There is an interesting report out on garden trends by Kairos Futures, an international research and management-consulting firm that was co-sponsored by Gardena.com (manufacturer of tools) and Husqvarna.com (the lawnmower people).
No doubt that their report is comprehensive: In 68 pages Kairos focused on garden trends from around the world and included China, Australia, South Africa and European countries in addition to the U.S.
Instead of looking at what garden experts said were trends, Kairos looked at what gardeners were doing in real time on the web. A New York Times story that said Japanese Gardens were on trend turned out to be a little late as the Times methodology was four years behind the trend.
Garden bloggers, Kairos said, seem to be ahead of the trends or are creating the trends. Garden bloggers are typically young and female; surprisingly, the most popular among this blogging bunch are amateur gardeners.
One of the trends: Experts are out - amateurs are in. And that's fine with me since we all started as beginners way back when, and I am thrilled to see a new generation of punk rockers planting potatoes.
Other trends the report touched on: Kitchen gardens ranked No. 1. Organic gardening is gaining on the top spot, while serenity gardens ranked third (it's a European thing), and a new trend - wild gardens, native gardens, or less-than-manicured landscapes - is emerging.
Container gardening and urban farming are similar subjects in that they both deal with gardening in small spaces. Both are hugely popular trends.
But I wish Kairos Futures had dropped me a line, because they left some huge trends completely out of their report. Garden experts might not be "in" now, but they know a thing or two about what is happening in the garden community.
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