Miniature Gardening is a Real Trend

This post was written for the http://mrbrownthumb.blogspot.com blog and this text of chunk is just here to attempt to thwart the feed scrappers. If you like this blog please consider subscribing via RSS at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MrBrownThumb and get the MrBrownThumb blog delivered to your inbox. See MrBrownThumb's newest blog at http://chicagonow.com/garden  You can find my gardening videos at http://youtube.com/mrbrownthumb and my gardening tweets at http://twitter.com/mrbrownthumb 

Recently there's been a lot of talk about garden trends for 2012. While I find that many of those trends are more like people trying to make fetch happen, the talk about miniature gardening is the real deal. Back in November of 2011 I wrote about fairy gardening bringing miniature plants back in style. Since then I've seen examples of miniature and fairy gardens on television, print and on the Internet. Take this photo for example. 

Photo Copyright Reddit user, wwjdforaklondikebar. Used with permission. 

This miniature garden was created out of a broken terracotta pot. The garden inside consists of a small fern, a strawberry begonia, two clumps of mondo grass and some Norfolk island sapplings. It is top dressed with moss, pebbles and three decorative bird houses and some pieces of bark.

While this garden in a container is really nice, what's newsworthy is where I found it. On the morning of January 13, 2012 it made the front page of Reddit. For those that don't know, Reddit is a social news website where entries are submitted by members and voted up or down. To make it to the front page of the site is an accomplishment that some members, marketers and publicists would kill for. Why? Reddit's traffic is huge. Reddit is one of the most popular websites on the Internet. It is described as the "front page of the Internet" because if it's popular or newsworthy and it being discussed on the site. A lot of online activism (like the recent anti-SOPA campaign) and Internet jokes originate there. The demographics of the average Reddit user is a single 20-something American male. Many of the comments on the entry mentioned that the miniature garden was evocative of an Ewok village, others joked about killing plants or being dragged to the garden center by their girlfriend to make a terrarium.

The gardening industry is twisting itself into knots trying to figure out how to attract young gardeners. This example of a miniature garden making it to the front page of a site populated by young American males shows that it is possible. You just have to know their language, where they hang out and what appeals to them. The garden was created by a 27-year-old garden center employee in Louisiana.

TL;DR. A 27-year-old girl makes miniature garden from a broken pot. Posts it on Reddit and a bunch of guys upvote her to the front page above funny videos, pictures, video game and political news. Proving young people are interested in gardening and that miniature gardening is a real trend.