In case you missed it, I published the results from the Gen X & Y Gardener survey earlier this morning. I learned a lot about surveying people in addition to what my contemporary gardeners are doing and thinking about when it comes to gardening. I can’t thank enough the people who participated and helped spread the word about the survey. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And if you are a baby boomer, I hope you’ll take a few minutes to answer the same questions I asked younger gardeners.
The most interesting part of the survey to me were the responses to the question, “If you are NOT a member of any offline gardening clubs or organizations, why not?” About a third of respondents (32.23%) said that they hadn’t looked for a club/org, or weren’t interested. Another quarter (26.07%) said they didn’t have enough time. The overwhelming majority (probably over 90%) of the remaining 41.70% of respondents said that they felt the groups were in some way uninterested or hostile to younger gardeners. They listed things like event times during the day, snootiness of members, topics that didn’t appeal to them (like growing show quality roses rather than edible gardening, for example), or inability to pay membership dues.
I often hear of groups (both gardening and non-gardening) trying to attract Gen X & Y to their membership roles. I hope they’ll take into consideration the mixed signals they may be sending to the people they are trying to attract. Of course the “problem” is not just caused by the current members and current group practices and Gen X/Y is almost certainly misinterpreting garden groups’ behavior in some cases. But groups trying to attract members in the 20s, 30s, and early 40s might do well to recruit people that age to help them make their group and its events more friendly to Gen X/Y.
I got the sense from many of the responses to the survey (and the posts on this topic in the gardening blogosphere), that Gen X/Y folks have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. We don’t want to be talked down to. We’re tired of pithy statements trivializing what we think and want and do. I suspect we’re not that different than Boomers in that respect, it’s just that we’re the current group under the microscope. Boomers who are hoping to attract younger folks to their group, business, or gain them as clients should keep those things in mind.
While it’s interesting that such a large number of Gen X/Y gardeners feel alienated from offline gardening groups, 97.6% of us know at least one other gardener our age. And nearly two-thirds (62.6%) know 6 or more gardeners their age. Even though 83.4% of Gen X/Y are not participating in an offline gardening group, obviously we’ve found a way to connect with our peers who are interested in gardening. Clearly most of us want that connection, but between groups ill-fitted to our needs and a lack of time to commit, offline groups aren’t a priority. I wonder what that means for us. I think it would be unwise to suggest that the internet can completely replace in-person interaction.
Anyway, those are my initial thoughts. I’d love to hear what you guys think.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
In case you were curious. I was the one who gave the answer about not being part of a group that would have me as a member.
:0)
“We’re tired of pithy statements trivializing what we think and want and do.”
I agree that his has more to do with simply being the “younger” generation. I just squeaked in as a baby boomer and believe me, I got it too. When I first started nursery work about 20 years ago it really felt like a male dominated nursery and I got the polite pat on the head to my ideas. Gardening was for women, but growing… well that was serious business left to men.
As for offline gardening groups, here they seem to attract retired people with way too much time on their hands looking for ways to make the days go quicker. And that in itself seems to lead to some problems for me. I want to hang out with people that “do” and not just “talk.”
I don’t think Gen X/Y has a chip on it’s shoulder. I think the broad generalizations are a tad old and we’re way over it.
Today a classmate (retired school teacher) sneered at a drought tolerant garden the instructor had us install. I commented we live in a desert. I also shared how we harvest our gray (shower)water to irrigate our parking strip. I thought it was a cool tip.
She threw her hands on her hip, cocked her head and snarkily exlaimed in a tone clearly not hers and meant to immitate me, “thank you for reminding me and good for you!” Then she stormed off.
I have nothing in common with that old-school closed minded way of thinking and she clearly disregarded me. The older set seems to be the group with a chip on it’s shoulder.
Adriana– Having a chip on your shoulder means “having a harboured grievance and being quick to take offence.” It seems apt to me?
Honestly, I don’t really enjoy spending time with people. Playing in the dirt is my relaxing time to enjoy being alone. I spend enough time around other people 8 hours a day. When given the choice of spending my personal time with more people (groups or clubs) or spending that time with my partner, my dog, and my garden, there is no contest.
Harboured is the key word. Age is but a number until someone points it out and describes me as a fly by night gardener.
Adriana–This is getting pedantic, but “harboring a complaint” means registering or lodging a complaint. What are we doing here except complaining about the way we are being treated?
Okay, you published this a while ago, but I’ve been offline a lot lately and just noticed it — just wanted to say thanks for undertaking such a survey. I was glad to participate and interested to read the results.
I’ve often wondered what offline garden clubs will look like in 10 years. I’m not a member of my local garden club, but I volunteer for them as a sponsor because they’re all too old to be out digging in the dirt. It’ll be interesting to see how the concept of “the garden club” evolves to suit us.
Andrew–I think it will be interesting to watch too. I know a friend of mine and I have talked about creating a gardening club that suits our tastes more than the established ones in our area. We’re not in to growing specimen roses or creating beautiful estate gardens and I get that vibe from the clubs around me. I think a lot of younger gardeners are more interested in sharing “boots-on-the-ground” info that we’ve learned and meeting other people with our interests, like growing fruits and vegetables on balconies or in the smaller yards that a lot of young folks have to work with. Or ripping out lawns and growing native/drought tolerant plants.