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A new generation has gone back to the land in response to soaring food prices and the economic recession.
Gardening experts are reporting an "explosion" of interest, with green-fingered urbanites turning any spare space into veggie plots to offset tough times ahead.
Nurseries and garden centres say it's
the busiest they've been and are struggling to keep pace with the demand for seedlings and fruit trees.
"It's huge at the moment," said Anne Foster, who has been running Western Nurseries in Hobsonville, northwest Auckland, with husband Dennis since 1974.
"It's our busiest year ever for veggies. We're having trouble keeping up. We could have sold two or three times more than what we have. Anything edible, people are buying."
Michael Rosieur, manager of Kings Plant Barn in Auckland's St Lukes, said demand for vegetable seedlings and fruit trees had been "massive".
"Tomatoes, herbs, all the seasonal stuff - they get cleaned out.
"We're New Zealand's busiest garden centre and it's a problem keeping stocked. When it comes to Sunday they are pretty much all gone.
"Back in winter we couldn't believe how many fruit trees we were selling. We have never seen anything like it."
John Darroch, 20, who described gardening as his "passion", studies sustainable horticulture at Unitec in Auckland and tends a big organic veggie plot and orchard on his parents' quarter-acre section in Mangere.
He said he was stunned by the burgeoning trendiness of gardening.
"The popularity has exploded and it's so mainstream. My friends are really getting into it, but also among middle-aged people.
"A couple of years ago I said everyone would have to start growing their own vegetables but back then I sounded like a lunatic."
Viv Jerschke, who is planting a veggie garden on her section in Auckland's Mt Albert, said with prices so high it made sense to grow your own.
"I looked at the price of courgettes the other day and it was $16 a kilogram. A plant cost me a dollar."
Vegetable prices soared more than 36 per cent in the four months to mid-September, with growing conditions affected by unusually wet weather.
The price of fruit and vegetables rose more than 19 per cent overall in the year to August - lettuce went up a staggering 145 per cent - affecting the shopping and eating habits of many.
A shopper survey released by the Green Party last week revealed 95 per cent of respondents with an income of $30,000-$75,000 were opting for cheaper and less healthy foods because of price increases.
Half bought no fresh fruit or vegetables and the Greens' health spokeswoman, Sue Kedgley, called for a "food security strategy" to ensure New Zealand could "grow, produce and provide enough healthy and affordable food for our whole population".
Darroch estimated he and his family probably saved $50 a week by home-growing fruit and veggies. Set-up costs can be substantial or next to nothing, depending on whether you want to build garden beds and buy compost.
Darroch said: "If you do it DIY, you can easily be saving money in the first six months.
"If you have good soil the ongoing cost for seeds and seedlings is quite minor.
"Being able to go out and pick crisp, fresh vegetables - there's no comparison to the supermarkets."
Darroch teaches state house tenants how to garden and use produce.
"A lot of people don't even recognise the veggies growing in [my] garden. There is a whole generation that didn't garden from the 1970s onwards, people in their 40s who have never even grown a lettuce plant.
"For them, putting in a garden is a major step."
