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Examiner | Magazine

Dig these fun facts about gardening

March 20 is the first day of spring, and the unofficial beginning of the Northeastern gardening season.

Associated Press

> 60,000 — Number of attendees at last year’s Boston Flower and Garden Show (this year’s starts March 22); last year, peonies were the show’s best-selling flower

> 2 million — Number of blooms at 2016’s Flower and Garden Show

> $2.7 billion — Estimated dollars spent by US households on growing flowers in 2015

> $3.6 billion — Estimated spending by US households on growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, and berries in 2015

> 50 — Percentage of Boston-area homeowners who garden, according to a 2012 survey

> 36 — Percentage of New England households that grew flowers in their gardens in 2015

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> 5 — Hours a week gardeners spend digging and planting, on average

> 238 — Calories likely burned in an hour of weeding and cultivating a garden

> 120 to 180 — Number of frost-free growing days (between last and first frost) in various parts of New England

> 13 — Types of vegetables recommended for planting in March in the Boston area, including broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and radishes

> 1 — Type of carnivorous pitcher plant native to New England, the purple pitcher plant

6 — Types of popular New England natives for spring planting:

> Foamflower

> New England aster

> Serviceberry

> Blueberry

> Trumpet honeysuckle

> Creeping juniper

QUOTABLE:

“I should prefer the Delights of a Garden to the Dominion of a World.”  — John Adams

Sources: National Gardening Market Research; scarborough.com; almanac.com; houzz.com; newenglandwild.org; Boston Flower and Garden Show