Women tackle landscaping during recession

Although some landscaping businesses and related vendors are bracing for falling profits as households trim their luxury spending habits, two women business owners are finding success in the backyard.

Oregon's Statesman Journal reports that Jennifer Gingerich and Jannie Berg founded Your Home Harvests earlier this year and already count 20 clients for their landscape consulting, tilling, planting and gardening services.

The women business owners are helping homeowners design gardens and then instruct them on organic cultivation, composting and soil cultivation, says the news source.

The two women also encourage their clients with vegetable gardens or fruit trees to donate surplus food from the harvests to local food banks - giving their business a socially responsible edge.

On a national scale, another woman helping to promote locally grown food and backyard landscaping is Michelle Obama. The first lady made headlines for her work digging up ground on the White House lawn to create a vegetable garden to feed the first family and other administration staff.