About Garden Research
A division of the National Gardening Association, Garden Research is the most widely recognized authority on the U.S. consumer lawn and garden market.
What We Do
We publish the National Gardening Survey, the longest-running study of U.S. household lawn and garden participation, spending, and purchasing behavior. Continuously published since 1973, the survey tracks 15 lawn and garden activities across 12 demographic dimensions—covering everything from vegetable gardening and lawn care to flower gardening, landscaping, and container growing.
The data is used by leading companies, retailers, growers, and investors to understand market size, identify growth opportunities, benchmark performance, and inform product development and strategic planning. Our findings are regularly cited by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and USA Today.
Beyond the annual survey, we design and conduct custom research studies for companies in the lawn and garden industry—from brand tracking and customer segmentation to new product testing and competitive analysis.
Garden Research is led by Dave Whitinger, Executive Director of the National Gardening Association. Raised by a family of gardeners, Dave has been at the forefront of online gardening resources since the mid-90s and is the architect of Garden.org, one of the most visited gardening websites in the world.
Methodology
The National Gardening Survey is fielded annually by Dynata, a leading global data and insights company, using a nationally representative online panel of U.S. households.
The sample is weighted by education, gender/age, region, income, homeownership, and ethnicity to match U.S. Census benchmarks. This rigorous weighting ensures the results are projectable to the full U.S. household population—allowing us to estimate not only participation rates but also total households, aggregate spending, and retail channel share for each activity.
Previous fieldwork partners include the Gallup Organization, Harris Interactive, and Research Now/SSI.
Our History
1973
National Gardening Association begins tracking U.S. gardening participation and spending
1973–2000s
Partnered with the Gallup Organization and Harris Interactive for nationally representative survey fieldwork
2000s–2019
Fieldwork conducted by Research Now/SSI, continuing rigorous quantitative methods
2020–Present
Research fielded by Dynata. Over 50 years of continuous market data—the longest-running dataset on U.S. lawn and garden consumers.
In Memory of Bruce Butterfield
Bruce Butterfield served as Market Research Director at the National Gardening Association from 1978 until September 2016. For more than 35 years he was responsible for conducting and reporting the annual National Gardening Survey, earning deep respect throughout the gardening industry.
His decades of experience gave him a unique understanding of who gardeners are, what they need, why they buy, where they shop, and how trends evolve. Bruce was also responsible for What Gardeners Think and the Environmental Lawn and Garden Survey. His legacy continues in the research tradition he established.