Across America, a bumper crop of food gardens

More than a third of Americans -- including First Lady Michelle Obama -- are working the hoe at home, keen to grow their own tasty tomatoes, cucumbers and beans.

According to the National Gardening Association, home vegetable gardens are sprouting up a storm in the United States, with 37 percent of homes tending a patch -- up sharply from 19 percent a year ago.

"I want to make sure that our family, as well as the staff and all the people who come to the White House and eat our food, get access to really fresh vegetables and fruits," the First Lady said last week as she broke ground on the White House lawn.

But there are several factors playing into the boom. It comes at the crossroads of environmental awareness, increasingly frequent food safety scares and recession's economic bite.

"The number one reason is better tasting food (58 percent), number two is to save money on food bills (54 percent) and (third) is to grow better quality food and knowing it's safe (51 percent)," Bruce Butterfield, a researcher at the NGA, told AFP.

He conducted a study on America's would-be backyard farmers, who mean big business for makers of trowels and seed suppliers. Some 43 million homes will be tending a vegetable garden in 2009, up from 36 million last year.

And one in five backyard food gardeners -- including Michelle Obama herself -- will be a first-timer this year, according to the Harris poll of 2,500 people.

The move to plant the First Garden came following a public campaign, in which more than 100,000 people asked the first couple to plant a garden on a plot somewhere in the 16 acres (6.5 hectares) of White House grounds, according to Kitchen Gardeners International, a group which aims to inspire and teach people to grow their own food.

For Michelle Obama, the garden also creates family togetherness of a sort.

She joked at a ground breaking event last week that "everybody in the family will have to pull weeds -- whether they like it or not."

The garden is the first full-scale planting on the White House lawn in more than 60 years when then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden during World War II.

In 2008, facing sharply higher food prices, Americans started digging in larger numbers and tending vegetable plots; 10 percent of families ultimately coaxed crops from seeds and weeds.

One million Americans already bring their green thumbs to community gardens and demand is huge: another five million would like to do so.

And while about 8O percent of American homes have access to a garden or yard, for 20 dollars they can rent a miniplot in an organic community garden run by the National Park Service.

In Washington, which has a long growing season and warm, humid climate, there are about 20 community gardens across the city and time on waiting lists can hit two years.

Meanwhile garden sharing has taken off. At "Sharing Backyards DC", the website helps link up homeowners with no interest in gardening and green-thumbed neighbors ready to turn the plot into something productive.

Nathan Seaberry, a 55-year-old who gardens at the Blair community garden in Washington, plants potatoes, cabbage and broccoli. "It's better for my health and my wallet, prices of food have gone so high," says the father of seven.

Tough economic times have played a key role in getting people gardening in the cases of 34 percent of backyard plotters, the study also found.

It also showed that people spend an average 70 dollars on their plots, spend about five hours a week tending them, and that the yields are usually worth 530 dollars a year.

"It gives me a sense of security to have the garden," said Leigh Crenshaw, a gardener in her late twenties at the Mamie Lee community garden here. "I'm sure I'll figure out a way to survive, whether or not I have a job. (But) this garden and my community will keep me strong."

Health scares also have played into the passion for the plow.

"These ongoing food safety issues like the peanut butter and the spinach contaminated with E.coli have become even more a matter of great concern for people," said Robert LaGassi, executive director of the Garden Writers Association.

Seed sales are up 20-30 percent in this early spring season above last year's 20-percent gain, as Americans find comfort during challenging times by spending more time at home, said the NGA's Butterfield.

In these trying economic times, he said, "I think people now feel the need to go back to basics."