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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Gardeners coming up ways to take down Corporate Food

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Gardeners coming up ways to take down Corporate Food
  • Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:27:42 -0600


Not taking issue with your good intentions there in Houston, but really.
Let's start with a telling point you made:
>Today, so few people
>understand anything about gardening for food that "The $64 Dollar Tomato"
>speaks to almost all home veggie gardeners starting from scratch.

That part I agree with. And I go a step further: those folks hiring a
"personal gardener" will not learn to grow their own food; they won't have
time for it; they won't get their hands dirty; and half what's grown will
go uneaten. By and large they are a joke. Those people are already paying
for landscaping and/or paying a lawn service to spray everything anyway.
And the first time they spot a bug or a bee they'll go for the poison
spray. IF they even get out in the garden at all.

This is really old news, and not particularly inspiring. As a kid Barb
helped her father who set up gardens for the ultrawealthy in Connecticut.
They paid a lot and it was organic back in 60s and 70s. They showed off
"their" gardens to their guests at garden parties, tho they didn't even
pick it themselves.

Sure, I'd take their money. But I wouldn't claim it's anything to put in
the papers. It's kind of like us getting $5.00 a pound for our tomatoes and
$1.00 for each Italian pepper at farmers markets. At those prices I can't
afford to eat the profits ......

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********

On 6/24/2009 at 12:57 PM Pego Rice wrote:

>I think you are missing a big chunk of the point. Maybe all the
>points.  While these articles talk about an upscale sounding service
the
>actual cost, both of the installations and of the weekly box of
>groceries are better than comparable to buying the same installation of
a
>flower bed and then going down to Whole Paycheck and buying just as much
>in certified organic. 
> 
>No one in these articles pretended that large installation's came by bike.
>That being said, boxes and bags can easily be carried along on a typical 3
>wheel bike.
> 
>Even if the people getting these organic food gardens built do not
>continue the service they will still have the garden set up in the best
>spot with the best soil to get the job done.
> 
>The gardeners educate the clients.  Eventually, if that is their intent,
>they can begin to do it all themselves.
> 
>The clients stop relying so much on chems for their yards, to avoid
>contamination of the veggies.
> 
>3-4 generations ago we lived in a society that assumed every other back
>yard would have a kitchen garden and a chicken, a couple of generations
>before that we all assumed that we would have grazing rights to the town
>square for our milch cows and meat on the hoof. Today, so few people
>understand anything about gardening for food that "The $64 Dollar Tomato"
>speaks to almost all home veggie gardeners starting from scratch.
> 
>Here in Houston we are trying 2 things, one is the same business as
>Trevor's, and the second is a Co-Op to the same end, not so much a
>community garden but a gardener's resource of other gardeners, jointly
>hiring a permie designer and helping each other get the work done and
>learn how to do it.  I hope that we will also get something like
"Growing
>Power" down here too; http://www.growingpower.org/
> 
>Yours, Pego






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