Gardening a growing trend in Durham
Locals are growing their own during the recession: garden centre owner
Jul 10, 2009 – 04:30 AM
DURHAM — With exotic vacations out of reach for some during this economic downturn, many are using their time off to get dirty — in the garden, of course.
Green-thumbing has become more popular this year, perhaps because homeowners know they will be spending more of their summer in the backyard, Kingsway Greenhouse owner Dave Curtis said.
Mr. Curtis said this year has been a booming one for his business, with more people coming down to buy everything from fruit and vegetable plants to annuals.
And it’s not just his business that has seen an increase in sales in the past couple years; he’s heard the same story from many greenhouse and garden centre owners, he said.
“People kick into survival mode,” he said. “If they are laid off, they have more time and they might spend it in the garden.”
That’s why the sign on King Street directing customers to his business currently carries the moniker “recession busters” on it. Gardening is relaxing and it doesn’t have to be expensive to load up the soil patch in the front yard if customers buy plants like the popular flower impatiens that expand and fill large spaces.
“In tough economic times, people like to go back to memories of when things were good,” Mr. Curtis said.
And the scents of shrubs and smells of familiar flowers help them do that. This might be the reason why traditional plants like petunias and marigolds have been so popular this season, he said.
In Oshawa, the popularity of gardening can be seen through the participation in the City’s Garden of the Week program. Scouts go out every week during gardening season and find the best-looking flower patch in each of the municipality’s wards. That’s seven gardens a week for 14 weeks, or 98 outstanding flower and plant beds a season.
“Scouts always come back saying they can’t decide,” said Rose Mary Mason, Oshawa Parks and Community program co-ordinator. “We ask for a list of three and sometimes they come back with 30.”
In the past four years, 700 gardens have been recognized with Growing with Pride signs from the City. They may not make the cut as garden of the week, but they get the accolades and a sign to put in their patch because it’s clear the residents take care in their landscaping endeavours, Ms. Mason said.
The City hopes the signs inspire others to do something with their front yards, she said.
Another reason it’s a great time to sow some seeds is certain outdoor projects this summer will be eligible for the government’s Home Renovation Tax Credit. The credit gives 15 per cent back on the portion of eligible expenditures exceeding $1,000 but not more than $10,000. Landscaping projects that qualify for the credit include: new sod, trees, shrubs, perennials, ponds and waterfalls, garden sheds and professional landscape design services, in case the homeowner isn’t particularly garden savvy.
One way to remember whether something is eligible or not is to think that it has to be something permanent, Mr. Curtis said.
“It’s included if it’s anything that is permanent in the garden, it stays even if you leave the house,” he said.
From a factsheet from Landscape Ontario:
– Planting increases retail activity. Studies have proven that greenery and flowers attract shoppers and residents to urban areas … spurring economic growth.
– Researchers at Quebec’s Laval University created a detailed survey study of 760 home sales and found that landscaping attributes (trees, flowers, plants, hedges) can “command a substantial market premium.”
– Nature increases worker productivity. Psychologists have found that access to plants and green spaces provides a sense of rest and allows workers to be more productive.
Food security: could flowering plants be the key?
[Date: 2009-06-18]
The BLOOM-NET project has received just over EUR 1.3 million in funding support for research into flowering plants. The ability to determine when a plant flowers can be of enormous benefit to the planet’s food production, since much of what we consume (from the feed given to livestock to products bought off the supermarket shelf) originates in some form from flowering plants.
In a world of diminishing and strained food sources, the issue of the sustainability of the food supply is a major concern, particularly as the global population continues to grow. Research conducted by a team from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Israel (representing both flowering research experts and technology pioneers) may spawn a highly anticipated solution to this problem.
BLOOM-NET (‘The meristematic regulatory network controlling the floral transition’) is one of 12 projects selected under ERA-NET (European Research Area-Network) Plant Genomics, supported by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The ERA-NET scheme plays an important role in improving the coordination and cooperation of national and regional research programmes on a given subject area – in this case, plant genomics.
‘Flowers are vital to the plant reproduction process as pollination leads to the development of the fruit where the seeds are found,’ explained Professor Brendan Davies of the University of Leeds in the UK. ‘Everything that we eat comes from flowering plants – even the food that is fed to livestock.
‘This means that the long-term future of the world’s food supply would be greatly enhanced if we could predict and control flowering. Farmers need to be able to plan when their crops should be harvested, and so our study has major significance for agriculture,’ the professor added.
Since flowers are the reproductive organs of a plant, according to Professor Davies, it is absolutely necessary for farmers and breeders to know when flowering will take place, and that this be reflected in their breeding programmes and scheduled harvests. By improving on our knowledge and applying this insight, farmers could expect more effective and productive output.
Professor Davies pointed out that plant growers have been trying for centuries to determine when flowering will take place, by looking at weather patterns, changing light levels or other means. ‘But we can now improve on these predictions by adding in other factors, such as minute changes in genetic make-up.
‘We now know a great deal about how the genes that control flowers operate. What we want to find out is how the expression of these genes, that is the order in which they are turned on and off, helps to create a flower at a specific time and in specific environmental conditions. If we could predict, or even control this process, then over time we may be able to help farmers improve the quantity and quality of their harvests.’
The team will collaborate with computer modelling specialists to create a model that will eventually have the capacity to predict the effects of changes in the genetic structure of a small but important group of cells. This tissue, known as shoot apical meristem, is responsible for the growth of both the flower and the rest of the plant. As well as the internal signals, the digital model will also have the ability to determine the impact of other external forces, such as climate, on the flowering process.
The project is coordinated by Wageningen University and Research Centre, the Netherlands. In addition to the University of Leeds, project participants include Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Plant Breeding Research (Germany), MPI Tuebingen (Germany), and the University of Tel-Aviv (Israel).
For more information, please visit: BLOOM-NET:
http://www.erapg.org/everyone/16790/18613/19533/19536
University of Leeds: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/
ERA-NET in FP7: http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/coordination/eranet_en.html
Related stories: 30605, 30840, 30845
Category: Projects
Data Source Provider: University of Leeds
Document Reference: Media release
Subject Index: Agricultural biotechnology ; Agriculture; Food; Scientific Research; Sustainable development RCN: 30921
