Gardening goes yoof as more young Brits get green fingers

Youngsters are becoming interested in gardening, despite its reputation as a hobby for older people, research reveals. The study of 2,000 people found more than 70 percent of 18 to 35-year-olds are now interested in the pastime.

This compared to 56 percent of those aged over 65, who also revealed they had little or no interest in gardening when they were in their 20s themselves.

Young adults are gaining a love for spending time in their back garden, with almost half putting this down to its mental health benefits.

For other groups, 45 percent said they enjoy gardening because they find it therapeutic to watch something grow, the poll commissioned by seed and plant producer Mr Fothergill’s found.

Of gardeners of every age, two-thirds want to grow more fruit and vegetables from seeds and plants to keep themselves fed, and
64 percent would prefer to grow their own vegetables than buy them from a supermarket.

The main reasons for this are wanting to ensure it is the freshest produce possible (67 percent) and finding it rewarding to monitor its progress and knowing exactly where it has come from (both 61 percent), according to the OnePoll.com data.

TV gardener David Domoney is heading Mr Fothergill’s “windowsill gardening” campaign to encourage new gardeners to grow vegetables indoors to save money.

He said: “Growing on a windowsill is many people’s first experience of gardening. Growing indoors has many benefits, including feeding the family with fresh, healthy, flavoursome produce, generating excitement at the first signs of germination, and the true happiness at watching it grow before your eyes. There are significant mental health benefits to tending and nurturing plants, and the enhanced vitamin enriched flavour of picking fresh and making use of the produce in meals within your own home also results in physical wellbeing.”

One newer gardener is Cara Addison who started when she was pregnant in London. Now she has filled her new plot in Stratford-upon-Avon with flowers and produce and is keen to share her hobby with her two children Cassie, two, and Joshua, seven months.

The 30-year-old said: “My love for gardening has grown. I found a community on Instagram and it’s a whole new world. It is something I can do for myself that isn’t being a mother or a wife, it is just time for me.

“It’s a brain break and gets me outside.

“I find it therapeutic, rewarding and exciting.

“Being a mum is a lot of pressure, a lot of, ‘Am I doing this right?’ But if a seedling dies it’s OK, it’s all right, it’s fun, it doesn’t matter. I’m from Zimbabwe, where I grew up on a farm and I was outside 90 percent of the time. I love to get my little girl outside – she gets muddy and it is nice to get her out there with me. We get that fresh air and see what we made.

“Just give it a go. If you have a windowsill with water and a bit of light, things will germinate, things will grow.

“It is so rewarding to take a bit of basil you have grown and add it to your pasta. How cool is that?”