Following a Growing Drama, With Many Plots

Todd and Lissie Barbosa waited two years for Plot D-5S. They took tenancy a year ago and are so keen that they kept it up through the winter, sowing spinach, arugula and other cold-hardy greens. Both are medical residents who work long hours, so the garden becomes a place to unwind and relax, if only for half an hour in the early evening. Todd Barbosa is 27; his wife, 31.

Theirs is the face of a quiet revolution occurring in the gardening world at the moment. After years of steady decline, seed sales to consumers are on the rise, according to seed merchants.

"Our home garden business is up substantially this year," said Mike Comer, general manager of Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine. "It was up a little last year, and that was a turnaround point from years of continual decline."

"People in the seed business were feeling a little like we were a fossil. Now something old is new again," said Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds in Felton, Calif.

As the Barbosas demonstrate, "I think a lot of young people are more interested in growing things for different reasons," Shepherd said. Those reasons vary from an effort to reduce one's carbon footprint by avoiding trucked food to concern over food safety. The downturn in the economy and the rising cost of groceries are also seen as factors.

"We have seen historically in a time when people are spending less money that they'll turn back to more traditional home pursuits, like gardening," said Jeff Gibson of Ball Horticultural Co. in West Chicago, Ill.

Whether the trend will last is another matter. Comer has his doubts: "Gardening is wonderful for those of us who have a religious devotion to it, but the average consumer who is going to dig up 200 square feet of sod for a garden is in for a rude awakening."

As he's saying that, I'm thinking of Paoletti constructing her garden beds, and I'm hoping she won't become disillusioned by the labor. Stay tuned.