The Benefits of Plants and Landscaping

Marc S. Frank

• According to the National Gardening Association, 85 million (79 percent of) U.S. households participated in some form of gardening activity in the year 2002. American consumers spent a total of $39.6 billion on their lawns and gardens in 2002. That was an increase of $1.9 billion or 5% over 2001. Over the past 5 years, total lawn and garden sales have increased at a compound annual growth rate of 8%.
Source: http://www.nationalgardening.com/RSRCH/feature.asp

Economic Benefits

• Landscaping can add as much as 14% to the resale value of a building and speed its sale by as much as 6 weeks.
Source: “Economic Benefits of Landscape”, Associated Landscape Contractors of America.
http://commerce.infosrc.com/docdelivery/alca/Uploads/Econben.doc

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Health and Psycho-social Benefits

• You can burn as many calories in 45 minutes of gardening as in 30 minutes of aerobics. One hour of weeding burns 300 calories (the same as walking or bicycling at a moderate pace), and manual push mowing of the lawn burns 500 calories per hour (the same rate as playing tennis).
Source: Taylor, M.K. 1990. “The Healthy Gardener”. Flower & Garden March/April:46-47.

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Environmental Benefits  

• Trees, shrubs, turf, and groundcovers trap and filter dust and other pollutants out of rainwater. Plants benefit from the nutrients in this particulate matter and prevent it from becoming a source of water pollution.
Source: Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association
http:\\www.wsnla.org\retail\news\benefits.html

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