tiny apartment without any light, and gardening was centered around letting my coriander plant die each week because of the lack of light and care. Well, I worked 12 hours a day.

Now I have a house of my own and a garden, but also toddlers who have their own concept of gardening (which is not my own). I still plan on growing a few vegetables and berries which are low maintenance. I already have rhubarb and three kinds of berries which thrive on their own. I tend to my beautiful old-fashion roses. All of this takes maybe 10 hours each year (not counting mowing the lawn).

The gardening industry makes me feel like gardening is a time-consuming activity that should be reserved for retired people. I know it's not, but that's what it sounds like to me. Plus, what's the point of growing your own carrots when you can buy them so cheap (even organic ones) ? I don't have that kind of time to waste. I wish the marketing would understand that gardening is a pleasure, not a chore. I don't want useful veggies that take year-round attention, I want fun, delicious and holistic plants. My garden is so small, it's never going to feed my small family, and I wish somebody would understand that.

I still think that gardening has a wonderful future. Right now, it seems like cooking shows are the fashion everywhere. Here in France, we're crazy about them and about restaurant offering freshly picked veggies. Someday, someone is going to realize that the food you eat comes from somewhere, and gardening will be all the rage. Indoor aromatic gardens already are. The gardening industry should just realize that we'd love to be gardeners, not farmers, and stop assuming I have any idea on how to prune roses (is that even the term ?).

And...

If anyone invents an automatic mowing machine (something like the roomba vacuum, but for lawns), I'll be the very first in line to buy it.

I'm on the cusp of Gen X & Y, and here in VT there is a thriving community of young gardeners. I grew up in suburbia, with boomer parents who tried to distance themselves from the thrifty ways of their own parents. They didn't want to be stuck in the garden or have to grow their own food, so they were unable to pass any info down to me. Mowing the lawn was the extent of their connection to the land.

Growing up, I thought growing things must be like rocket science. I was intimidated and thought it required special knowledge. Getting involved in a community garden helped me gain confidence and access to people who were happy to share their skills. It's been the resurgence of community gardens that has really been responsible for my own transformation into a gardener. Now my 2 young girls are out there with me, digging in the dirt and watching things grow, and I'm thrilled to share that experience with them.

I am a Gen Y gardener, I really don't buy much garden stuff brand new from a garden center or have the funds to do so. I think there is a shift in gardening with us younger gardeners, I prefer to start things from seed and propagate whenever possible. I tend to also recycle and get used gardening equipment (mostly boomer cast offs) when I can.

@Loora Roomba for the yard? Brilliant idea.

As a Gen-Y-er, I'd like to point out something most people my age will find obvious: we're BUSY. Gen-Yers, as defined above, will currently be between 12 and 31 years old. That's the age when most people are busy attending high school, college, or grad school, just starting our careers, getting married, and tending to our first child. These are all incredibly time-consuming prospects!

Not only that, but many of us have been deeply affected by the recession in making decisions about continuing our education, buying our first home, etc. I'm sure lots of us would love to have an apartment with a big, sunny balcony, or a house in the suburbs with a backyard, but on a graduate student's budget? On a first-job-of-career, paying-off-student-loans budget? I'm still looking forward to buying my very first potted plant. The full-blown "garden" thing will just have to wait.

So I guess if the gardening industry really wanted our patronage, they will have to market to us on these terms. Plants that are beautiful AND won't die if I forget to water them for a few days? Awesome. Plants that can flourish indoors in a tiny pot on my tiny windowsill, desk, or coffee table? Yep, those'll work too. Advertising about the health benefits of plants, and their abilities to reduce stress? Set that advertising right next to a box of some inexpensive, colorful, easy to care for, small indoor plants? Now you're really talking.

Gen X-er here, about to turn 34. Gardening is one of my biggest passions and my local garden center is one of my "happy places". We have great garden centers in our area with knowledgeable staff that cater to a wide range of clients. At a local level, I feel that my gardening needs are being met and/or catered to. Designing beds, composting, tending my veggie and herb garden during the summer months, trimming, weeding, mulching...I love it all. I've even considered taking the Master Gardener course offered at the local botanical garden (but couldn't because it's in the middle of the day when I'm at work) My biggest enemy is time. I think that my generation is hard at work all day, goes home to tend to the family and kids, and can only spare a few hours on a Saturday or Sunday to get our hands in the dirt. I am put off by older generations perpetuating the myth that our generation doesn't garden. Life is much different and more fast paced than it was back when Boomers and Veterans were our age.

I garden a bit. I'm one of those that will cruise a nursery - there are several excellent ones near me - just waiting for a particular plant to inspire me. I love to rose garden - have several that are just now hitting their stride.

My biggest pet-peeve with my local nurseries is that they try to sell plants that don't survive or don't do well in my area mixed in with those that do. They'll also happily sell crazily invasive plants with zero warning. Going by plant tags is useless here, where many plants labeled full sun crisp in the heat, and drought-tolerant generally isn't. Bloom times are totally off and reading gardening mags is usually no help either because most articles are northeast, northwest, west coast gardens. There is one mag here for our area, but it is completely uninspiring. Those of us who tend to research everything to death first do OK, but the need makes gardening unnecessarily frustrating and it's depressing (and expensive!) to watch so many of your plants die for lack of correct information.

I am a Gen Yer and I garden when I can. Rentals make that difficult, but I just moved into a new apartment & I've inherited big neglected gardens from previous tenants. It feels like a treasure trove-- someone at some point planted beautiful (and probably expensive!) perennials that I keep finding all over the yard. I'm so happy that the landlord has also given me free reign over the yard, as well.

I've worked in horticulture for over 10 years at a retail nursery, and also for the university. I would say that at least 50% of our customers are Generation Xers; our store is kind of a hometown favorite that has been in business for over 100 years, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Working at the university, I've been immersed in the culture of "gardening is cool, hip, etc." with the college students. I think a lot more gen Y are coming around to it, especially as more people realize the importance of locally grown food.

I'm a gen-yer, and I now have access to a garden for the first time in 10 years, since I moved away from home. I was a tiny-apartment dweller. I find a lot of the people my age or younger in my area are concerned with food growing, given the uncertainty of our times. We see the prices of food going up, and feel the need to do something about it, and if we can, we do. There's a sense of freedom, and also a return to a past where our grand parents proudly grew beautiful plots.

I found this post really interesting. I'm Gen Y and I garden (balcony style). I'm not great- but I try my best. I think I'm most inspired by that organic, overgrown, natural, layered, and effortless gardening. Is there an adjective for it? I'm not sure. It's similar to eclectic layered apartments- it takes an eye to arrange things in that way. But I agree that terrain nails in on the head.

In Boston we have Pemberton's which is very pretty (but small) with a great market attached. I think the hardest thing about gardening for our generation is that the style I find most appealing is one that is very hard to achieve. Its hard for a novice to know the plants and style a planter in an effortless way. For me, I'm lucky if I can get a windowbox of geraniums to stay alive for the summer. I think that a lot of information is in books- but Gen Y doesn't read books. And so until the generations before us start putting their knowledge on the internet- there is going to be a gap.

But i'm going to keep trying! And I definitely have found a lot of inspiration on Apartment Therapy!

I will echo what others have said and say it's due to having the physical space to do so.

I'm 29, bought my first house 6 months ago, and am making up for lost time. Let me tell ya! I've planted more plants in the last 30 days than in the last 29 years. I see the same amongst my peer group. A lot of Gen X and Gen Y folks live in urban areas, not sprawling suburban or rural lots. There is an underlying interest, and when space becomes available they definitely use it. Additionally, the products - aside from plants themselves - aren't of interest to me. A lot of plant books are big encyclopedias listing information about plants. (hello, google it!) And a lot of products don't appeal to my style or small budget.

I think deeper economic and cultural issues are at work here, and it's not about something that is lacking in our character.

I think the main reason that there are less X & Y gardeners is that there are far fewer home owners in that age group. It is much more difficult to own property now than it ever was before. People are much less likely to invest in working land that does not belong to them. Yet, there has been a sharp rise in indoor plants as decor. Coincidence? I think not! I think my favorite trend hitting the market right now has got to be glass terrariums and air plants. Unfortunate for the industry and fortunate for us, these are not very expensive to make.

Gen Y here...I grew up with a yard, but being a child, the gardens aren't really yours and no one taught me how to garden. I've been renting apartments since college and haven't really had any outdoor space. Also, I think the great suburban expansion has stifled a little, meaning more Gen Xers and Gen Yers have moved back toward urban environments where container gardening is more popular because there's less yard space for gardens. And they're sticking to renting, rather than buying, and when they are buying, they might not be looking for a large back yard they have to maintain because it just doesn't suit their lifestyle (either they don't want to, or because they've been doing container gardens).

When I buy a house, I would like some outdoor space, but I don't necessarily want the time investment and financial investment to have a backyard that has enough room for a garden and all the maintenance that goes along with it. I enjoy being outside and I enjoy my potted plants but part of the benefit to having a home with some outdoor space, but not enough for a ground garden is that I still get to have a green thumb but not spend as much money.

I was just pondering this topic the other day. I live in St Petersburg, FL and it seems that there is a lack in gardening in general. This past weekend was the Green Thumb Festival which showcases growers of all types of plants. The thing I noticed was that I was one of the few people there my age (22). I currently live in an apartment with my 15 orchids and various succulents. I would love to one day have a nursery however the way things are going I'm not certain anyone will be going to them in a couple more years. I think the x and y generation have missed out on the joy that comes from being outside in the yard getting covered in dirt. Long live the plants!!

Gen X/Y cusp - limited by space, but I certainly garden in my little apartment. I was on the balcony until my landlord dubbed my tomato plants as "furniture" which was forbidden on the balconies. What a bording building facade we have.

Anyway, I started with orchids ten years ago, have a mix of plants inside, and train bonsai. It's difficult to join a bonsai club as the few there are consist of retirees - I struck up a conversation with a guy recently who was doing trial and error at home like me because the meetings were during the day and you do want to be around people your own age.

That all said, I know plenty of young gardners, friends with suburb houses who love getting out in the yard and changing beds. The lily terrace currator at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a GenXer and seems to have a pretty young group of volunteers who help him out.

Does AT have actual STATISTICS to back up what they're saying here? Who says Gen X and Yers garden less? Gen X by the way represents far fewer individuals than Y or the Baby Boomers, who had few children. So you'd have to factor that in.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:TUQUEHyWqZ4J:www.nasrecruitment.com/docs/white_papers/Getting-to-Know-Generation-X.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESglOOb8Knu9GZAM8TxVGcacM9vyJ6DvNjv06blk8RlQ8VbaK_As14uvt6l6HrE3wZVXLWmekleSYfEQMF1CWbabOD7XXHQVZJkJQzLzbOD5RMIUdE_RH1P_CCQ5_HqFrakzEAZ4&sig=AHIEtbTa13qkp8wAAq7nJ0V0AMo4pRtwZw&pli=1

I'm 28 (born in 1984 so a GenY'er) and I have gardened my entire life. There were a few years in college where that consisted of minding my potted plants on the balcony of my apartment, but I still count that. We make do with what we've got.

I think Gen X and Y gardeners are underrepresented. I think a lot of people garden now, but they also do a lot of other things. Many garden for food and fewer for simple pleasure (I do it for both), but I would be willing to bet they're out there, just underrepresented.

I also meant to reply to @Loora - I agree!

The gardening industry really makes me feel like it's just a huge amount of work and money, especially because magazines want to show everyone these huge expansive gardens that are professionally landscaped. I don't have money for that!

This is why I think magazines like Domino (sigh) got to be so popular. We don't have this kind of money to get our yards profesionally landscaped. We want to know how to make things ourselves or get the best bang for our buck when it comes to buying plants and maximizing their blooms so we don't have to buy as many ...because this country (and the world) is in a bit of economic distress and the last thing anyone should do is spend irresponsibly.

Gen X here. I have many rentals in my past and have always left at least two blueberries behind. I am finally investing for container gardening which I should have started a long time ago. That is my suggestion for anyone that doesn't have a forever home: stackable pretty pots.

We currently have 4 large pretty pots for 2 blueberries, 1 kiwi and 1 rosemary perennials. We also keep pots for our annual tomato and pepper pots. This year I will start a salad garden as soon as I find the space on our limited patio space. Seattle weather is perfect for a garden if you can get enough southern exposure.

That's funny, because I'm an Xer and have been gardening since I was a teenager, as has my Xer sister and brother, and most of my Xer friends. My little brother, a Yer, is very into gardening right now, and is actually really good at it. Many of his friends are gardeners too. My niece (a Yer) has even started an earth club at college, and they are working on such things as planting gardens, trees, and cleaning up outdoor areas. I think our generations are very aware of the current economic conditions, and are preferring our food fresher and less processed. So veggie gardens (and even herbs) are very popular, as are flower gardens, and even tree planting.

I do think retailers are missing out on a big market. The selection at the various outdoor stores seems limited, or filled with the same old stuff. There's very little focus on container gardens, or gardens for people with limited space. And yes, time is a big factor with many of us having full-time jobs (or more, just to make ends meet), plus raising families, going to school, etc. It's hard to find time to garden, even though the desire is there. Plus I think people are still (unfortunately) focused on bringing in extra needed income, and doing lots more DIY around the house to help save money.

Not sure what the solution is, but I just wanted to say we're out there, and there are lots of us!

I think what the Boomers fail to recognize is that gardening as they know it is a fading trend, and gardening as the X and Y generations know it is still developing but is more innovative and collaborative than anything seen before. Community gardens are popping up everywhere - and are thriving. More and more people are looking in trash heaps for containers of any kind to house whatever they have room to grow - whether it be a motley crew of herbs, succulents in a terrarium, or a thriving avocado tree. For all who have commented that they don't have the space to grow anything, I highly recommend Alys Fowler's beautiful and brilliant book, Garden Anywhere. I'm excited for today's form of gardening - I think it's much more sustainable, useful, and efficient than what the previous generations have pursued.

Sure, because we do not have large plots of land (either because we cannot afford them or because we don't want them), we are not doing the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses yard-scaping. I think our generations have been incredibly creative with gardening and have also connected our gardening concepts to environmentally-conscious philosophies. I have been incredibly impressed with urban gardening and small-space solutions.

I'm Gen Y. I love to garden. I didn't know it until 5 years ago. My parents have always had a garden, so I remember well the taste of a freshly picked cherry tomato still warm from the sun. We live in an apartment, so space is limited, but we have a patio, so I have a garden box, and many plants. We used to live in a house, and the garden experience was much larger. This is still good. :) I just posted about it on my blog yesterday (http://www.de-ma-cuisine.com/dans-ma-jardin/), so it was fun to see this post today!

Another Gen X/Y cusper here... I love gardens, but a) I'm kind of lazy, and b) I rent. Ergo, I have a container garden. Talking to my peers, many would like to garden but don't have space, don't have the money to start one up, don't know how (and are too intimidated to try) or don't have time.

I'd love to see more of a focus on edible container gardens. I'm in a gardening zone 3a and usually grow tomatoes and herbs, but this year I'm going to try for summer squash, strawberry spinach, swiss chard and cucumbers in pots too. Quite frankly, although flowers are pretty, being able to grow my own veggies gives me a lot more satisfaction than flowers do. And while I love a pretty garden as much as the next person, I just don't have the money to buy 15 matching ceramic pots and a Buddha statue.

Interesting. I am an x-er. I'd agree with that "less time" and "lack of home ownership" are the big barriers. We also tend to shy away from 'typical' landscaping choices and practices...most of my peers are interested in curbing pesticide use and promoting native/climate appropriate plants...less lawn and ornamental...more edible and sustainable. Huge agreement that the online resources for gardening are weakly organized and not easily searchable/digestible...and the big box home centers are helpless with advice. We are also not likely to go to futzy garden shows that charge $25 for admission at the convention center...where pro-scapers try to sell you sod and vinyl fencing. But I need to give HUGE props to my family and neighbors (all boomers or veterans) they are my biggest helpers/advocates.

Hmm...I would be interested to see the data on gardening rates as well. I don't garden because I don't really have space or time to do it, but I am hoping to make changes soon that will allow for gardening. I know lots of people in GenX and GenY who are avid gardeners but who aren't likely to be shopping at a garden center for financial and environmental reasons (i.e. not buying new when they can buy used.) They are also significantly more likely to buy from an online source and to repurpose materials that aren't specifically sanctioned as "garden supplies" by a garden store. (Such as the people who make DIY earthbox-style self-watering planters or make their own "upside down" planters out of recyclables.)

Not sure what Gen I am (I'm 25), but I grow various hops on my 5x12 apartment balcony. And yes I use the hops to brew my own beer :)

I <3 gardening! (Gen Y) Feeds my soul! I am the only one of my friend (in my generation) circle that does, however.. Which is sad because I would love to have someone around that gets excited about the same things!!

I'm a Gen Xer and I think my major hurdle is lack of time. Another issue is the expense. I like to go to smaller, locally owned nurseries that specialize in native plants. Those plants and the potting soil or soil amendments add up pretty quickly. In addition, I am currently a renter and I don't really like investing a lot of time and money in a place that isn't mine. I wish I could do more gardening. My grandfather was a phenomenal gardener and I have many fond memories of spending time in his garden.

I'm Gen-X. I grew up gardening with my Mom. When I was putting myself through art school in my 20's I lived at home and to contribute to the house I took over the gardening since my Mom has bad RA and couldn't do it anymore. I know live in a tiny house, by the highway, with a huge yard...my landlords said I could do whatever I want and I have slowly been transforming the yard into a haven of flowers, veggies and shrubs. It gives me joy when I come home from my office job, it presents a nice inviting picture to my clients who come to my house for their portraits, and it gives me satisfaction to dig in the dirt and see results.

For a single person it can also be difficult to find someone to care for your garden or containers if you go out of town. Last summer I had tomatoes in containers on the roof deck and worried for days leading up to a long weekend about who/how they would be watered. In the end I let them fry in the 90+ Baltimore sun, but that experience has made me very careful with what I plant this season.

The demographic for garden shows and magazines like Better Homes and Gardens skews more toward the boomers who are gardening hobbyists and have the land and money for it. While many of the basics of gardening apply equally to container gardens and ground gardens, I don't think boomers are as able to relate to someone who only has 500 square feet of space or a small balcony or patio.

I think the internet has really helped to give Gen Xers and Gen Yers more information and resources because urban gardening isn't something a ton of boomers have done. A lot of them grew up with the white picket fence and home ownership built into the list of "what you do when you grow up."

I don't buy it. This may be the case in large cities (where I believe it is more difficult for anyone to garden because of lack of traditional gardening space, etc.) but this does not jive with what I'm seeing at all. I too am a Gen X gardener who got started gardening in college and have been since. All but one of my friends is a gardener in some respect, and these are childhood friends, not people I met through gardening. At our master gardener plant sale we sell 11,000 plants in three hours to about 1,500 to 2,000 people, half of which I would estimate to be Gen X'ers or Gen Y'ers. I think what is happening is that younger gardeners have many other things to keep them busy (kids, full-time jobs, other hobbies, friends), so the amount of time they dedicate to gardening may be less than what some may perceive to be the "average" gardeners, but they are gardeners (who spend money on plants) just the same.

I'm a Gen Y gardener and I just love plants. Not bird feeders, solar lights, or tacky benches. Just plants. We're out here, we just don't have as much money as the baby boomers to spend.
In a garden center I want organic, native plants, and knowledgeable employees. Some gardeners have little space and money to spare on things like glazed pottery and fairy lights, not that they're not great.

fortheloveofplants.blogspot.ca

@Pgerde - you're a Gen Yer. You were born in what...1981? Check the article. 1980-2000 is Gen Y.

I'm a 24 year old Gen Y member, and I garden. I just moved to UT and my apartment doesn't have as great of an outdoor space as I did in DC, but I'm making it work. This year I'm purchasing my plants at Wasatch Community Garden's annual plant sale (supporting non-profits, woo!) and in DC I patronized Old City Green (http://www.oldcitygreen.com) which I love because of their relaxed vibe - I've been to potlucks and parties after hours in their space which is a great idea. A Gen Y friend of mine is also starting a new community garden/urban orchard in DC called Wangari Gardens (http://wangarigardens.wordpress.com/). I think more young people than people expect are involved in efforts like these. I'm working on a youth farming program in Salt Lake called Real Food Rising (http://www.uah.org/realfoodrising/) that's run by a Gen Xer and getting the Millennials out in the garden! Similar programs exist in Austin (Urban Roots) and Philadelphia (The Food Project).

I'm a 29-year-old Gen Y-er and I was definitely taken aback by your title and absolutely prepared to give you a talking to.......But luckily I am not a rash 29-year-old, and I did actually read your article, much to my relief. I absolutely agree with everything you said - ESPECIALLY the part about Terrain! I am lucky enough to live a mere 30 minutes from that Gardner's equivalent to Pinocchio's Toyland (for that very reason I cannot go too often!). So, in answer to some of your questions:

1) Yes. I absolutely DO garden and it's more than a hobby, it's a way of life. All I have to do is come home after a day at the office, look at my blooms, and somehow everything else just melts away; instantaneous peace.
2) I am quite good at gardening- I even have a Garden Photo Blog on Facebook every year that apparently has such a following that I receive complaints when I lag in updates.
3) Every time my parents come over to my little apartment they are just blown away - and more than a little jealous. I try to teach them the tips, but they are not very good at listening to me, their progeny. Imagine that.
4) I often ask myself why the heck I'm so into gardening and from what I can figure out, it's sort of like nesting...I'm 29 and single, working on all that stuff, and I have to channel that nurturing energy into SOMETHING, I guess...It's the time of life that we Y-ers are currently in...
5) Why don't I garden more? Or rather, why isn't it more widespread within my generation? Well, besides the marketing issues that you mentioned in your blog, I think it has a lot to do with finances. As I said, I'm 29 and have my own apartment, am working my first job- and every year I spend over $100 on mail-order plants because the local offerings are slim pickins. And for every 3 plants that thrive, there is 1 that does not. That's money I've thrown away....But the blooms that do make it somehow cause me to forget the dollars that didn't...Also, going back to the Marketing aspect- as I said, part of that has to do with the variety offered in stores; I'm not a Petunia and Pansies sort of girl. I like Firewitch Dianthus and Columbine and orange Calla Lillies- trust me, you won't find those in stores. Whether this is a good or bad thing, we are the Urban Outfitters, the Terrain, the Modcloth generation, and we are not satisfied with terra cotta planters and cobblestone paths. My garden is lined in broken tea sets that I designed myself- I suppose what all this means is that there needs to be some combination of quirky and economical in order to appeal to us Y-ers...As much as we want to, it cannot be completely denied that there is SOMETHING to the fallout theory of the mass media/social networking frenzy that us Y-ers seem to feed off of....And this extends even into our tastes in nature, it seems.

I'm Gen Y and I enjoy gardening, but like many others have pointed out, I've simply not had the place to do it. Living in Chicago for 3 years and now in an apartment in SE Connecticut, I've yet to enjoy the privilege of having my own garden. I suspect that part of the perceived lack of members of my generation in the gardening community is because of this issue--we're young in a weak job market and having access to land in which we can garden is something that many simply can't yet afford. I know several of my friends who are in a similar position, eager but unable.

That said, I do what I can with pots and the small patch of dirt beside my front steps!

@eschanen - Anecdotal data will always conflict with what seems to be the larger picture because We don't live in a macro context. We make observations from the environment around us, so it makes sense that you don't observe the same thing happening as someone else. I take it from "this may be the case in large cities" that you don't live in a large city. Then it makes more sense that if your area has more grass than concrete that people would be more inclined or enthusiastic about gardening. In my area, a lot of people prefer condos, townhouses, and apartments so I don't know as many people who have chosen to rent or purchase homes that have ample backyard space.

This article is saying that overall, it seems that Gen X and Gen Y are gardening less. Obviously on a local level, it's going to seem contradictory.

It's like the studies saying that overall, people are delaying marriage and children until an average age of 25 or 26. I know someone who got married at 21. It doesn't mean the study is untrue, though.

It is actually encouraging to see what so many young gardeners and farmers are doing, so I don't really know where this idea originated. Maybe it is because I am looking, but I see bloggers resourcefully raising their own food and not buying into some commercial ideal of gardening.
If younger people are not gardening, it is probably because they are living with their parents, or in cities, or under-employed, plus they are marrying and settling down later, etc. It's the economic and social forces at work.
I am a Gen X gardener, but I am thankful every day that I have the means and space to be one.

I read the post and all of the comments and I still don't understand the question. What do you mean where are all the young gardeners? We're all over the internet homesteading, farming, canning, composting, collecting seeds, building hydroponic systems, and crafting raised beds out of reclaimed wood! We're growing our own hops and brewing our own beer. We have chickens! That's not gardening?

Maybe the real question is why are we not supporting the "gardening industry" and the answer is that we're finally figuring out that we don't need it.

@WellFed1 - I get what you mean... but I think the flaw is in the definition of "gardening." The traditional garden is not quite what Gen X and Y are doing and because of that, I think the garden industry is having a hard time understanding "where" these generations are because we don't conform to their definition of gardening. If their definition of gardening doesn't include a garden of ONLY container plants, they're excluding the lot of us.

Think about this, years ago before the great Internet was invented, I would have SHUDDERED to tackle home improvement projects by myself. As a GenXer, that's obviously changed because there's so much information online. Like AT does for people starting out in home improvement, to offer guidance, inspiration, and helpful links, there needs to be equivalent for people headed into gardening. Having just purchased a home, I have zero idea of where to start, other than pulling up the weeds. I also find it frustrating that most magazines feature lush California gardens, where things get lots of sunlight and it's always warm. That's like only being able to read Elle Decor where people have limitless budgets, grand natural light, and can afford more space than they know what to do with.

I need a website that separates the US into growing zones, like they do on the back of seed packets. Then you can look up plans based on what time of year it is in your zone, etc. Each zone would also tell you what to do about which plants will weather outside, which ones should stay in pots to come inside, and like the Small versus Tiny featured apartments, there should be such designation as well for planting space. The people trying to garden on small balconies will have little in common with someone with an acre to plan. There's a lot of subcategories, and I hope that someone will have the vision and fortitude to create a website that can inspire and instruct new gardeners like AT has done for apartment dwellers.

I'm Gen-Y and do not garden. Based on my friends & family members in this age group, I think the biggest reason that there are so few younger gardeners is because we simply do not have the space and money to do it.

More and more of us are either living with our parents or in apartments with no space to garden. Not to mention with fewer available jobs, mounting student loans and other debt, few of us have the money to spare to spend on gardening even if we do have the space. There are obviously exceptions to this (see many of the other comments), but I think that's a big hurdle for gen-yers.

Also, in my specific case, both my parents grew up in the city and didn't grow up around gardening. They've also never really gotten into it themselves, so my siblings and I have never been exposed to and and therefore aren't interested in it either. I have no idea what to do when it comes to gardening and would have no idea where to start if I ever end up in a situation where I could.

I'm a Gen Y-er and I do garden, however, like many people my age, I'm pretty limited because I rent. A lot of my friends don't garden because they live in apartments, have landlords who don't let them, or are too stinking busy and broke working their hefty student loans off at starbucks-type jobs!

I'm a Gen Y'er and after years of apartment life and failed container gardening experiments, putting in a raised vegetable garden was one of our first non-critical first-home projects. Now, my husband and I have built a total of seven raised beds in the backyard and our gardens are feeding us (which I chronicle over at Sustainable Diet, sustainable-diet.com).

I think Gens X and Y are coming around; there's a lot to say about the sustainable food movement and backyard/patio/any way you can do it gardening is, I hope, on the rise.

I don't really think it an issue of what generation someone belongs too. That is rubbish. I think it has to do with interests--someone is either interested in gardening or not. The other important factors are space, disposable income (MONEY) and TIME. Not everyone can afford to have their homes professionally landscaped either. The trend has been for McMansions (big homes) with less yard, especially in the city areas and those tend to be pricey. Suburbanites also have less yard, more house and also have to contend with the dictates of HOAs. We've also had to deal with a poor economy (recession).

When I rented I always had container gardens, when space allowed. I have a home now and we've done all of the landscaping ourselves, because the budget is eaten up by other renovations. An estimate for the side of our yard along our driveway, which to the unobserving eye melds with our neighbor's front yard we landscaped ourselves, because a professional bid was $10K--our specs were to incorporate and keep the design similar to the rest of our yard. Most people in my neighborhood are DYI's or they do nothing at all. Few can afford the cost of professional landscaping.

I don't imagine the Gen Y'ers do much gardening if they're still living with Mommy and Daddy.

The Veterans and the Boomers, I venture, had a higher % of stay-at-home wives...which is a big pool of potential gardeners. It makes sense that Gen X'ers, with our higher percentage of working women, would have fewer garden hobbyists.

I'm a 27 year old Gen Yer and I've dabbled in gardening in the past but due to space limitations I've had to limit myself to a few containers for the most part. Now that I've purchased a house, one of the first things I did was setup a raised bed garden in the backyard for veggies and started preparing the existing beds for other plants. I grew up in a family that gardened so I knew when I had the space to do so I was going to go for it. Now my biggest limitation is money. It's expensive and my budget doesn't allow me to do as much as I want at the moment. Until I can do more, I'm content with my veggie bed, the herb pots I started, and all of the flowers.

@bekuhdoo I'm a Gen Y-er and like so many of us I don't own a home and have rented since graduating high school in 2004. I've always had herbs growing and an indoor plant or two but it wasn't until last year that I finally lived in a space with a yard. I can't plant a "real" garden like the ones I had growing up but my husband and I have about 8 containers we plant lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, turnips, and cucumbers in.

I think one of the biggest issues the gardening community faces when engaging generation Y-ers is that many of us don't own homes even in our mid 20s or 30s, which is very different from our grandparents' and parents' generations. People settled down earlier in the 1940s-1980s; today we don't have the luxury of buying property with mountains of student debt and insecure job options holding us back.

If they do want to engage us in the wonderful world of growing our own food they need to come up with better container garden options, resources on growing food in small spaces, internet accessible "farm knowledge," and less expensive plant options. We have gathered a lot of tips and tricks from our parents and grandparents about gardening but it is all knowledge for land based gardening, containers have a different set of challenges.

I love all of the progress going on in urban farming, CSAs, and community gardens and I see a lot of our peers starting to take an interest in the growing process but it's still far from what it was like when our grandparents were growing up. Planting a garden was part of a right of passage and about feeding your family not a recreational activity. It's like my 66 year old step dad says, " When I was growing up there was no such thing as living "green" it was just called surviving. I don't understand why everybody doesn't have to learn how to plant seeds."

I think he has a point. Education and inexpensive resources are a good place to start.

They're out there. My husband is an X and I'm a Y. We're more the urban homesteader type, and my brother and wife are rural kids growing their own food too.

As another mentioned above, time is a key issue. Serious gardening can be time consuming. I'm a Gen Xer with a demanding career and young child. At this point, the Veterans you mention are likely retired and many of the Boomers are retiring or easing off at work. By contrast, I'm in the prime years of having significant demands on my time, both professionally and with my family. In ten years or so this may slack and I may have more time to devote to things like gardening.

Additionally, when the Veterans and Boomers were where I am with their careers and family, there may have been fewer demands on their time on weekends - no cell phones, no email, just let the kids run around the neighborhood. As much as I may wish things were like that now, it's not the case.

That said, if I were truly passionate about gardening, I would probably make the time.

GenY and I garden!...on my balcony/window sills in inexpensive/simple pots.

I'm turning 30 this year - and have been intensively gardening for about 7 years. We always had large gardens growing up. And after college, and 1 year of apt living, my then boyfriend (now husband) and I started experimenting with gardening. Every year the experiment has grown. And it is now something that I can not imagine my life without.

We bought our house about 2 years ago and now have a mini-orchard and 10 raised beds where we grow most of our food. We planted hops this year with the intention of brewing our own beer. And we also planted a miriad of berries. Hopefully someday our little homestead can become productive enough to sell at farmers markets as well.

Gardening in the high desert of the southwest definitely has its difficulties, but the benefits are far greater!

This is actually coming at a great time. I'm 25 and up until this point, my gardening has been limited to a few potted herbs on a windowsill. I've always wanted to garden and saw both my mom and grandfather do it with a passion. I'm about to move to a new apartment in a month, that is in a house, with my own patch of yard. I'm thrilled that this week is all about gardening (I'm saving all the articles) because I plan to do some veggie planting, as well as flowers and I really don't know that much about it. I think the hardest part for Gen Yers (and possibly Gen Xers) is that we are spending more time in apartments that don't really have access to green space (window sills only provide so much opportunity). Looking forward to joining the gardening community!

It's a little funny to me that anyone would feel compelled to defend a generation for their perceived lack of gardening skills. Or maybe more specifically, that anyone would ever ask them to.

Wonderful piece!
I'm a GenXer with a toddler and a house. As many before me have pointed out, this seems to be two key factors in GenXer non-gardeners becoming gardeners. I've gone from not gardening at all to gardening every weekend - Yay for Southern California weather. In fact, my daughter's third birthday party in a few weeks will be at a local biodynamic farm. Her birthday present from us this year is a set of gardening tools and seeds (shhh, don't tell). My hope is that this shift back toward gardening is multi-generational; that the children of GenXers will have more exposure to, and therefore more connection with, the practice of gardening.

I'm here raising my hand and waving it as a somewhere between Gen X & Y garderner! I'm by no means an expert but boy do I love being able to grow my own food. I think one of the things that turns me off is these huge garden centers filled with oodles of plants that don't serve any practical purpose and there aren't a whole lot of good resources out there for growing things you can actualy use - like edibles or otherwise. I'm really not into roses or cultivating some perfect looking flower - and that seems to be a lot about what the mainstream gardening world is all about.
I think part of the difficulty with gardening as a Gen X or Y-er is the lower rates of of home owners in this terrible economy where we're all trying to pay off oppressive student loans. My husband and I rent and were recently given the okay by our landlords to put in 3 raised beds - so we've started a series on my blog to chronical our adventure in edible gardening; http://glutenfreetravelette.squarespace.com/blog/tag/edible-garden-project/

Another one straddling the border between X and Y and many of the previous comments have made good points. I'm 30 and live in a townhouse in the city. I have two kids under age four and very little outdoor space. We have a small patch where we grow tomatoes in the summer and a few potted herbs, but what little outside space we have is ceded to the kids.

My retired father-in-law has a beautiful garden full of vegetables and roses, all day long to tend to them and no toddlers knocking soccer balls into them or trying to dig them up. I think gardening is largely considered a leisure activity and the lives of Xers and Yers are anything but leisurely!

Because a good part of that population doesn't live in a big enough space with green area, or their parents are already doing the gardening?

I'm a gen-Yer, and I've recently started gardening due to getting my own house. Here in Vegas, a local demonstration garden offers free weekend classes on everything from gardening in the desert to setting up an irrigation system. This has been HUGELY helpful, and I think more of that would help reduce the barrier to entry for those of us who didn't grow up learning to garden.

Someone up above noted that we want "to be gardeners, not farmers," and for me that hits the nail on the head. I'm interested in growing a few veggies for fun, but most of what I want to do is make things look pretty -- yet I see such a focus on growing foods that it can be frustrating to find information about ornamentals, or even which veggies look nice while they're growing.

Another person mentioned the price of potting soil, which I also agree with 100%. Buying pots and soil is a huge investment if you don't have your own good dirt to work with, and something many of us 20-somethings can't afford.

Then of course there are the absurd knick-knack garden decorations. I have no more interest in filling my yard with that stuff than I do of filling my house with Cupie dolls.

Finally, gardening isn't presented as something that is fun, or something that can be fitted into a busy lifestyle.

@mspicky - The USDA maintains a zone map of the entire US: http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Just click on 2012's map, enter your zip code, and it will tell you what zone you are in and you can use that to find the right plants.

I still don't see statistical evidence that shows Gen Y or Xers garden less. Wellfed and Pi said it best - maybe AT means "does not support the gardening industry as much"? Either way, container and urban gardening is taking off and more communities are working on self sufficiency. I hope we take this chance to not let the economy defeat us and to instead fight back and garden together, no matter what age.

I'm a Y or Millennial. I grew up with a mother who was a serious gardener on our family's acre -- we had a yard full of flowers, a vegetable garden, all kinds of trees, and no professional help.

I rent in New York. I have a good job, but I can't afford a house with a yard; I can't even afford an apartment with a patio, or a balcony, or roof access. I especially can't afford a 20-hour work week like my mom had.

So I have herbs on a sunny kitchen windowsill, and an orchid in my bathroom window, but that's it. I'd love to do more -- I have a long list of favorite flowers, and I know a pretty good amount about growing them -- but it simply isn't possible.

Here are things you can do for free to ditch the gardening industry: compost for free soil; save seeds; grow native edible wildflowers; forage.

I agree with GARDENMUSE. No matter what your age, you either want to garden or you don't. If you do, you'll find a way to grow something, even a pot of chives on a windowsill. And if you want to garden, but don't know anything about it, there's way more info out there now (thanks to the internet) than when I started out. One thing that's underrated: Trial and Error. That's how you learn.

I'm a Boomer (just barely), but I've ALWAYS been a gardener. I don't live in a McMansion or have a ton of cash. I do my own gardening and landscaping (as do all the other Boomers I know). We scrounge tools, containers, DIY, start plants from seed or shop sales. (Like ALYSSABEAN, I'm in Utah, waiting for the Wasatch Community Gardens sale. Attack of the Heirloom Tomatoes!)

I've got a decent-sized yard, but wish it were smaller. As I get older, I'd RATHER garden just my containers and a tiny garden plot.

Blanket statements like there are fewer Gen X and Gen Y gardeners than other generations are suspect. Like WELLFED1, most of the people I see leading the Urban Farming/Homesteading movement are younger. I also agree with PI--maybe the traditional garden industry just hasn't figured out that many younger (urban) gardeners aren't growing traditional gardens. I'd bet that gardeners of all ages are turning elsewhere for supplies and creative inspiration.

I've already commented here, but I found it interesting that so many people say that money is a big part of the decision not to garden. I'm pretty sure that gardening is a way to SAVE money. I mean a bumper crop of zucchini and tomatoes from a few pennies worth of seeds is not exactly expensive.

Oh, and, stop blaming Boomers and "veterans." I taught myself to be a gardener; the only edible thing my mom (who's in her 70s) grew was mint and strawberries. Both my parents worked full time. My grandparents didn't garden either. My grandmother embraced anything new and convenient (like packaged food from the grocery store). As a Boomer, I'm busy too with work, kids, life. The only people I know with leisure time are dead.

This is balderdash, in my opinion. All of the gardening enthusiasts I know are gen X (as I am). the leaders of every csa I've been part of are gen x while their apprentices are gen y. Community gardens where I've lived are organized by gen x and a few gen y. Guerrilla gardeners are almost exclusively x/y.

I have never in my life had any boomer offer me advice about gardening. Maybe that's why they don't realize anyone else is doing it? It's just assumed?

and maybe the marketers overlook us as we a) can't or b) don't need to just "throw money at it"? No idea. I think this is something that sets younger generations apart: a TRUE diy spirit that doesn't make it to marketing boardrooms as it's a bit more resourceful than that?

In any case. I find it really annoying that somehow gardening is apparently being politicized into another generation gap. Yuk.

@Beautiful Life and Style - Not everyone grows food. Herbs are cheap to grow, but vegetables require more delicate care. I can grow little things like peppers but not tomatoes, squash, or anything that would require a larger space or container.

Citrus trees can be quite expensive and flowers and other non-food plants can be very pricey once you start adding up the cost of materials.

I'm GenX and have a large vegetable garden and have done a little landscaping at our house. I garden early in the morning or in the evening to avoid sun. I buy heirloom, non-gmo seeds online, so I am not out at the local farm store buying seed. I do can and freeze a lot of our harvest. I also give away starts to people and help them start gardens.
I live in a cottage and don't have money nor inclination to have "perfect" landscaping like my McMansion friends. My neighbor down the street is a Boomer and retired, she has a simple,lovely garden-and time to tend it. I plant perennials for low maintenance and cost. I have three teenagers, a job, and autoimmune disease, so my gardening time is limited.

I'm a Gen-X and I was lucky enough to grow up in place where we had lots of land. Even better was I lived right next to my Great Grandparents who both were into gardening. When I moved to a city I did everything possible to grow plants and so on. Still to this day living in a condo I do everything to plant. I actually go outside to the hired gardeners and have them clear areas for me to plant my own!
Most people I know my age though are just so busy to even deal with gardening. The few that do do it seem to have black thumbs sadly.

I'm gen X/Y and a Master Gardener. Most of my friends garden, and I think gardening and urban homesteading are currently enjoying tremendous popularity among gen X and gen Y folks. Perhaps the "gardening industry" doesn't think there are enough gardeners in my generation because (whether from lack of money or a diy mindset) we think gardening is about growing stuff, not about buying stuff.

I'm an Xer and very much into gardening. I've been landscaping our front garden, still a work in progress.
Before
After

I think a part of the reason you don't hear much from Xers is that we are a very DIY generation. When I started on the front I had gardened before but never on this scale. I'm sure I'm breaking some gardening "rules" but I don't care, I do what appeals to me and figure things out as I go along. I also like less commonly seen plants, so while garden centers can provide me with some I also special order, go to nurseries with specialized stock and often have to hunt down what I want. We made our birdbath, I gathered the rocks little by little as they were dug up at community garden sites for lining the walkways and building raised beds, hauled truckload after truckload of amendments and gravel and in general do things in less orthodox ways than what the traditional outlets write about.

I am Gen X and I garden, but I don't spend much money on it. This year, I spent $60 on my garden. I only have a small raised bed and a handful of pots and I'm only interested in growing edibles right now (okay, okay, I have a lily plant). We rent, and are going to have to tear out our lovely raised bed with soil that makes me proud this fall before we move in the spring. I think the real question in the garden industry should be is how do we capitalize on what Gen X and Y are interested in, container gardening, affordable, easy to care for plants, a little bit of the urban farmer thought, and a little nostalgia (someday, when I have a home, I will plant a peony bush). I must be honest, I garden mainly for nostalgia (I grew up on a farm and we had a half-acre garden and an orchard), and the elusive perfect tomato. I'm not good at gardening, and since I fail a lot, I don't want to sink a lot of money into a venture that doesn't have a fabulous outcome, veggie wise. But my spring salads and fresh thyme always make my kitchen a little happier.

I am Gen X and I volunteer with the local Master Gardner association at local Farmers' Markets and there is a huge interest from all age groups about all kinds of topics. Younger people are especially interested in growing their own food.
To the industry it might look like we garden less because we are not buying bags and bags of fertilizer and crabgrass killer at Home Depot.
Baby Boomers are also overrepresented in the Master Gardener Association but that probably has more to do with lack of time than lack of interest in younger people.
Not sure if I agree with @lesliejb who says that "Gen X'ers, with our higher percentage of working women, would have fewer garden hobbyists" - I garden because I work full time, it's a stress relief, I love getting outside on the weekend after spending all week cooped up in the office.

@BeautifulLifeAndStyle Um, you obviously DON'T garden, or you would know there's a lot more to it than planting seeds "for a few pennies." You have to have the equipment to germinate the seeds, then the tools to replant them outside at the right time, then the fertilizer and gardening materials to make sure they thrive and grow into something usable (if we're talking bumper crops of food, as you said). The germination equipmenrt is QUITE expensive and yes, it IS necessary because if you just wait until the weather gets warm to plant outside from seed, your plants won't have enough time to develop across the season...I could go on, but it would only make me more frustrated.

Drama--I can't speak to veggie crops, but all I need to germinate my ridiculous oversupply of perennials is some potting soil and my family's empty milk jugs. This year I spent <$20 on my wintersowing and I've already got probably 100+ plants (ok, seedlings right now) for the effort. I also routinely divide my existing plants where possible and take root cuttings of others = FREE new plants.

I am Gen X but also own an acre of woodland property which, admittedly, is really what motivated me to start gardening. Pinterest has been a HUGE inspiration/education tool for me too--my various gardening and seed boards have now completely eclipsed the size of my other boards.

I am questioning if it really is a generational issue or more a age issue. And yes, thats a difference. Generation X and Y might pick up gardening too, when getting older, who knows. Probably forty years ago people were complaining that the baby boomers weren't gardening too.

I don't garden. I have a balcony that I'd love to grow plants on, but I kill everything. :(

I am 26 and would absolutely love to garden. But I have nowhere to do so. Living i an apartment and moving every year or so is not st all conducive to gardening. Community gardens are not plentiful enough and are never nearby.

I dont think the older geneationd realize how much easier it was for them to become home owners. My parents bought their first house at the age of 20 for $7000. I don't know a single person my age who could afford to buy a house, much less one with space to garden. i cant imagine how long its going to take me to crawl out from under massive debt and be able to live anywhee besides a shitty apartment

Gen X here, almost 40. I started a balcony garden on Earth Day in my early 20s. But I am a 3rd generation Californian, and I come from a long line of gardeners. My Italian relatives grow food to eat and put up, and my Anglo relatives grow both food and ornamental plants. I grew up with parents who also grew--ahem--recreational drugs in the backyard.

My young children love to spend time in our garden and yard, though raising them and working 2 jobs makes it difficult to keep the garden the way I like it. I love nurseries, but PRICEY! I think the garden industry just wants us to spend more money. Pfft. I make my own compost and recycle gray water into irrigation for the yard. I'm a cheap gardener.

How typical of baby boomers to complain about Gen X and just not get it. Let's see...most baby boomers got a free college education and graduated into a job that provided them with steady employment for probably more than a decade. They were able to buy homes in the 70's in great locations for just a few years worth of salary. (Average home price 50-70k in the 70's an an engineer made close to 40k). In fact, buying a home was so inexpensive that many bought second homes. They're keeping their jobs for decades and not retiring. Gen X can't move up and Gen Y can't get the jobs to begin with. When Gen X can buy a home, it often requires two incomes.
For the baby boomers, not gardening translates into some moral flax in the character of the generations behind them. They blindly look past our debts from school, our lack of employment, having to move for employment, being crammed into higher and higher density housing that often has a lack of gardening space. On top of that we're all facing a higher tax burden to pay for their underfunding of social security, medicare, and pension plans. And yet all they can see is our lack of interest in growing the $40 tomatoe.

@TDIZZLE - Agreed. I don't even have debt and it's very difficult to buy a house. The amount of money one needs for a downpayment is mindboggling. $7,000 doesn't even cover closing costs.

As a Y gen-er I find it repulsive that it's always someone else's responsibility to cater to our needs. I'm a gardener and I don't need the industry to do anything for me. A gardener is born of a desire to be in touch with nature, not made in a Target or Walmart campaign.

@Chartreuse - Yes and no. It doesn't matter what your reasons are for gardening or having potted plants, someone has to provide that. The gardening industry goes beyond the big box stores. Everyone depends on someone else to cater to their needs unless you have your own seeds (and even so, the plants that sprouted them came from somewhere, right?) I don't like the overcommercialization of a lot of things, but I do understand the role that Target and Walmart and other companies have in showing people how they can do something for less money or make it easy or attractive for them to do it. Advertising has been part of modern life for quite some time. Gardeners have to start somewhere. It's pretentious to suggest that Target and Walmart can't ever play a part in that. Not all of us have the innate ability to commune with nature. We shop at Target and Walmart and buy our groceries rather than attempt to grow them all.

Where does "lack of interest" come into the picture? Gen X'er here. When we finally moved to a modest single-family house with a small yard I had visions of growing fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs, everything. And promptly discovered that I just don't enjoy gardening - no judgement toward those who do enjoy it; it's just not for me. There are literally 100 things I would rather do than perform the maintenance that is required to keep up even a small garden. My boomer-age parents were avid vegetable and flower gardeners so I'm not sure where the disconnect happened. Maybe because I only lived in crummy apartments with little to no green space before now?

It has been interesting to read this thread as a total outsider to the gardening community, since I had no idea there was a [perceived] generation gap. I agree with the commenters who said this sounds like a typical case of the younger generation doing things a different way (whether inspired by limited funds or green space, a desire to limit their commerce with large corporations, a DIY ethos, etc). It will probably take time for these new methods to be recognized as "legitimate."

@pi if she's 25, she was born in 1987...

My husband and I are Gen Y (29 and 28). The first thing we did when buying our home in 2008 was tear into the overgrown mess of a backyard and rip out about 30 years worth of neglected and disgusting "junk" ivy plants.

I currently have 2 types of citrus, 2 types of peppers, ornamental flowers, 2 herbs, honeysuckle and some palms that just won't quit growing. I love that we've been able to make our backyard a haven. Within our circle of friends (renters or new-ish homeowners) we've noticed plenty of container gardens or attempts to get involved in gardening. I think it comes from growing up in homes where our parents did much of the gardening themselves.

One of the things I see in several of my Gen X/Boomer neighbors is that they see gardening as something to be outsourced to a lawn service company. We and the gentleman (70-ish) next door are the only 2 on our cul-de-sac who mow and maintain our own yards.

Four years later, we are still getting up the courage to tackle the front beds. Now that we've been able to experiment in the back (without the world seeing our several failures), I think we will be able to tackle it.

I'm a Gen-Xer and until recently had limited space to garden (although that didn't stop me). Now that I have lots of space, I'm growing vegetables in raised beds and slowly adding shrubs and perennials to what is currently a sparse landscape. I want to incorporate interesting and unusual plants, as well as lots of local native ones and heirloom varieties. However, most garden centres do not sell many native or heirloom plants. Like big box bookstores, they carry "bestsellers". The rest of their retail space is filled with garden knick knacks and containers that appeal to my MIL, but certainly not to me. Honestly, I don't think the garden industry in general markets to younger people, so they should not be surprised when they don't see many in their stores.

And while that Scott Calhoun piece offered some interesting suggestions, his writing totally turned me off. Could he have possibly fit more tired Gen X cliches in there? A writer who unironically refers to an entire generation as "slackers" is going to have a hard time convincing me of anything.

I assume without looking that most of the other comments here are exactly what I am about to say, but I would think it would be kind of obvious why young people of this era aren't big gardeners: you don't graduate highschool and immediately buy a house with a nice big yard to putz around in. Most Gen Y-ers are still too young to own their own homes, and therefore are living in apartments, or rented homes. It is MUCH harder to develop an interest in gardening when you have no patch of land whatsoever, or you have a little yard but are only going to be in a home for a year or two tops before moving on and leaving everything in that yard behind. And honestly, P-Patches (at least in my area) are still a pretty big pain, since they are generally not conveniently located as far as tending them each day, and the waiting list to use them is often huge. I garden in containers on my incredibly tiny balcony, and even that is something I consider a luxury. I wonder how old current gardeners were when they planted their first, real garden (not their parents)?

Same as a lot of others. Tail end of Gen X. Just got into my first house after over 20+ years of condo living. Same reasons as most on here. First backyard. First attempt at a veggie garden is coming this summer.

Gen Xer here. I know a big hurdle is definitely time. When you are raising little kids you only have handfuls of time to pull weeds etc, and even then you are exhausted.The next hurdle is information. I find the learning curve to be very steep, especially if you have other primary interests. First, you have to figure out the zone maps, then perennials, annuals and the season the plants bloom in, then (and there is so little information on this one) how to plant your plants so that they look good together all through the growing period. I often end up with plants that are too tall in the front of the bed, a garden that looks great in spring, like Armageddon in August, and I am just coming to grips with the idea of contrasting the texture of the plants leaves (fluffy and spiky.) That's a whole lot of reading. Then... you get to the garden centre and the tags are less than helpful. Often there are no zone indicators and you have to guess when it will bloom. Good luck asking the staff. I often get the feeling that it is set up this way "on purpose." Somehow I should know all these details, and the latin names of each flower in my zone in order to qualify as someone who is allowed to own a plant. Sigh.

@JESSICABROOKE - Ha, you're right. My bad. Saw someone else's age.

Gen Y here...

I rent and have had a small vegetable garden for the past two years. While I've had some success, I have not invested the money needed to really improve things since I don't know how long I'll be here and I don't have a lot of extra cash. I'm the only person of my age that I personally know who really gardens (i.e. does more than plop a basil plant in a pot) and I'm treated as a novelty both by my peers and my older neighbors. Everything I know has been self-taught.

My major hurdle is transportation. I don't have a car so popping over to the nursery is not an easy task. I really wish the nurseries in the area offered delivery: I'd gladly pay for it. The zip cars in the area are all small and the time to cover getting it, travel to the nursery, browsing time, travel home, unloading, and back to the station would cost more than I think a reasonable delivery fee would be (and would certainly be more hassle).

It's actually a little fantasy of mine to have a little shop that caters to urban gardening. Not so much live plants, but seeds, tools, and other supplies for both gardens and house plants.

Not to get all political, but there are a heck of a lot of Gen Yers who are unemployed and have no hope for owning land to garden anytime soon.

I'm 36 and started gardening at the age of 20. My parents kept a tidy little yard, roses, grapevines that interested in, as a kid. I dropped out of college and joined an Americorps program that built and maintained community gardens around NY, inspired by the notion that I could help change the physical space around me. I am from Brooklyn, near the beach, and credit the wide open space my friends and I took advantage of, growing up, for keeping me sane. I firmly believed that people would treat each other with more kindness if they just had more beautiful, uncrowded places to just be. I find it interesting that people view gardening as an expensive endeavor. When I started, I was struck by the abundance of cheap stuff I could use to transform my space. Seed packets, junky old pots, soil from the hardware store...
I worked landscaping jobs in the summer and brought home the discarded plants of the wealthy Upper Eastsiders I worked for, and shopped at the farmers market for annuals and herbs. I guess I must have spent some money on all that, but these were the days before you had to have a fancy smart phone and a big phone bill (we split the house phone bill 4 ways-cheap!) and when Brooklyn was actually affordable. Fast forward past 6 years of rural living because we outgrew the city yard, and opportunity knocked- My husband and I both do horticulture related work in NYC. We have gone way past hobby into "way of life".

Generation Y'er here. As a just graduating college student, I'd say that the biggest issue is economic. You've got to have money to get any outside space here, and the community garden by my house has a two year waiting list for a plot. Focusing on container garden heirloom sets, chic assesories, and environmentally friendly fertilizers and soils in small packages is my word of advice. Not everyone needs a 50lb bag of potting soil, sometimes we're just trying to make a terrarium.

Hey all. Representing the Y's here. Just wanted to give a little hope, I'm starting my first actual garden this year outdoors, and am just at the point where I'm waiting to transplant my babies outside. I've already been invested in this a couple of months now and I'm very excited to make this a full time hobby, hopefully this continues after just this summer. :]

I'm a garden center owner (Davis Ca) with plenty of Gen X and Gen Y customers. I find they want the same things older gardeners want: information and interesting plants. Edibles are big with everybody and seem to be where gardeners start, so having lots of info and lots of food plants is key.

I'm a Gen X-er, and I came to gardening only recently. Why? Because I now live in a climate that's conducive to growing what I want to eat (Sydney, Australia) and it was only a few years ago that I bought a house with a yard (I previously lived in a 6th floor flat). Now I have a thriving herb garden on my balcony and my entire side yard is a citrus grove, where I grow Eureka lemons, blood oranges, grapefruit, and Tahitian limes.

As for what I want from the gardening world that I'm not already getting, here are just two wishes:

1. That people who contribute to gardening forums learn to spell, punctuate, and turn off capslock; and

2. That more garden centres extend their opening hours beyond 9-5 during the week and Saturday mornings. Unlike the gardeners in my neighbourhood who are retired, I'm at work during business hours.

Is anyone saying that Gen X and Gen Y -ers don't garden don't spend ANY time on the West Coast. I live in Oakland and everyone has back yard chickens and veggie patches and plants. My younger cousins are urban farmers up in Portland. My friends are co-op residents with community garden patches up in Seattle.

Young gardeners?
Novella Carpenter
Willow Rosenthal
Willi Galloway
Flora Grubb

Sunset is younger now. Look at West Elm's outdoor pots/planting offerings. X an Y Gardens tend to be either political (veggie plots) or modern modern/architectural. They aren't their grandma's roses and geraniums surrounded by red mulch with little garden gnomes. But they are out there. I saw Wooly Pockets at our local OSH, so I know that even some non-design-y garden centers are starting to get it. Is the West Coast that different in this regard from the rest of the country??

I'm a 46 year old GenXer who has been gardening all my life and now has a garden business, spreading the joy of Miniature Gardening via http://www.TwoGreenThumbs.com. IMHO, the garden calls those who listen regardless of age.

Gen Xer in the Bay area here. Gardening is my passion and my escape. One of the things I find frustrating at garden centers is seeing the same boring plants everywhere. Petunias, Marigolds, Pansies, etc. If I want interesting plants I have to spend a lot at fancy garden centers. Don't get me wrong, I love to support local businesses, but I also shop at big box stores and since we're talking about the "industry," I'd like to see more variety and more drought tolerant options being sold.

Just curious to know what kind of "interesting" plants people are looking for that they can't find. The nurseries where I live always have way more stuff than I can even dream of planting. That said, occasionally I want an unusual color or variety and have to order online.

Besides time and space,we Y people have the problem of availability. I grow an insane amount of plants in four window boxes at my rental, but if i want to buy quality soil, or secateurs, i'll have to borrow a car on a Saturday and drive to a garden center, or spend too much money in a posh marijuana-friendly shop downtown.
Maybe its a problem in just my European ciyt, but buying supplies in an urban area is certainly a challenge with no car, if you don't want just what the convenience store offers.

Funkytown: I found two problems looking for plants:
1. Inexperienced salespeople. I'm the worst gardener ever, but when I ask about a specific type of flower, I don't want to hear "we don't have it, but we have other red flowers"... yeah, right, that's why I asked for that type, isn't it ? (my small garden doesn't have much sun exposure, so gardening is a challenge).
2. And the contrary: overexposure to information I don't understand. Tons of plants, tons of technical terms used by other salespeople. I hate buying plants and tons of stuff I don't end up using, just because someone convinced me to do it. I usually say I'll think about it and will come back later, but I never do. That's why, as far as flowers and small plants go, I use my local florist: she has great taste and a realistic view of amateur gardening. I may pay a bit more money, but it never goes to waste.

I'm Gen Y and have a container garden on the balcony. I like plants that are hard to kill. I don't spend a lot of time in garden shops, but I do enjoy walking around them once in a while admiring the plants (and trying to find one I can't kill). I don't have much time to do anything with the garden, so it gets bare minimum watering and some extra love once every few weeks. I wish I had more time to spend with it, but that's life.

@EOWES, not at all! I'm in NYC and urban gardeners/farmers are everywhere. I work at a private gym where the owners, in thier 30s, installed a beautiful green wall, and maintaining it has been a community effort. Check it out!

http://studio26nyc.com/blog/a-green-oasis-grows/
http://studio26nyc.com/blog/studio-26-in-interior-design-magazine/

Also, Brooklyn and Oakland are very similar, veggie gardens and chickens and all that.

I'm Gen Y, and everyone I know gardens. Of course, we live in a rural area where everyone has a yard, so that makes it simple. I'm getting ready to live in an apartment, so no garden for me next year. :(

I want to garden, I just don't really know how to begin that well, especially since my own Boomer parents and living Veteran grandparents were not themselves gardeners. I live in a fantastic climate for year-round growing, I'm just stumped (seriously, no pun intended) as far as where I even begin, much less what's in season when and when to plant it and how to keep it growing once it starts. *sigh* Also, yeah, the "marketing to our generation" thing is terrible - it seems like it always skews to the same later-middle-aged-or-older demographic as Hobby Lobby.

I am a 29 year old, Gen Y-er. I am really drawn to gardening and have made a few attempts, but I feel completely inadequate and overwhelmed by it. My mother didn't really garden much, so aside from my Veteran grandmother, I've had no contact with gardeners. My husband and I used to own a house, but it was in Florida and I wasn't interested in gardening in that environment. Now that we've been renting the last few years in VA, I've been dying to have a small veggie garden and some flowers. But, there is always the concern about the landlord and the amount of money it costs, especially in the beginning. One final thing that is a challenge for me, is that I have another hobby that is considered unusual for a person my age....I knit. And I am more likely to spend my time knitting and spend my money on yarn and needles, than on gardening.
That being said, I'm still looking forward to trying a few plants this year :)

I am a 27 year old gen y'er. I have a garden. Two in fact. A small one at my house, and one on my grandmother land. I have set out 59 tomato plants this year, amongst jalepenos, bell peppers, cucumbers, turnips, squash, and okra. If it will ever rain ill plant an acre of watermelon. And I will do it using a 1976 ford 1000 tractor.

I'm Gen X and after living in New York forever, I recently bought my first house in a small town. I had thoughts that I would grow pretty flowers and start a vegetable garden, but really, I hate the yard and anything to do with gardening! I hate the bugs and the dirt and that it is just never done. The endless weeding is a nightmare! The front yard, the back yard, the neighbors sitting in judgment...it is just not my thing. I would rather spend my time on other things.

I'm 35 (GenX), live in San Diego, and LOVE organic gardening. We fell in love with our lil’ home (purchased in 2009) for its many dwarf trees (oranges, grapefruit, avocados, peaches & apricot) and perfect garden plot. I admit, I feel like I dove into it with 2 black thumbs, but with a lot of researching, planning, designing, learning and ASKING came a beautiful and bountiful veg patch. It’s been well worth it. This year will be our 3rd summer crop and we have a combination of in-ground and container. Veggie roll call: Asparagus, Artichokes, Borage, Bush Beans, Edamame, Cucumbers, Squash, Heirloom Tomatoes, Herbs, Potatoes, Spinach, Osaka Mustard, Eggplant, 8 varieties of Peppers—including Black Cobra & Ghost Pepper! We also have what I call “Vagabond Patch” of random seedlings that sprouted from our compost bin. We’ll see what they grow into! I’ve been meaning to blog about my experiences, but find sharing pix and experiences with my FB friends a better use of my time! ;)

I'm 36 and I'm an obsessed home gardener. But I wasn't interested in gardening until about only 4 years ago. I had to wait until my kids got out of the baby and toddler stages before I realized I had this passion and a little free time to engage in it. I try to think of gardening as just part of a general interest in nature, environment, and wildlife. I educate myself, which takes a lot of time, and I make loads of mistakes. I network like crazy, in order to learn from others and to trade plants (I have no gardening budget). Most of the gardeners I know are older women, but there are growing numbers of younger adults getting involved. Interest is slowly growing, and I think social media will help it along, especially facebook and pinterest.

I am Gen X (according to your guidelines) on the cusp of Gen Y. I am an avid gardener. Been doing and loving it since I was a teen. Possibly before. My mother is a Master Gardener and we were in 4-H and Girl Scouts. I grew up in the northern suburbs of NYC and while not many other people were in 4-H or Girl Scouts I think they were a great influence on me. I don't remember many friends parents gardening when I was growing up. But I think that The overwhleming feeling / pressure on people to make money has moved people away from wanting to be outside and have an influence over their environment. I didn't get a place to garden again until I was 29. The moment we bought our house was the moment I broke ground in my mind for a veggie garden, and flower gardens as well as just cleaning up and creating usable space in a very neglected yard. It has been 3 years and we have made progress but time is lacking, cost is high and the availability of affordable attractive decor is limited. I do not want to purchase a concrete angel for my garden or strange fat frogs or bunnies or weird giant solar lanterns with ugly animals or insects. The scale of available decor is not good and the style itself is not good. These companies need to hit Pinterest, the internet whatever and see what is trending in garden decor and do their own development. Stop just buying what China is offering. That seems to be the end of my rant. Thanks for listening!

I'm a Gen Y'er, and have become an avid (but still relatively inexperienced) gardener in the past 3 years. I grew up with gardening, and my parents and grandmother taught me a lot.

Many of my peers are very interested and avid gardeners, but I wouldn't say that they are interested in "the market". Yes, we buy some of our plants from garden centres and the like, and yes, we try to afford the best we can. But A) we can't afford that much, and B) Frankly, most of the young gardeners I know aren't interested in buying what the market is selling.

We exchange seeds and plants and worms, compost our own organics where we can, or share the kind of spaces where we can do that. That's if we have the time.

I think that the "industry" might not see us, because where we exist, we're doing it off on our own I think. You want to see me garden? Come into my house to see my 300 + seedlings. I'll share some! But frankly, I'm probably not going to buy something where I can save the money and spend the extra time, or exchange something with a friend.

I do garden quite a bit, but I seem to be in the minority in my gen x friends with homes. It does take work to find garden items that resonate with my aesthetic, but with everything available online its not that difficult.

I've been an on again off again Gen-x/y (I'm near the cusp) gardener since my early 20s, who finally got serious a few years ago.

I want the garden industry to offer real sustainable products and projects that are more than a green washing to get me to buy more and more. I'm willing to pay more for durable goods that can be repaired, rather than replaced. A hoe with a real socket for the handle, not hammered into a wooden pole, or worse yet, encased in fiberglass that cracks or breaks.

When I go to the garden center, please staff it with people who know something about gardening, plants, or the products they are selling. I'll give a new employee a break if they are willing to learn. Would it hurt to hire a staff horticulturist and pay them decent money to retain them? Horticulture is job market with shrinking numbers, offer them a career and competitive wages.

Be considerate of newcomers. More than once I have watched the uninitiated be rebuffed by a garden center staffer who treats them like an idiot. Come on people, any of us can go to the internet and buy what we want. We came to the store for a reason!

Please, use current scientific gardening practices and knowledge to inform customers.

Garden centers that have an education space, even if that is a space under an awning with a few picnic tables so that local experts can offer classes appropriate for the season and climate. Include a bit of swag (gloves, trowel, bandana, pruning shears) with the price of the class, related to the topic, to entice people to come.

Ex:
Winter: planning a garden, reading a seed catalog, seed shelf life, starting indoors.
Spring: Transplants, mulch, weeding.
Summer: Bringing in the harvest. Gardening in the heat: protecting yourself, protecting your plants.
Fall: How to prune trees. Preparing woody perennials for winter.

Offer customers some simple take aways to make their gardening experience better. I.e. One page hand outs about how to use a trowel or cultivator.

I love gardening, but my experiences with the industry have been less than perfect.

Gen X container gardener here, for many of the reasons mentioned. I rent, and our building has some rule about only 2 pots on the balcony. However, I recently went through my lease to see if it is actually written anywhere and found that it isn't, so I am flouting their "rule" and have one monstrous pot and about 6 other smaller ones. It is gorgeous and neat and not endangering anyone, so they can shove their silly "rule" :o)

We are hopefully buying our own place in the next 6 months, and my husband knows I love gardening enough to insist on a house and yard rather than a townhouse or apartment. I have several friends who would love to garden but are similarly restricted by fascist apartment managers.

I am a 25 yr old Gen Y, and am on my second year gardening. Love it, wish I had more time, resources to devote to echo what others have said. We rent a house with a little yard, my husband, kids and I, and I love planting trees, shrubs, and our vegetable patch. Homeownership is a far off dream for us, since financial stability is hard to find even though my husband makes six figures ( he's 29) and job security is well, you guys know how it is. I don't know a single person in their twenties who has job security, except for my brother in law, who is a police officer. But he gets shot at.

Sorry, I digress.

Well, I qualify as both Gen X and a gardener. I own a home and have plenty of yard to work with.

I agree that the industry does a terrible job marketing to me, but I'm not sure that's generational. I'm big on heirlooms, own-root old garden roses, and other kinds of old-fashioned plants in the garden but I have no idea if I'm typical of my age group or not.

I do wish there was less desperate marketing to "young folks" (because it so often looks ridiculous) and I wish there was more intermediate-level advice available. It seems like there's a lot of "you too can garden!" and "do this first!" and not very much on next steps after you've gotten that tomato thing worked out.

I am GenY with husband & young child and just stretching my gardening legs. I live in an apartment, but have a fire escape. I'm growing edibles like garlic, strawberries, mache and kale. We have several community gardens in my area as well, but there are waiting lists.

It seems like people of my generation (X) value having an individual voice a little differently than boomers, and Gen Y seems even more like this to me. Not that boomers don't value it, but we just show it differently. Also, I suspect that we, on average, have a different response to gardens displaying ubiquitous plants, which is what tends to be available at most of the entry-level places. I don't really want a Nikko blue hydrangea next to my white New England cape house, and I don't want to sit in one of those white plastic chairs to look at it. But that's what you can get at the entry level type stores, thats what you can get on the salaries available to most of our age groups. I think that when Gen Y spreads their wings, they will have really cool gardens, really innovative, all different. This idea that we (X, Y) *don't* garden is just another "kids these days" curmudgeon-y thing. If this is a real thing that industry people are complaining about, I'd see that as an industry that can't adapt to the new market bitching and moaning because they don't get it. But is it really true that this is a complaint? Like, I see Williams-Sonoma launching their Agrarian stuff... and lots of people on Pinterest repinning their chicken coops! Are you telling me anyone thinks that interest is coming mostly from 60-70 year olds, and that the product launch is directed at them?

I’m a Gen-Xer, and I want to garden the way I remember my grandmothers doing it (more organically, with heirloom plants, etc.)—just on a smaller scale, due to time and space constraints, and because I don’t want to get into canning and my freezer only holds so much. I want to garden for the fun of it rather than out of necessity, I suppose. They grew a wide variety of vegetables and flowers, while my boomer-generation parents were more of the type to bomb the whole yard with chemicals, plant a few annuals, mow the grass, and call it good. Big box garden centers seem more geared toward that kind of “gardening,” which is more about the lawn than beyond it, and they don’t make it easy to do organic.

1. I think a lot of my cohort (I'm on the older end of Y) wouldn't identify as "a gardener" because we associate the label with blue-haired old ladies.
2. Despite that, I think a lot of us do garden or would like to (space permitting). Flowers and veggies are nice.
3. Younger people who DO garden are, I think, much more likely to be into ORGANIC, or at least natural, gardening. We're not buying Scott's products, we're not buying from big-box stores. We get a cutting from Granny's apple tree; we get an heirloom tomato plant from the farmer's market.

Younger gardeners are out there, but we're off the grid.

I am an avid gardner and so are all of my 20-something friends. In fact, all of the people in my college landscape architecture cohort who changed majors transferred into horticulture (or wine and vit, but he doesn't count ;-)

BUUUUUTTTT..... we self identify as millennials. Why still says Gen Y? Fogies, that's who.

I've lived in NYC and now DC and finally got some potted plants. I have a few indoor houseplants that are tropical and can be outside on the balcony in the summer. This year I'm trying some vegetable plants from seed. The few people I know who are apartment gardeners fill their balconies with fruit and vegetable plants for cheap eating purposes! I wish I had a small yard because it's tough to lug soil and pots and everything up to my apartment.

Tell the Boomers to sell us a piece of dirt that doesn't cost $200,000, and we might consider taking up the hobby.

As it is, my apartment is covered with loose potting soil from my sad, sad herb-killing attempts to start a potted garden. Poor plants.

I'm 31 and I'd LOVE to garden. I have space to do so, but every time I look into, I get overwhelmed. My parents didn't garden and neither did my grandparents, so I know nothing about gardening. There is tons of info on the web but there is so much that I don't know where to start. If I talk to people I know, they all have contradicting ideas for the best way to garden. I need a gardening mentor :)

I may be poking a huge bear here, but I believe a lot of the issues attracting Gen X/Y gardeners are created by the industry itself. At the nursery where I work, the older horticulturists practically ignore younger-looking gardeners based on the assumptions that 1) they don't know anything about plants and will inevitably buy flats upon flats of ugly annuals and 2) they will not spend the kind off money that "real" gardeners do. I've had friends sheepishly approach me for assistance on the sly, because they fear being judged by the older guys and gals.

I was born in 1983, and I don't own a house. So what's the point of undertaking a gardening project when I move every 1-2 years? In 8-10 years, when I finally buy a place, I will most definitely be gardening. Maybe the issue is that X and Yers need a lot more time to build up the capital necessary for home ownership. You have to feel like you're in a pretty stable place before you start putting down roots.

Oh yeah, and there's the whole God's Gardeners/vegan punks thing going on now. Definitely a different market. So I agree about garden centers being irrelevant for younger folks.

What an interesting conversation there was going here. I will throw in my two cents for fun. I'm 21, so I guess that makes me a Gen Yer. I think that gardening is headed in a totally different direction than where it has been in the past. I am incredibly interested in farming/gardening in a creative, aesthetically pleasing organic way. In fact, I would love to someday be able to make a living off of that. However, as some other commenters have mentioned, the price of land may prevent a lot of gardeners from doing as much as they would like. Some words that come to my mind when I think of gardening for my generation are sustainable, portable, and hip. Many people have mentioned that their barrier to gardening is a lack of space, but I think the bigger issues are knowing what to plant and more importantly why. I want to garden because I want to feel the satisfaction and safety of knowing exactly where my food came from and what happened to it along the way. Our food production system in this country is severely broken. One way young people like myself can feel better about what they eat is to grow it themselves or to buy from people who do. When I go to the garden center, what I am looking for is not there. I am looking for innovative and creative new ways to make gardening more accessible to me (someone with limited space). I would also like to see more interesting and uncommon plants. I really hope that people my age are not too discouraged by boomers to garden. Even my own father, born in 1965, has told me that I just can't garden because I don't know what I'm doing (!). Veterans and boomers should keep in mind that they were young gardeners once, too.

This post really surprised me. I had no idea that there was a perception that Gen X and Y didn't garden -- I thought the stereotype was quite the opposite, actually, with the perception that every young person is out there ripping up their front yards and putting in tomatoes and corn or growing basil on their windowsills, that is if they're not heading off to work on an organic farm somewhere (or aren't busy tending to their chickens or their apartment worm compost bin). It may be a different sort of gardening than their parents, though -- more organic, more focus on edibles, less money spent at big-box garden stores.

Rochelle, I read your other blog and love it.

I am on the cusp on Gen X & Y. I live in Minneapolis and it seems to me that TONS of people here are into gardening and urban farming. I don't know if it's this area or the neighborhoods I frequent, or because we're such an agricultural area, but gardening is a very hip thing to do.

I got started in my mid-twenties and learned via trial and error. At the same time, I was helping my mom plant huge gardens at her new house--with crazy restrictions: she lives in Zone 3, everything had to be deer resistant, and perennial--and it couldn't look like she had a suburban garden. That creates a very short list. :) With those restrictions, we both started doing lots of research...and I fell in love with plants and gardening.

My first successful garden was a container garden on a patio of a suburban townhome--that spring I learned heartbreak and tragedy (a 10-minute hail storm that broke every single tomato plant and crushed all my herbs, flowers, and seedlings) but also joy--my garden was beautiful lush, abundant--rabbits actually built a nest in my container garden. I had created a place of such beauty that other creatures wanted to dwell in it. Gardening became a living metaphor of love and beauty to me.

Next year, when I moved, I moved my containers with me. They followed me to some degree or another in the next 4 houses and apartments I lived in. Finally I ended up renting a house with some friends, and my pal Brian and I undertook the task of transforming our grassy city lot backyard to 100% garden. We were 2/3 done when we moved out. Now i live in an apartment with not even a balcony. But I am able to have a garden on the land at work. I am so lucky!

For these generations, my two favorite books:
Alys Fowler, Garden Anywhere
James and Adam Caplin, Urban Eden

For Minneapolis gardeners, some great resources:
Columbia Gardens on Central in NE Mpls
Tangletown Gardens on Nicollet in S Mpls
Hunt & Gather Antiques in S Mpls (crazy selection of succulents)
Tonkadale in Minnetonka
the plant sale at the co-op in NE
Northern Gardener magazine

I have to say that it is not just in gardening that the older generations judge us and say that we are not active. They call us lazy since we move back in with our parents and that because we communicate via technology that we have no idea how to communicate face to face.

I agree with a lot of the previous posts. It is not because we don't want to garden, but at this point gardening is seen as a luxury. I rent, but have wonderful landlords who would let me plant almost anything I wanted. And I've tried a couple of times, but I work a lot and when I'm not working I go and do stuff, so I"m actually not spending that much time at home during daylight gardening hours. But I think if perhaps the older generations actually took two minutes and saw how much things have changed since they were our ages they would understand why we aren't the biggest gardeners, or why we are forced to move back in with our parents. I think it is very frustrated and be so ignorantly judged.

I am Gen Y and seem to be an exception among my own peers --- I am 22, married and live in my own home. I have the room to garden, but money is always the biggest factor. Everyone went off to college, got their degrees, cannot even find jobs, let alone own their own place, especially a house, and get into gardening. In this economy it just isn't happening for most people. Not to mention the debt racked up from college....sad times we live in! Having moved from the Midwest to the East Coast, I've learned everything is dramatically more expensive here as well. The neighbors are the ones who inspired my husband and I to do something about our award winning WORST property on the block. They are master gardeners. She splits her plants and gives them to me....I'm not the black thumb I thought I would be, and now our property looks as different as night and day. I prefer to buy transplants rather than grow from seed too. I always go to the garden centers whenever I get the chance. We now grow our own food too. Tomatoes, eggplants, bellpeppers, lettuce, strawberries, herbs.... I absolutely love it!!! There is much joy in gardening and I am counting my blessings in life to be able to do the things I love.

Gen X/Y here. Factors into the gardening/non-gardening style of our generations are as follows:

-Time... we work more and longer than previous generations, with greater commitments to social/technological extracurriculars

-Financial... we make less money and have a dwindling expendable income ratio when you consider the continual rise in cost of living across the board

-Lifestyle... our generations are waiting longer and longer before making domestic commitments like marriage, children, home-ownership, partially because we can, and partially because it's getting harder and harder to afford those commitments.

-Domestic priorities... Previous generations were occupied by domestic pursuits in a way that was very individualistic and private. Our generations are much more interested in community and global domestics- the ideas of sharing, being conscious of our footprint, learning from each other. But we are exploring uncharted territory here, and so we are still figuring out what exactly we want and how we can provide this for ourselves.

-Ecological/Social priorities... Gen X/Yers are overwhelmingly interested in ecological and social justice, to varying degrees but nonetheless it's something most of us consider to an extent. We have a tendency to truly consider the cost/impact of our decisions. We are interested in sustainability, organics, fair trade, recycling, ethical consumerism, local economy, etc.

It's hard to see what the future looks like for our generations... But I would guess that community gardens, urban homesteading, tool/skill sharing, and green-living will be in there somewhere.

Personal anecdote: When I moved to Albuquerque, NM from San Francisco, CA, part of the draw was climate and cost of living. I work much fewer hours here in the Southwest than I would have to in San Francisco to be able to afford the same things. I now have time for pursuits like gardening and the sun is incredible here- for plants and people alike. Most rented homes and many rented apartments in this city welcome gardening and the affordability of homes means younger home-ownership. I have several friends, owners and renters alike, with full-fledged vegetable gardens and chicken coups in their backyards. We have fantastic resources for urban homesteading, community gardening, and xeriscaping, it's a huge part of the culture here probably in part because of the long cultural roots of agriculture along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The traditional irrigation techniques of the spanish and the puebloans are still used today to nurture this hot and dry climate. They are ancient keys to sustainable agriculture that we can continue to learn from. And because our climate is so specific, there are several business who cater to xeriscaping which is inherently climate-conscious in a way I never experienced in the Bay Area where moisture can actually take a toll on your garden.

Check out these resources:

Plants of the Southwest
Rio Grande Community Farm
Albuquerque Coop Tour
Albuquerque Backyard Farms
Landscape Architecture program at University of New Mexico