Instagram Garden Trends
Many of us found ourselves spending more time lounging around the home this past year than ever before. In the midst of screen-induced eye strains, Netflix binge-watching, and baking a loaf of banana bread for the twelfth time, outdoor spaces were seen in an entirely new light. Not only was spending time in nature a much-needed break from the digital world, but nature was one of the only places untouched by the pandemic. The grass, flowers, plants, and trees were still here -“ even when the rest of the world shut down.
While the art of gardening originated some 4,000 years ago, its timeless appeal is evident as it intertwines with modern-day social media trends like #raisedbedgardens & #verticalgardening. Through hashtags like #GardensofInstagram, gardening's presence on Instagram has become a cultural movement, not only in the U.S. but worldwide. Fellow gardeners can connect with one another across the globe, sharing their home gardens -“ regardless of what may be going on in the world.
But where in the world are the gardening capitals that drive this Instagram community? The team at Breck's was determined to find out.
We turned to Instagram, scraping location data of over 10,000 posts with the hashtag, #GardensofInstagram. Of these posts, we tallied the number of times a particular city, state, or country was tagged -“ all in an effort to find where gardening lovers are showcasing their gardens the most on Instagram.
Read on to find out which locations made the list of gardening capitals around the world.
U.S. Gardening Capitals, According to Instagram
California is the number one U.S. gardening capital, with 310 posts tagged #GardensofInstagram. The Golden State dominates the Instagram gardening space by nearly double that of its successor, Michigan, which has 159 posts. Ranking closely behind as the third U.S. gardening capital is New York with 151 posts.
The top gardening city of the U.S. with 79 tagged posts is New York City. Looks like NYC hearts gardening, which makes sense given the #balconygardening & #urbangardening trends that have taken Instagram by storm in recent years. The Big Apple is followed by San Diego, CA with 53 posts, and Royal Oak, MI with 49 posts. Michigan residents have a particular passion for gardening, as tulip farms and flower farm cooperatives span the state from Holland to Detroit.
European Gardening Capitals, According to Instagram
The Instagram gardening community has many international members, especially in European countries. But, just as the U.S. states have a higher concentration of Insta-gardeners in certain areas, Europe does as well.
The top gardening capital of Europe, according to Instagram, is the United Kingdom with a whopping 910 #GardensofInstagram posts, followed by the Netherlands with 195 posts. London, in particular, claimed 87 posts with the hashtag -“ more than any other city worldwide. Gardening has been a long-practiced pastime in London and surrounding UK counties for generations, while the Netherlands' bustling, flower industry, comprised of growers, wholesalers, and retailers, is one of the most dynamic in the world.
Beyond Europe, Australia proved to be a top gardening location. Australia had almost 200 posts with the #GardensofInstagram hashtag, and Melbourne in particular had 49 posts. Canadian gardeners also made our list. Canada had 155 posts with the garden hashtag. The online gardening community keeps people connected across the world. If you're feeling inspired, follow us on Instagram at @brecks_bulbs and check out our 2021 collection of fall bulbs to create the perfect garden to enjoy and share online!
Methodology
Breck's used a hashtag scraping tool to scrape over 10,000 posts on Instagram tagged with the hashtag #gardensofinstagram over a seven-day period, between 5/18 & 5/24, in order to find the gardening capitals across the U.S. (and the world), according to Instagram. We scraped location data from each post, standardizing the city, state, and country data. We grouped the posts by city, state, and country, tallying the number of posts with the #gardensofinstagram hashtag, which ultimately gave us our gardening capitals within the study above.