Weekend Reading 5/31/24

Welcome to Garden Center magazine's Weekend Reading, a weekly round-up of consumer garden media stories meant to help IGCs focus marketing efforts, spark inspiration and start conversations with consumers.

This week: A feature on an organic gardening brand, how gardening helps cultivate friends, community gardens as third places and a guide to no-dig gardening.

Back To The Roots Wants To Take Organic Gardening Mainstream, Forbes

For Forbes, Esha Chhabra writes that Nikhil Arora and Alejandro Velez started Back to the Roots 15 years ago as college students with $5,000. Today, their gardening brand is sold in Walmart, Target, Lowes, Home Depot and on Amazon. The California-based brand features peat-free soils, American-grown organic seeds, packaging made from recycled materials and organic plant food. “We’re sticking to our mission to make organic as mainstream and as affordable as possible,” says Arora, co-founder and co-CEO.

(From Garden Center: This brand focuses on selling in big-box stores, but it's important to be aware of trends and significant players in the industry.)

Why gardening can grow your mental well-being and cultivate friends, The Washington Post

Research has found that gardening in the front yard, where the fruits of your labor are more visible, may foster social connections and better mental health, writes Richard Sima, a neuroscientist turned science journalist who writes the Brain Matters column for The Washington Post's Well+Being desk.

Community gardens fill the nutrition gap, while serving as ‘third places’, NC Newsline (North Carolina)

Whether in the city or the country, community gardens can ease the burden of food insecurity and serve as “third places.” Neither home nor work, they are “locations where we exchange ideas, have a good time, and build relationships,” according to the nonprofit Brookings Institution, write Una Wilson and Shaila Prasad.

(From Garden Center: We've previously written about to transform your IGC into a "third place," which you can read about here and here.)

The art and science of gardening with nature, Marin Independent Journal (California)

Gardeners are increasingly practicing an Earth-friendly set of gardening principles collectively known as no dig, writes Terry Amerson.

Enjoy your reading, have a great weekend and we'll see you next week!