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Increasingly green Italians: there is a boom in private gardeners and vegetable gardens

The Coldiretti survey highlighted a phenomenon that is leading millions of Italians to the hobby and profession of gardening, especially the younger ones - The crisis has something to do with it, but most do it to eat healthy and out of passion - Record increase of registrations of gardeners in the Chambers of Commerce – The sales of machinery and equipment is also growing.

Increasingly green Italians: there is a boom in private gardeners and vegetable gardens

Hobby farmers. This is how Coldiretti defined the Italians in a report which highlighted a boom in the gardening profession or hobby. The return to contact with nature mainly affects young people: 51% of young people aged between 18 and 34 grow their own plants and/or vegetables and do so, according to the Coldiretti-Censis survey, above all for the desire to eat healthy and genuine (26%), but also out of passion (10%) and to a small extent to save money (4,8%).

With the arrival of the heat, more than 20 million Italians have set to work in vegetable gardens, gardens or terraces to devote themselves, in addition to the traditional care of flower pots, to do-it-yourself cultivation of lettuces, tomatoes, aromatic plants, peppers, courgettes, aubergines. The phenomenon has a transversal diffusion among men and women, age groups and territories of residence even if the analysis shows that if in the past it was mainly the elderly who devoted themselves to growing vegetables, often mindful of a time lived in the countryside , "now - explains Coldiretti - the passion is spreading even among the youngest and among people completely ignorant of cultivation techniques. A need for knowledge that has been filled by word of mouth and with specialized publications, but which has now favored the birth of new professional figures”.

In fact, Italians devote themselves to work in gardens and private terraces, but also on public land or farms, so much so that for many this has become a real profession: in Italy there has been a record 51% increase in gardener registrations at the Chambers of Commerce, in the past six years. Witnessing the new trend is also the growth of gardening machinery and equipment in 2015 also in agricultural consortia, with a significant increase from chainsaws (+5,8%) to blowers/vacuum cleaners (+8,5%), from motor hoes (+3,8%) up especially to robot lawnmowers (+16% ) according to data from Comangarden.

"Without forgetting - adds Coldiretti - that so many green areas have never been destined for public gardens in the capital cities where the record was reached of 3,3 million square meters of land owned by the municipality divided into small plots and used for cultivation for domestic use, the planting of vegetable gardens and recreational gardening, on the basis of the Istat report on the quality of urban green areas of 2014, which shows that urban gardens in Italy have even tripled in two years“. The cultivations of urban gardens are not for profit, are assigned on loan to requesting citizens and supply products intended for family consumption and, in addition to representing an aid for families in difficulty and also having an educational value, they often contribute to preserving areas interstitial green areas between built-up areas that are mostly uncultivated and destined for abandonment and degradation.

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