With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots literally. They are cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every cent out of their food budget.
Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year.
Mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and capsicums.
''People's home grocery budget got absolutely shredded and now we've seen just this dramatic increase in the demand for our vegetable seeds,'' said George Ball, chief executive of Burpee Seeds, the largest mail-order seed company in the US. ''We're selling out. I've never seen anything like it.''
Gardening advocates, who have long struggled to get America grubby, have dubbed the newly planted tracts ''recession gardens'' and hope to shape the interest into a movement similar to the victory gardens of World War II.
The founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, Roger Doiron, said those gardens, modelled after a White House patch planted by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943, were intended to inspire self-sufficiency, and at their peak supplied 40 per cent of the nation's fresh produce.
Mr Doiron and several colleagues are petitioning President Barack Obama to plant a similar garden at the White House as part of his call for a responsible, eco-friendly economic turnaround. Proponents have collected 75,000 signatures on an online petition.
''It's really part of our history and it's part of the White House's history,'' Mr Doiron said. ''When I found out why it had been done over the course of history and I looked at where we are now, it makes sense again.''
But for many Americans, the appeal of backyard gardening isn't in its history it's in the savings.
The National Gardening Association estimates that a well-maintained vegetable garden yields a $US500 ($A760) average return per year. A study by Burpee Seeds claims that $A75 spent on gardening supplies can multiply into $A1900 worth of produce annually.
Mr Doiron spent nine months weighing and recording each vegetable he pulled from his 150sqm garden outside Portland, Maine. After counting the final winter leaves of Belgian endive, he found he had saved about $A3280 by growing produce for his family of five instead of buying it.
And an accountant, Adriana Martinez, who reduced her grocery bill to $A60 a week by gardening, said there's also peace of mind in knowing where her food comes from. She said the effort had also fostered a sense of community through a neighbourhood veggie co-op. ''We're helping to feed each other and what better time than now?''
A new report by the National Gardening Association predicts a 19per cent increase in home gardening this year, based on spring seed sales data and a telephone survey. One-fifth of respondents said they planned to start a food garden this year and more than half said they already were gardening to save on groceries.
Community gardens nationwide are also seeing a surge of interest. The waiting list at the 312-plot Long Beach Community Garden had nearly quadrupled and no one was leaving, Lonnie Brundage, who runs the garden's membership list, said.
''They're growing for themselves, but you figure if they can use our community garden year-round they can save up to $US4000 (A$6135) a year,'' she said. ''It doesn't take a lot for it to add up.''
Seed companies say this renaissance has rescued their vegetable business after years of drooping sales. President of Harris Seeds in Rochester, New York, Richard Chamberlin, said orders for vegetable seeds had skyrocketed, while orders for ornamental flowers were flat or down.
Business had increased 40per cent in the past year, with the most growth among vegetables such as capsicums, tomatoes and kitchen herbs that could thrive in small urban plots or patio containers, he said. Harris Seeds recently had to reorder capsicum and tomato seeds.
''I think if things were fine, you wouldn't see people doing this. They're just too busy,'' Mr Chamberlin said. ''Gardening for most Americans was a dirty word because it meant work and nobody wanted more work but that's changed.'' AP
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