My favourite hobby – well, it’s not really a hobby, just an excuse to get some fresh air – is doing the garden, although it mostly consists of cutting the grass, watering the plants, and following directions on where to place everything! This survey from MyVoice looked at how the Japanese approached gardening.

Demographics

Over the first five days of August 2008 14,858 members of the MyVoice internet community successfully completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54% of the sample were female, 1% in their teens, 16% in their twenties, 37% in their thirties, 28% in their forties, and 18% in their fifties.

I wonder if the keenness to grow vegetables is in any way connected with the recent rises in prices of many goods? From our garden we get mint and chives, mainly. We got a Brussels sprout plant but it’s still to sprout. Two years ago we planted oba/shiso and got a huge crop; with 10 leaves costing 80 to 100 yen per pack, and us going through up to 50 per week, 200 yen for a seedling from the garden centre is a wonderful bargain. We’ve got a lot of roses, but although they are lovely in the spring, they really suffer in the summer and we’re just beginning to get some new flowers through, but they’re barely a quarter of the size! Oh, and three weeks ago I had great fun relieving stress by hacking a path through two overgrown bushes.



Research results

Q1: Have you grown any plants this year? (Sample size=14,858) Yes 53.0% No 47.0% Q2: Where have you grown plants this year? (Sample size=plant growers, multiple answer) Own garden 48.7% Own balcony 42.5% Inside own house 32.5% School, work 4.5% Public, private allotment 2.0% Other 2.8% No answer 0.1% Q3: What kinds of plants have you grown this year? (Sample size=plant growers, multiple answer) Flowers 64.4% Decorative plants 47.8% Vegetables 46.4% Herbs 25.7% Trees 23.6% Fruit 13.3% Bonsai 2.3% Other 2.3% No answer 0.1% Q4: From where did the vegetables you grew this year come from? (Sample size=vegetable growers, multiple answer) From seedling 74.8% From seed, bulb, seed potato 59.6% Cutting from food-use vegetable 15.4% Already grown up 11.3% Other 0.7% No answer 0.6% Q5: From where did buy the vegetable seedlings, seeds, etc you grew this year? (Sample size=vegetable growers, multiple answer) Home, garden centre 64.3% Specialist gardening shop, seed merchant 30.0% Supermarket 10.4% Flower shop 9.6% Internet order 4.4% Other mail order 1.2% Other 10.7% Didn’t buy it 9.4% No answer 0.5% Q6: When did you start growing vegetables? (Sample size=vegetable growers, multiple answer) This year, 2008 20.6% 2007 15.3% 2006 12.3% 2005 7.3% 2004 4.0% 2003 or earlier 39.9% No answer 0.5% Q7: In the future, what kinds of plants would you like to grow? (Sample size=14,858, multiple answer) Vegetables 49.8% Flowers 41.5% Herbs 34.6% Decorative plants 32.3% Fruit 31.4% Trees 16.6% Bonsai 5.9% Other 1.2% None in particular 16.9% No answer 4.3%