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.

Katie Dubow Named 2016 Emergent Communicator by GWA

Exceptional skill, strong ethics and tireless passion are just some of the defining characteristics of Katie Dubow’s work as creative director at Garden Media Group.

Now, she can add award winner to her list of accomplishments. The Association of Garden Communicators (GWA), the leading professional organizations of green industry communicators, will officially award Dubow with the first-ever Emergent Communicator Honor at the GWA Annual Conference and Expo in Atlanta on September 16-19. 

Awarded by the leading professional organization of green industry communicators, the Emergent Communicator Honor recognizes a professional under the age of 40 who shows exceptional skills, professional ethics and dedication to the GWA mission and values. Dubow will be one of five to receive GWA Honors at its annual awards banquet.

Garden Writers Early Spring Survey Results: Garden Spending Drops But Retailers Maintain Head-to-Head Competition

Looks like we may have spent more on our gardens this year. According to the 2011 Early Spring Gardening Trends Research Report from Garden Writes Association Foundation, we planned to spend 23% less -- from an average $600 in 2010 to a projected $469 for 2011.

GWAF says it's a sign of the economic times. But it was a pretty cool, wet spring in the northeast this year, which may have dampend enthusiasm in the early part of the year.

These are just projections, and I’ve always wondered who spends only $469 on their garden. I spent way more than that just getting my veggie garden refurbished – and that doesn’t count plants, soil or other goodies!

Anyway, there are some other interesting trends I saw that are not in the report I thought I’d share:

• Front yard gardening is up 3% from last year. It appears there’s a slight shift as backyard gardening is down 3%. GMG predicted this trend several years ago in our annual Garden Trends Report.


• Container gardening is up 5% from 2009, but slightly down (1%) from last year.
  


• Nearly two-thirds (64%) of those who have a garden plan to grow their own vegetables this year, but it’s down 2% since last year.


• And the size of the vegetable garden is shrinking. Some 6% more are opting for smaller 10’X10’ plots while 9% are opting out of 20’X20’ or bigger gardens.
  


• Almost twice as many grow their own veggies for quality, taste and nutrition (86%) not because they feel it is cheaper than buying them in the grocery store (46%).


• GWA also discovered the competition between independent garden centers and mass merchants is expected to remain evenly split this spring. When GWAF first started tracking consumers gardening preferences in 2005, only 40% planned to buy most of their spring plants at garden centers compared to 51% who favored mass merchants. Today, the April survey found garden centers have a slight edge over mass merchants (46% to 44%).

For more results, check out the 2011 Early Spring Gardening Trends Research Report, the first of four national consumer attitude surveys on gardening to be conducted this year by the GWAF. The survey statistically represents the attitudes of over 100 million households with an accuracy of 95%.

Suzi, Garden Media Group