Jennifer Campbell, CEO at Shakleton White Associates Concerned as Economy Spurs Home Garden Boom

Seattle, WA, March 19, 2009 --(PR.com)-- With the recession in full swing, many Americans are returning to their roots literally cultivating vegetables in their backyards to squeeze every penny out of their food budget.

Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year and mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers.

Campbell said, "People's home grocery budget got absolutely shredded and now we've seen just this dramatic increase in the demand for vegetable seeds."

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.

Those gardens, modeled after a White House patch planted by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1943, were intended to inspire self-sufficiency, and at their peak supplied 40 percent of the nation's fresh produce, said Campbell.

Campbell and several colleagues are petitioning President 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," Campbell 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." Campbell continued by saying “For many Americans, the appeal of backyard gardening isn't in its history it's in the savings.”

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