According to the Wall Street Journal more homeowners are likely to spend more time at home rather than travel this spring and summer. Spending time at home means increased spending on landscaping.
About 94% of residential landscape architects polled by the American Society of Landscape Architects earlier this year said that outdoor living spaces, including cooking and entertaining areas, would be popular in 2010. That said, improvements are expected to have few frills as homeowners stick to the basics in this cool economy.
"Homeowners want to create a sense of place for their family, friends, and neighbors to enjoy outside, but an uncertain economy means many will dial back some of the extra features we've seen in past years," said Nancy Somerville, executive vice president for the group, in a news release.
Some of the most popular features this year: outdoor seating and dining areas, including benches and seat-walls or weatherized outdoor furniture, as well as fire pits and fireplaces, the classic outdoor grill and outdoor counter space, according to the survey results. More lavish outdoor kitchen appliances, including refrigerators and sinks, are expected to be less popular, as are stereo systems and outdoor heaters.
Survey results found a growing interest in low-maintenance landscapes and native plants. There's also a continued resurgence of the home garden.
At Home Depot, sales of seed packets for vegetable gardens were up more than 50% in 2009, compared with 2008, said Jean Niemi, spokeswoman for the company. Last year's popularity has prompted the company to increase the types of edible seed packets offered at the stores by 25% this year, she said. The stores are also planning to offer workshops on how to plant and maintain a garden.
While consumers may be planting more as a way to have fresher produce or so they can know where their food is coming from, there's also an economic driver: According to the National Gardening Association, a well-maintained food garden yields an average $500 return, considering a typical investment and the market price of produce.
A growing market
The interest in spending time outside is likely to beget more products designed for indoor/outdoor use in the near future, according to Rob Tannen and Mathieu Turpault, of Bresslergroup, a product-development firm. The two gave a presentation on the topic at the International Home & Housewares Show in Chicago recently.
One of the products they imagined: a tray container system that people could take into the garden to collect fruits and vegetables, adapt to fit the sink for cleaning the produce and slide into a refrigerator as you would a crisper drawer. Another concept was a grill with seating built around it, allowing cooks to entertain friends as they work.
Technology will likely play a larger role outdoors too, Tannen said. It's not far fetched to imagine a shed with solar roofing panels that allow you to charge pieces of large lawn equipment, as easily as you might dock your Dustbuster inside the house. Or using iPod apps in the garden to learn how to best take care of a plant, he said.
Already, technology has entered some gardens. EasyBloom, a product that hit the market in 2008, is a sensor that you stick in the ground to collect information about the soil. You then connect it to a computer via a USB port, where collected information is analyzed to help determine what plants will thrive in that area. The tool also can diagnose problems with an existing plant. It costs about $40, and is sold online
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