What Gardeners Think 2026 Edition
Format: PDF (272 pages) + Excel Workbook
The What Gardeners Think report is the National Gardening Association's flagship deep-dive companion to the annual National Gardening Survey. Published every four to five years, it answers the questions the annual Survey doesn't: why people garden, why they don't, what stops them from doing more, how they learn, and how all of this varies across age, residence type, and gardener personality.
The 2026 edition is the first new release since 2021 - and the first to fully capture the post-pandemic gardening market. It tracks the COVID-era cohort five years on, documents the rise of inflation as a gardening motivator, and introduces twelve full segment profiles spanning every age group, housing situation, and gardener type.
If the National Gardening Survey owns the numbers, What Gardeners Think owns the story.
What's Included
- Full 272-page report (PDF) with an interactive table of contents
- Excel data workbooks with all profile tables and significance testing
- Searchable text for fast access to key terms, segments, and topics
Key Topics Covered
- Why people garden - motivations across veterans and newcomers, ranked and broken by demographics
- What would make gardeners do more - the barriers and enablers, including the 61% who say they'd garden more if they simply knew more about it
- The problems gardeners face - weeds, insects, heat, drought, animal pests, and regional variation
- The inflation effect on behavior - how economic conditions are reshaping participation and money-saving practices
- The COVID cohort five years later - retention, deepening engagement, and dropout among 2020-era newcomers
- How gardeners learn - books, apps, social media, influencers, video, and the rise of search as the #1 instructional channel
- Non-participating households - why people stopped, why they never started, and what would get them to start
- Native plants and pollinator purchasing - lawn-to-wildflower conversion and pollinator-friendly buying
- Channel and product preferences by segment - chemical vs. organic, in-store vs. online, retailer choice by gardener type
The Twelve Profile Sections
Each profile covers participation, spending, products, retailers, motivations, problems, barriers, and information sources for that group.
By age (5): 18–34 · 35–44 · 45–54 · 55–64 · 65+
By residence (2): House dwellers · Apartment/condo dwellers
By gardener typology (5):
- Garden Masters (5%) - highly skilled, deeply engaged
- Garden Enthusiasts (21%) - passionate, serious
- Casual Gardeners (48%) - enjoy it but don't take it too seriously
- Reluctant Gardeners (14%) - do it because they have to
- Just Cut the Grass (10%) - non-gardeners who maintain their property
New in the 2026 Edition
- First new edition since 2021 - fully updated for the post-pandemic gardening market
- The COVID cohort, five years later - original tracking of the 2020 entrants and what's become of them
- Twelve full profile sections - every age band, residence type, and gardener typology, each with the same comprehensive cross-cut
- Inflation as a behavioral force - how economic conditions are now shaping who gardens, what they grow, and why
- The middle-income exit - segment-level analysis of where the contraction is concentrated
- Refreshed visual layout and an all-new color and figure system
Once purchased, you'll receive immediate access to a ZIP file containing the full PDF report and the complete Excel workbook.
[View Table of Contents (PDF)]
Looking for prior editions? [View the 2021 What Gardeners Think]