Sales of veggie seeds shoot up
By BRUCE HOROVITZ
USA Today
Hard economic times are acting like instant fertilizer on an industry that had been growing slowly: home vegetable gardening.
Amid the Washington talk of "shovel-ready" recession projects, it appears few projects are more shovel-ready than backyard gardens. Veggie seed sales are up double-digits at the nation's biggest seed sellers this year.
What's more, the number of homes growing vegetables will jump more than 40 percent this year compared with just two years ago, projects the National Gardening Association, a nonprofit organization for gardening education.
"As the economy goes down, food gardening goes up," says Bruce Butterfield, the group's research director. "We haven't seen this kind of spike in 30 years."
At W. Atlee Burpee, the world's largest seed company, seed sales will jump 25 percent this year, estimates Chairman George Ball. "It's weird to have everyone else you talk to experiencing plunging markets. We're on a roll."
Burpee is taking pains to craft its marketing to fit the times, says Ball. It recently rolled out the "Money Garden," a value bundle of tomato, bean, red pepper, carrot, lettuce and snap pea seeds sold online at www.burpee.com. With a separate retail value of $20, the pack sells for $10, and under the right conditions, Burpee claims, can produce $650 worth of veggies.
"Seeds are God's microchip," says Ball. But in the suddenly hot world of veggie seed sales, Burpee has company:
Says Yates, "Every time this country goes through a recession, there is a surge of folks who want to get back to basics."
"After years of declining veggie seed sales, the whole cycle has completely reversed," says Renee Shepherd, president.
The veggies are apparently squeezing flowers for space in the nation's gardens.
