Gardeners help our economy to grow

Oct 2 2007 by Paddy Rooney, Western Mail

THERE is an old saying that Adam was a gardener, and certainly the gardening instinct seems deeply embedded in the human psyche.

Wherever one goes in the world, in tropical or temperate climates, whatever the culture, one finds gardens and garden aficionados.

Gardens inspire many reactions, from the rhapsodising of poets to the backache of allotment-holders.

Few delights compare with tasting freshly-picked vegetables, or decorating a room with flowers straight from the garden.

But while it comes naturally to consider gardening in aesthetic terms, the business side doesn’t come to mind so readily. Yet it is an industry which contributes substantially to the economy.

The Yellow Pages for South-West Wales alone lists some 200 garden centres and service suppliers, without including florists, landscapers, tree services, turf suppliers, and jobbing gardeners.

In Wales as a whole there must be thousands of such enterprises.

The structure of the garden industry is similar to that for food: growers and service suppliers; specialist and general retailers; garden centre supermarkets and visitor gardens, perhaps analogous to restaurants.

While there are no consolidated figures for such a diverse industry, guesstimates of consumer spending on the one hand and supplier sales on the other, suggest a turnover of at least £100m annually in Wales, implying many thousands of full and part-time jobs.

The contribution of visitor gardens to tourism should not be forgotten either. The National Botanic Garden, Gwydir, Picton Castle, Bodnant, Aberglasney and similar enterprises attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.

Surveys show that these visitors travel more than 30 miles on average, so clearly many will come from afar and require meals and perhaps accommodation.

To see gardening in such commercial terms may be unromantic, but the rural economy needs all the help it can get and the contribution of gardening should be recognised and encouraged.

Paddy Rooney is a member of the Welsh Executive of the Country Land and Business Association