While the recession has been accompanied by a drop in sales at many businesses, one sector has had a sudden spurt of growth.
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"It started last year," said Jeff Watson, who runs the retail store at Rohrer Seeds in Smoketown.
As the recession set in, he said, more and more people decided to start growing some of their own food.
"The vast majority are trying to save money," Watson said.
They may have had their hours reduced at work or one of the wage earners in a two-income family may have lost a job, he said.
"They have only so much expendable income. They're thinking this is where they can save a little."
Last year's increase was significant, Watson said, and this year's has been even bigger.
Others who cater to home gardeners say they've observed the same thing.
"We definitely have seen an increase in tomatoes and peppers. The numbers all around have been up this year," said Jill Ginder, assistant greenhouse manager at Stauffers of Kissel Hill in Lititz.
"Yes, I think there has definitely been a resurgence in the victory garden, recession garden or whatever you want to call it," said Fred Funk, owner of Funk's Farm Market & Garden Center in Millersville. "Vegetable sales this year are up 20 percent. In some segments, maybe more than that."
Doug Rohrer, president of Rohrer Seeds, which is primarily a wholesale supplier, said his garden seed sales — retail and wholesale combined — are up 27 percent for the first eight months of this fiscal year compared with all 12 months of the previous year.
Rohrer's wholesale business usually drops off by the end of April, but orders continued into June this year as retailers ran out of stock, requiring the firm to package more seeds late in the season.
Demand for the community garden plots at Lancaster County Central Park has also risen sharply.
The county has 315 plots of either 400 or 600 square feet that it leases on the southwest side of the park near Golf Road.
Parks spokeswoman Debbie Werner said all 315 were spoken for in the first few weeks they were available, with dozens of additional requests coming in after that.
"We've never sold out before," she said. "That's clearly an indication to us that this is economy-driven."
Selective growthOffsetting some of the growth in vegetables at Rohrer Seeds were stagnant lawn and flower sales.
"Even in the seed section, the increase was definitely on the vegetables, not on the flowers or perennials," Walker said.
It was as if people were thinking: "We have to eat. We don't have to have the flowers. We have to eat. We don't have to have the perfect green lawn," he said.
Across Old Philadelphia Pike at Ken's Gardens, manager Kathy Trout has noticed similar trends in people trying to save money.
In addition to a lot of first-time gardeners this year, Trout said, she's also had people coming in with professional landscape designs intending to do the work themselves rather than hiring contractors.
"They want to have it done, and they want it to look professional, but they're saving money by doing it themselves," she said.
Some gardeners may also be planning to feed more than just themselves.
Tim Elkner, a horticultural expert at Penn State Cooperative Extension in Lancaster, said he's noticed an increase of interest on the commercial side of gardening.
"A lot of Amish involved in the building trades [who have had their work cut back] are looking at it," he said.
Getting them startedThe industry that supplies home gardeners doesn't normally see a lot of new customers sprout, Walker said, making the recent growth all that more remarkable.
"We've seen a phenomenal amount of first-time gardeners," he said. "It seems to be pretty much all age brackets ... 30 to 40 and up."
Ginder at Stauffer's of Kissel Hill agrees.
"A lot of people are trying it for the first time, so there are questions," she said.
Those questions prompted Funk's Garden Center to print handouts with instructions to help the beginners get started — information on when to plant, how to space seedlings, things like that.
"We had to reprint them three or four times," Funk said.
With spring nearing an end, most gardeners have already done their planting, but it's still not too late to buy some larger tomato or pepper plants to stick in the ground.
Late planters may have to hurry, though. Funk said his company planted more vegetable plants in its "20 some greenhouses" than it has in several years, but it may not have been enough.
"I think it's going to be hard to find plants soon," he said.
Surprisingly, all this growth in new gardeners hasn't yet resulted in a significant increase in phone calls to the master gardeners at Penn State Cooperative Extension.
"We haven't noticed [an increase], but it may come," said Ann Zemsky, one of the volunteers answering calls last week.
"When they have problems, that's when they look for us," Zemsky said, explaining that it's still a little early in the growing season for those problems to crop up.
"I don't think it's translated to us yet," she said.
At least one garden supplier hopes that when it does, the assistance will prove fruitful.
"Definitely, there are a lot of new gardeners," Rohrer said. "Hopefully, they'll have success and come back next year."
Dennis Larison is editor of the business section and can be reached by telephone at 291-8753 or by e-mail at dlarison@lnpnews.com.
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