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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] A nation of gardeners
  • Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:42:01 -0700


"We may be approaching the tipping point of the kitchen garden movement as
environmental consciousness meets depression economics. In the US, vegetables
have gone from fourth place to second place in the average garden budget.
Greenhouse managers report more first-time gardeners coming to their door.
(In the UK, vegetables are being stolen from community gardens on an
unprecedented scale.) While the potential for savings is what draws most
newcomers to gardening, old hands at gardening put the taste of homegrown
food at the top of their list of reasons to grow your own vegetables and
herbs."


A nation of gardeners
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2008/nov/27/vegetable-gardens-obama-economy
November 27 2008 20.00 GMT

Fruit and vegetable gardens in the US are rising in popularity as
environmental consciousness meets depression economics

Last week, while helping a friend turn over her soil, I came across a giant
bean that had grown out of old compost. "Fava beans," said my friend the
gardener. I opened the pod and there they were, nestling in fuzzy little
pockets. How come I had never seen a fava bean pod before?

These epiphanies of mine usually follow the same pattern. The way a pinch of
herb smells or the precise indentations on the body of a bean reduce me to
mute wonder. This is immediately followed by a resolution to plant my own
kitchen garden. Technicolour fantasies come after, featuring the same
homegrown cherry tomatoes and basil that I have been fantasising about for
years now. And then … nothing.

The excuses are legion. It's winter, too cold for plants to grow. I don't
have enough outdoor space. It's illegal to use the fire escape for anything
other than escaping from fires. And what is this strange new language of
annuals, biennials, perennials, hardy through zone six, pinch back and soil
pH? Will I really remember to water the plants everyday?

Yet, as we move into the holiday season, and then the new year with its
promise of newer improved versions of ourselves and the world, my
fava-bean-inspired resolution seems to have something it did not have in
previous years: a socio-cultural momentum.

Roger Doiron, the founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, reminds Barack
Obama that he is the eater-in-chief. To Michael Pollan, Obama is the
farmer-in-chief. Both men have asked for parts of the White House lawn to be
replaced by an organic fruit and vegetable garden as a symbolic and practical
measure to meet the growing food crisis. (As symbols go, this is guaranteed
to be a smarter gesture than outgoing President Bush's comment about Indians
and Chinese eating more and more.)

The case against lawns has been growing increasingly hard to ignore over the
last two decades as we learn more about the ways in which human consumption
is destroying the earth. In 2008, the artist Fritz Haeg published Edible
Estates, a chronicle of the garden as art and activism. Haeg links the
seemingly insignificant fruit and vegetable garden with larger issues: where
our food comes from, how it is cultivated, creating communities in
neighbourhoods, ownership over what we eat and whether it will rain tomorrow.

We may be approaching the tipping point of the kitchen garden movement as
environmental consciousness meets depression economics. In the US, vegetables
have gone from fourth place to second place in the average garden budget.
Greenhouse managers report more first-time gardeners coming to their door.
(In the UK, vegetables are being stolen from community gardens on an
unprecedented scale.)

While the potential for savings is what draws most newcomers to gardening,
old hands at gardening put the taste of homegrown food at the top of their
list of reasons to grow your own vegetables and herbs. Case in point: olive
oil, garlic, emerald-green fava beans fresh from the field.

Food for thought as we turn in gratitude to our Thanksgiving meals on
Thursday:

It's winter, too cold for plants to grow.

Eliot Coleman, author of the Four-Season Harvest, disagrees. Using basic
greenhouse principles and knowledge of climate-appropriate vegetables,
Coleman proves that it is possible to make every month a farming month.

Where's the space for it?

Container gardening has been around for at least as long as Pharoah Rameses
III who donated potted olives to Egyptian temples. It also comes with a big
plus: no weeding.

What is this strange new language?

Ask and you shall find.

Will I really remember to water the plants everyday?

I don't know. Life is unpredictable. But in a year in which ten million new
voters have registered, watering a few more plants might just happen. And
some of those plants might be on the South Lawn.





  • [Livingontheland] A nation of gardeners, Tradingpost, 11/29/2008

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