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‘The purest
of human pleasures’
by
Peter Galuszka
Virginia
Business
April 2003
One thing Virginians have in common this year, despite
where they live, is that the winter of 2003 has been
uniformly miserable. Take heart. The days are here for
the joys of gardening and landscaping.
True, they’ve been pleasures since the days before
Babylon. But the hobby is now reaching new dimensions,
thanks to the growing ranks of baby boomers with more
time and money. “You are seeing more people in
their middle ages taking a very serious interest in
it and doing more sophisticated things,” says June
Johnson Adams, owner of Mirasol, Inc., a landscaping
design firm in Chesterfield.
With
its mild climate and four distinct seasons, the Old
Dominion is an excellent spot to practice the craft.
Nationally some 85 million American households garden
or tend lawns, spending at least $450 per family a year.
Those numbers will only grow, says Ashton Ritchie, a
native of Matoaca who is national spokesman for The
Scotts Company, which makes such lawn staples as Scotts
seeds and fertilizer, Ortho pesticides and Roundup herbicide.
New
trends include water fixtures and all-season gardening.
Installing ponds and fountains takes simple gardens
to a new level, says Carl Gittings with Ashland Berry
Farms in Ashland. Prices range from $700 to more than
$30,000 for miniature ponds with pumps to more extensive
ones with water falls and lighting. Ponds and small
streams, backed by fully-planted and landscaped shorelines,
can be as shallow as 18 inches or as deep as four feet.
The large projects can involve hundreds of square feet,
gazebos and exotic plants such as Japanese bonsai trees.
The
growing season in Virginia, depending upon where one
lives, can be relatively long — as long as that
in central Alabama or Mississippi. Yet, some people
want to enjoy their gardens even longer. So, they are
moving to four-season gardens with plants that offer
aesthetic beauty year-round. Preparing one involves
selecting plants that bloom at different times, are
evergreen, or by strategically placing trees and shrubs
so their bare limbs will fill a special place.
One
way to plan an all-season garden is to consult with
a landscape designer. Rates typically start at $60 an
hour with a usual consultation running from $250 to
$600. The designer can help pick plants, sketch out
designs and advise on mulching, feeding and fertilizer.
Baby-boomers
also tend to be eco-conscious and services are available
to oblige them. One is Natural Lawn of America, a Frederick,
Md.-based company, that uses seeds and fertilizers specially
made for a specific area. Its fertilizer contains micronutrients
and vitamins that other lawn-care chains don’t
offer, says Dan Collins, who owns a Natural Lawn franchise
in Midlothian. “We just don’t do blanket applications,”
he says. “We don’t sell grub control if you
don’t have grubs.”
However
it’s done, gardening celebrates the joys of laboring
away in the outdoors and enjoying the multi-colored,
multi-textured and perfumed results. As Renaissance
author Sir Francis Bacon wrote in 1625, “Gardening
is the purest of human pleasures.” The father of
deductive reasoning certainly got that right.
Virginia
Business - April 2003
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