Garden Media Wins 2017 GWA Silver Medal

Garden Media has been awarded a 2017 Media Awards Silver Medal from GWA: The Association of Garden Communicators for the redesign of our website.

This special designation recognizes the top talent in more than 60 competition categories.

Our new website is a direct reflection of the beautiful horticultural market we represent. It’s colorful, fun and easy to use.

Designed by Mobius New Media in Wilmington, DE, the website was created to inspire and inform.

The site showcases our capabilities, our successes, and our personalities while at the same time educating people on how public relations builds brands.

Garden Media is now entered for judging in the Gold Medal Round, where awards will be given for the best of each award class. Gold Medal winners will be announced during the 2017 Awards & Honors Dinner at the GWA Annual Conference & Expo in Buffalo, NY on August 7, 2017.

GWA Media Awards is the only national online media awards program for the gardening communications industry. Held annually for more than 20 years, the GWA Media Awards recognizes the top professional horticultural communicators in the areas of writing, photography, digital media, broadcast media, publishing and trade. 

Learn more about the GWA Media Awards here.

What Are Under-40s Really Thinking About Gardening?

As a member of the Garden Writers Association , we're fortunate enough to have the latest research on gardening trends at our fingertips. I thought I would share some interesting news from a recent 2010 survey that only looked at just one age group; the under-40s and how they find their gardening information. The results may surprise you!

Books, newspapers, magazines and television are the

information sources for under-40s before turning to websites or blogs - by Anne Marie Van Nest

Besides using books to find more information, under-40s use newspapers and magazines (55%) and television (47%) in a surprising lead over gardening websites or blogs (44%). Radio (15%), YouTube (13%), online audio and podcasts (12%), and Facebook (10%) all claim just a small percentage of under-40s as a destination for gardening answers. Twitter has yet to gather many fans (3%).

Besides talking to friends, the youngest group, the 18-24s, turn to books and then online sources for their gardening answers. This group stands out as having a slightly higher affinity for using books, gardening websites or blogs, YouTube, and online audio than the next older group. The younger group is also less likely to find information using garden centers, nurseries or classes, magazines and newspapers, television and radio.

For more information on this survey, visit www.gardenwriters.org.

-Stacey

GMG

GMG Garden Soiree Dallas Style

We all had a blast at the 9th GMG Garden Soiree at the GWA Annual Symposium this week in Hot!!! Dallas.

We had Dallas size fun thanks to our sponsors American Beauties, Briggs, Conard-Pyle, Costa Farms, JazSpray and Liquid Fence .
>

Steve, Karen, Carol, Barbara, and Deb along with Lynne, Karen, Stacey and I gathered with about 40 of our closest gardening friends for some sizzling fun and lots of red meat and red wine.

Our goodie bags had lots of new plants and products for 2011 and some little cow bells. So we rang, rang rang, rang your bell. And we rang out for Stacey for making the party 1st class! And she surprised me with our own GMG 'brand' - because as Steve Castaroni says, "GMG makes brands sizzle!"<>

GWA Finds Edible Trend Continues in 2010

According to the 2009 Edibles Gardening Trends Research Report conducted by the Garden Writers Association Foundation (GWAF) in November, over 41 million U.S. households (38%) grew a vegetable garden in 2009. More than 19.5 million households (18%) grew an herb garden and 16.5 million households (15%) grew fruits during the same period.

Did Edibles Gardening Grow in 2009?
There was definitely a growth in edibles gardening in 2009 from both experienced gardeners and an influx of new gardeners. Among those that grew edibles gardens this year, 92% had previous experience and 7% (7.7 million households) were new to edibles gardening. One-third of the experienced gardeners reported growing more edibles in 2009 than in the previous year, while 46% reported they grew about the same as 2008, and 19% grew less than the previous year.

Will Edibles Gardening Continue to Expand in 2010?
When asked if they planned to continue their garden for 2010, 37% of households reported plans to increase their edible gardens, 29% reported they planned to plant about the same as 2009 and only 1% reported they would plant less than this year. Although a significant number (15%) remained undecided regarding their 2010 plans, the strong response for growing more edibles next year should carry the market to a new level of activity.

The main reason given for increasing or maintaining edible gardening for next year was to supplement household food supply. The most common reasons given for planting less next year were: lack of success in 2009 (14%), cost (13%), loss of interest (8%) and time involved (4%).

Consumer Information Sources
With over 7 million households becoming new edibles gardening participants in 2009, the GWAF investigated where consumers were getting their gardening information. The top response was friends, which has been the leading response in almost every past survey. Having magazines, books, retailers and newspapers in the third through sixth positions was also not a surprise. However, websites are now listed as the #2 information resource but were #5 as recently as March 2009.

The 2009 Edibles Gardening Trends Research Report is the fourth and final trend report of the GWA Foundation for 2009. The study was conducted by Technometrica Market Intelligence of Oradell, N.J., in November.

Pictured above: Margie Grace, APLD International Landscape Designer of 2009 and 'Pink Lemonade' blueberry from Briggs Nursery.

Click here to see Garden Media Group 2010 Garden Trends