The 5 Places Where People Are Most in Love With Landscaping

The mountain town of Bend, OR, is known for its love of craft beer, mountain biking and dogs. Now, you can add something else to that list: landscaping.

Bend is No. 1 in LawnStarter’s new ranking, based on Google Trends data, of the 5 Places Where People Are Most in Love With Landscaping.

So, why are people in the Bend area so interested in landscaping? For the answer, we turned to Amy Jo Detweiler, an associate professor of horticulture with the Oregon State University Extension Service in Redmond, northeast of Bend.

“There is a significant amount of growth in this region,” Detweiler says, “and with that comes all of the new homes and businesses that need landscaping. Additionally, there is a large retirement community here that may want help in maintaining their landscapes.”

Bend, OR, is situated in Oregon’s high desert.
Photo: Wintercreek Restoration & Nursery

The population of the Bend metro area grew 1.8 percent from 2010 to 2015, outpacing the Oregon and U.S. growth rates, according to the Oregon Regional Economic Analysis Project.

Detweiler says Bend’s location in the high desert makes landscaping tasks more challenging than in more temperate regions. Low-maintenance “waterwise” landscaping is prominent in the region, she says, “as people that live here are outdoor enthusiasts who like to play as opposed to taking care of their landscapes in their free time.”

Professional landscaping is popular in the Bend area, according to Detweiler, although there are plenty of DIYers.

“A majority of the newer home developments have smaller lot sizes, so most landscapes have a little turf area with shrubs, trees and a few perennials,” Detweiler says.

(On the map, click on the number over each city to learn more.)

For our ranking, we reviewed Google search activity from March 2012 to March 2017 for the term “landscaping.” Picking up a perfect Google Trends score of 100, Bend came out on top as the U.S. metro area with the most “landscaping” search activity on Google.

Google Trends analyzes a percentage of all searches for a term such as “landscaping” within the same time and location parameters, and then assigns a search score (1 through 100) to a geographic region. For 2012 to 2017, Bend posted the highest score on the Google Trends scale — 100 — for the term “landscaping.” On the Google scale, a score of 100 signifies the maximum search interest for a particular period and place.