AMERICA'S FAVORITE HOBBY EXPANDING ROLE FOR AREA LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS

Traditional shrubs dot the front yard. Flowers fill a backyard hideaway complete with gazebo, deck and patio.

Designing outdoor space has become an extension of America's number one hobby.

Gardening tops nearly every survey of American pastimes. That's good news for the professionals, who say business is booming.

A growing number of businesses offer landscaping services ranging from blueprint designs to trimming the grass.

Joe Sherinski, manager of Cape Garden Supply, says it makes sense that the demand for landscaping services is growing.

"Gardening is America's number one hobby," he said. "It beats everything -- walking, jogging, swimming, drinking beer."

And the prime age for gardeners is 39 to 60 ... baby boomers

"That bulge of people is now prime gardening age," he said. "They are also approaching affluence."

Getting professional landscaping service, Sherinski said, helps gardeners get it right the first time.

"If people are not successful the first time, they get discouraged. They say they have a brown thumb or a black thumb," he said.

"Gardening is not difficult, but there are a wealth of things to know -- soils, bugs, climate, water. It gets deeper and deeper and more confusing," he said.

That's where professionals step in and offer advice and experience about what will work.

"If you start with the impression you want to grow a dogwood, but you have a wet, soggy backyard, you will not be successful. If you ask for advice on what tree will grow in a wet, soggy backyard, you probably will have a lot more success.

"We are long on advice and helpful, friendly service," Sherinski said, who hosts a local radio show called "What's Growing On."

Paul Schnare at Sunny Hill Gardens said landscaping is needed throughout the evolution of a lawn. A new home needs a lawn, trees and shrubs established. Older homes may need an update. "Kind of like people get tired of their furniture after a while, people get tired of their shrubs," Schnare said.

And as more people become gardening semi-experts, they are looking for more complicated landscaping patterns and plants.

"A lot of people now are putting in lawn sprinklers and landscape lighting," Schnare said. "And a lot of people now are spending money doing things like decks and patios and garden rooms and landscaping around swimming pools."

He said water gardening, with lily ponds and water falls, has also become popular.

People seem to be spending more time at home. "And they are willing to spend a little more money at home," Schnare said.

In the past decade, backyards have come to the forefront of the landscaping scene.

"With the front yard there are rules. It is designed to enhance the looks of the house," Sherinski said. "In the backyard, the rules change. It's an extension of your living space.

"A good landscape should fit a person's lifestyle. If they want to play volleyball, they don't need 58 trees," Sherinski said. "But if your hobby is birdwatching, maybe you want a lot of trees."

He designed a backyard for a lady who said she didn't want a single blade of grass. It was filled with meandering paths and flower beds.

He designed another for a school teacher who had time for gardening only during the months when school is not in session. He selected plants that reach their peak from June through August.

Just as yards vary, so do gardeners. Schnare said services are available to meet the varying needs. "We can do everything from let you go through the cash register all the way to sitting down and designing a landscape for you to put in yourself or we can put it in also," Schnare said.

"There are people who want their yards to look nice, but they don't want to mess with it," Schnare said. "Either they don't know how, don't have time or don't have the interest.

"There are others who just want a little advice. We can do that too."