Last week, we ran a guest post about a topic dear to my heart: serious home vegetable gardening. In that piece, Bill Duesing argued that the USDA should take home food production seriously, by providing research and extension services to gardeners.
Now Anne Raver, the veteran New York Times garden writer, has come out with a great column on what's looking like a nascent revival in home veggie gardening.
The venerable Raver describes the pleasure of tending one's little patch:
It's hard to describe the flavor of something so alive, hardly 10 seconds out of the earth. I want to say that it tastes green, but a grass blade does not taste like bok choy. It's something you have to experience yourself, after doing something as simple as planting basil in a window box, or salad greens in one big pot and a no-fail cherry tomato plant in another.
According to Raver, backyard food production is undergoing a renaissance:
Though overall garden sales are slightly down, according to the latest National Gardening Association survey, from 2007, vegetable gardening sales are up by 22 percent and herb gardening sales are up by 52 percent.
Raver's piece gives the trend historical perspective. Before the rise of industrial agriculture, basically everyone who could kept a home kitchen garden -- even presidents.
John Adams planted a vegetable garden at the White House to feed his family, "because back then, presidents had to fund their own household," said Rose Hayden-Smith, a historian and garden educator based at the University of California in Davis.
I didn't know that the Victory Garden phenomenon started not in World War II but rather in World War I under Woodrow Wilson, who "to save fuel and labor ... had sheep grazing on the White House lawn." Here's Raver:
[Wilson's] wife, Edith, planted vegetables to inspire the Liberty Garden campaign, in which thousands of students, called "Soldiers of the Soil," grew their own food in their schools and communities, she said. As the Allied powers began to win, the name Liberty Garden was changed to Victory Garden.
Later, while World War II raged, home gardens were providing 40 percent of U.S. fruits and veggies, and even "Eleanor Roosevelt grew peas and carrots on the White House lawn."
Raver's article makes good reading on a warm spring afternoon -- giving one hope at a time of global food riots and mindless, relentless intensification of industrial agriculture.
She provides important resources for anyone ready to plunge his or her hands into the soil. She highlights a group called Kitchen Gardeners International ("promoting the localist food of all, globally"), as well as the great Barbara Damrosch, who writes the Cook's Garden column for the Washington Post.
When you get the blues -- in the sense meant by the likes of Lightening Hopkins, not the ridiculous marketing guy who's been roiling Gristmill -- I can't think of a better remedy than getting your hands dirty in service of growing some delicious food.
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Comments
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SnoDragon Posted 4:21 am
18 Apr 2008
So maybe the key to home veg production is not only kitchen gardens, but also community, urban, and rooftop gardens. Because it's hard to grow veggies like squash or carrots in a pot on your balcony, even if it gets plenty of sun like mine.
And how about putting gardening in the science curricula of middle school and high school students? And I don't mean growing bean plants in a styrofoam cup. Gardening should be a life skill, like driving and balancing a checkbook.
Just a thought.
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kmp Posted 4:46 am
18 Apr 2008
I ordered five different varieties of organic tomato seeds from Seeds of Change, along with sweet basil, lemon basil, parsley and chives. I scoured the local antique/junk shop for old galvanized tin pails, bushel baskets and a couple of wooden soda crates that will be pressed into service as tomato pots. My fiance requested pickling cucumbers, so even though I hear that the vines get really big, I'm going to sow them in a big ole pot and give 'em a try. If it doesn't work, hey, I'm out a little time and $3 for seeds (well, plus organic potting soil, but you get the idea).
As we speak my tomato seedlings are luxuriating in the sun on this gorgeous NY spring day. I feel the need to "check on them" about every 20 minutes or so... and while I'm at it, enjoy the gorgeous Spring day. Most of the basil seeds have germinated and I have one, tiny chive shoot. If I'm this proud of my ability to simply germinate seeds, I may burst if I actually get to harvest a tomato. Only time (and sunshine, and water, and TLC) will tell.
SnoDragon, there are plenty of resources on the Web for urban gardening. Since I'm only doing container gardening (my rental house yard is nearly all shaded by hemlocks and covered in pine needles) I Googled "container gardening" and "urban gardening" and came up with quite a few good tips. Mother Earth had a good section on seed starting and You Grow Girl has been a great resource.
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GreenEngineer Posted 5:59 am
18 Apr 2008
One of the most important things for new gardeners to do is to choose their plants correctly: grow what you will eat, and grow things that maximally benefit from being fresh and readily available. Also, don't get too ambitious. Tomatoes are one of the "standard" garden plants, but they can be tricky (especially the heirlooms) and they take alot of space.
I always suggest that first-time gardeners start with:
culinary herbs (ones you will cook with)
salad greens
strawberries
These are all relatively easy to grow (some herbs more than others) and benefit greatly from being fresh. A fresh-picked salad is so much better than bag salad from the store (and much less energy intensive as well).
Also, these are all things that do well in containers, so you can grow them on your balcony, roof, concrete patio, etc. To make your life even easier, try an Earthbox. These self-watering containers make the whole process very easy.
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Pangolin Posted 6:32 am
18 Apr 2008
Now go outside and pick your tomato and without washing it or allowing it to cool cut fat slices out of the heart of the tomato and make your sandwich. Eat immediately.
Don't think you are going to eat just one sandwich either; be prepared.
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kmp Posted 6:35 am
18 Apr 2008
I'm hoping that tomatoes, being related to nightshade, will not tempt the local critters. If not, I guess I'll have to cage them instead of staking, or think about some (oh-so-attractive) chicken wire/deer fence strategy.
At any rate, if I can harvest even one excellent tomato, I'll feel rewarded. I have less confidence in my ability to grow the herbs, as I have tried and failed many times in the past.
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Martha Hagood Posted 7:24 am
18 Apr 2008
She's my favorite crunchy role model. Above challenge was issued in 2004 or 2005, I think. I don't think she really meant for people to go all radical non-consumerist, just chill out on the unnecessary garden-related gadgets, but it really made an impression on me.
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Howell Haus Posted 7:43 am
18 Apr 2008
Now I live with my wife in Oregon and we've taken it a step further to include hydroponics grown outside, rooftop gardens (deer and racoons are rampant) and our own indoor germinating system complete with energy star rated T8 growing lamps purchased from our local organic growers supply. Our seeds are increasingly heirloom (read Seeds of Change) and we've also got a small vermiculture project going on to speed up our compost and soil rejuvenation.
All I can say is we're hooked, and we try to hook as many other people as possible. It's one great way to save money, and the quality and taste are so much better than even the organic stuff we buy at the markets. I wholly recommend that we shoot for 50% reduction in long distance food, just like we're shooting for 50% reductions in carbon. How else will we achieve these numbers ?
As for me and mine, don't be surprised to see us hauling garden supplies, on our bikes, of course ! - JD & Kelley Howell, Eugene, OR
JD & Kelley Howell of
Eugene, OR
visit us: Cut20.blogspot.com
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KZ Posted 7:48 am
18 Apr 2008
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Pangolin Posted 8:09 am
18 Apr 2008
If you simply must have the best hand tools available for gardening Hida Tools is the place to go to. If you are anywhere near Berkeley it's worth the drive as it's just across from REI and a few doors down from Ashkenaz. It's the same tiny hole-in-the-wall it's been for twenty years. A living museum.
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caniscandida Posted 8:49 am
18 Apr 2008
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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ataremove Posted 10:43 am
18 Apr 2008
Go vertical with the cucumbers. I started growing them more than 15 years ago, and I have always used a trellis or two or three of some sort. Nothing fancy, just somethings I put together from scavanged material, ornamental metal wire fencing stapled/nailed to a scrap lumber frame 5-6 feet tall. For a few years, my sister used a simple string net hanging from a privacy fence. I like mine to be free standing so I can get around behind. Makes for easy pickings. You have to pay attention to the vines when they are young to get them to start climbing. I also move them as they are growing to get them to spread out. Kind of an art form.
A warning that probably doesn't apply to you: One year I helped a friend trellis her cucumbers. One morning after the vines has just reached the top of the 6-foot trellis, she looked out to see the top three feet gone. During the night, deer ate the vines thru the back of the trellis. A wire-mesh fence around the garden kept them from getting the lower three feet.
One of the simple pleasures I get from gardening is the aroma of fresh green bell peppers. A few of them sitting in the kitchen will shortly fill the room with their aroma.
Oh, yeah. When growing peppers, don't grow habanero. One small plant produces 20-40 little yellow peppers, and you got to wear gloves to work with them. I didn't and my hands tingled for two days.
at a remove
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wiscidea Posted 10:44 am
18 Apr 2008
Starting a vegetable and and herb garden was one of our better decisions. Regarding labor... don't give up too early. The gardening gets easier year after year as you build your soil and exclude weeds. The first year was horrible. Tiny vegetables, dry sandy soil, weeds, weeds, weeds. Now the plants grow much more vigorously. We've used only composted manure, composted yard waste, and hay to build the soil.
Two suggestions... (1) remove annual weeds BEFORE they set seed and (2) learn to use the appropriate mulch around each plant. Hay over a layer of newspaper will substantially reduce weeds and demand for water.
If you don't give up too early, having a garden becomes and addiction. We NEED fresh herbs now. I have basil, parsley, and rosemary growing in front of a window all winter to satisify our addiction to a small extent. We also NEED fresh tomatoes, carrots, and strawberries. Home grown are MUCH better than the best, even organic, you can get at a grocery store.
This year I'm considering trying no-till gardening. Nothing like a noisy CO2-spewing tiller kicking up dust to ruin a perfectly fine spring day. I'm skeptical, but I'll see how it goes.
The University of Wisconsin Extension has a lot of information available for home gardeners ( http://wihort.uwex.edu/). I assume other state provide similar resources?
One general question...
Advice for getting a child into a garden and maintaining their interest?. My 6-year-old nephew -- thrilled by any vegetable he can pull from the ground -- wants his own garden this year. What should his mother do to make sure it is a good experience?
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kmp Posted 11:30 am
18 Apr 2008
A couple of my tomato plants are indeterminate, so they will definitely need staking as well. A year of experimenting in my "garden" I guess!
My 4 year-old friend Kami loves any vegetable that is a "surprise;" potatoes, root veggies, carrots, etc., with their leafy green tops and surprising gem of a veggie under the dirt, thrill her more than words. She also seems fascinated by all the different varieties of leafy & salad greens, but passed by the herbs in the Stone Barns greenhouse with nary a glance. Veggies that flower seem to be an obvious choice for kids and the whole germination process is pretty much a miracle - what kid could not be excited by boring old dirt suddenly sprouting into green life?
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GreenEngineer Posted 12:04 pm
18 Apr 2008
My other favorite is what Hida tools refers to as a weeder but I think of as a hand-plow. It's great for weeding, since you can hit broad areas with the blade, or do fine work with the tip. But where it really shines is for preparing seedbeds. I'm of the no-till philosophy myself, but it's still useful to stir up a bed that has been fallow all winter before you put your seedlings or seeds in. The hand plow works just like the name would suggest in this application.
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Pangolin Posted 3:57 pm
18 Apr 2008
The basic linoleum knife pictured here is great for detail weeding and can be had at any hardware store for about $6. Make sure you paint the handle yellow, red or wrap some colored electrical tape around it because you will put it down in the dirt and then the thing's invisible.
For you true garden fanatics consider investing in one of these, a "Tile, Linoleum, Carpet Knife." This indestructible tool (I've tried, believe me) can be used for everything from weeding to pruning to picking oak seedlings out of your flower bed. The super-tough blade has to be sharpened with a diamond hone or by a pro though. It's worth it.
Oh, I highly recommend green grape tomatoes, armenian cucumbers and micky lee watermelons. Also if you buy a bunch of basil and trim the stems like cut flowers 3/4 of them will root in a glass jar in a sunny window.
They need 12 step programs for gardeners......
We admitted we were powerless over our garden - that our beds had become unmanageable
Came to believe that a Power greater than Rodale could restore us to sanity
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the Gaia as we understood Gaia
Made a searching and fearless inventory of ours beds, seeds and tools
Admitted to Gaia, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our chemical use
Were entirely ready to have Gaia remove all these weeds
Humbly asked Gaia to manage our pests
Made a list of all persons we had ignored, and became willing to notice to them and not babble about gardening
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when the weather is really good
Continued to take garden inventory and when we have too many plants promptly admitted it
Sought through watering, pruning and weeding to improve our conscious contact with Gaia as we understood Gaia, praying only for knowledge of Gaia's will for us and some really decent weather
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other gardeners, and to resist giving them zucchini or bragging about our gardens
Ok, so I missed a few meetings; it's SPRING ok!
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caniscandida Posted 4:01 pm
18 Apr 2008
So, with respect to the seasons, and the way plants respond to them, it makes no sense to do a gardening course, beginning in September and ending in December; and another one, beginning in January and ending in May.
Or, given lab opportunities nowadays, could the seasons be altered, somehow?
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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caniscandida Posted 4:34 pm
18 Apr 2008
Gaia, the Earth, the original female principle, is not easy to fathom.
She came to hate her male mate Ouranos, who kvetched that she was constantly bearing him horrible monsters, such as one-eyed Cyclopes and hundred-armed Giants. And yet, he lay on top of her, and was constantly impregnating her; they could not help it.
In pain and misery, she asked her children to deliver her from him. Only one of her many sons and daughters, the Titan Kronos, listened to his mother, over against his father, and obeyed her.
He took a great sickle, and lopped off the genitals of his father Ouranos. Ouranos in great pain moved heavenward, and never again impregnated Gaia. (Nor presumably did he impregnate anybody ever after; he could not; plus, he now had a terrificly bad genital memory.) The genitals descended into the Mediterranean Sea, and became the island of Cyprus. The blood-mixed-with-sperm-straight-from-the-testicles floated in the Mediterranean Sea, near the western shore of Cyprus, and in due course gave rise, amidst light foam and sweet attendant gods and goddesses, to the goddess Aphrodite, as depicted in the famous quattrocento painting by Sandro Botticelli of the "Birth of Venus," aka Aphrodite.
You might think that Gaia wanted to favor Kronos with great favor subsequently. In fact, she shared with him only a limited prophecy, that a child of his would overthrow him. So, every child that his sister/wife Rhea bore, he swallowed at once, alive: Hera (pop!), Demeter (pop!), Hestia (pop!), Poseidon (pop!), and Hades (pop! - yuck!).
Last of all to be born was Zeus, whom Rhea figured (duh!, brilliant lady!) she had to hide. So, she wrapped a great boulder in baby clothes and presented it to Kronos as his new-born son (pop! - ugh!). Then, she hid baby Zeus in a cave on the island of Crete.
When he grew up, he pretended he was a physician, and went to attend his father Kronos, who was complaining of a monstrous belly ache. So, she gave him an emetic to make him throw up all his children -- being immortal gods, they were alive and full-grown -- : Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Poseidon, and Hades; and the boulder, which landed on the spot that is now Delphi, the most sacred oracle of Gaia in the world, called the Omphalos, the Navel.
With his brothers and sisters at his side, as well as his disrespected aunts and uncles, Zeus went on to overthrow Papa Kronos.
But Gaia maintained an oracle at Delphi, where the Omphalos landed. Later, her great-grandson Apollo, son of Zeus, took charge of it; but she was always the principle of wisdom there.
The thing is, if you ask Gaia a question, she will always give some sort of answer; but the answer is rarely straight-forward. Dealing with her answer is about as difficult as never having asked her in the first place.
Unless of course, dear Pangolin, you are the stuff of heroes, such as I have no doubt you are.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Pangolin Posted 5:06 pm
18 Apr 2008
No, I won't tell which one; call it a composite.
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caniscandida Posted 5:27 pm
18 Apr 2008
Give me Kevin Costner any day.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Pangolin Posted 5:52 pm
18 Apr 2008
Yeah, a man so afflicted should grasp firmly the stem of the budding rose and give proof that twinned to beauty and sweet tempting fragrance comes the price of blood and pain.
......or some such.
It's getting very warm here, this is a college town. and my sword arm is nigh weary though the steel is still strong.
Nah, more a short Balzac with a tin ear.
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caniscandida Posted 6:05 pm
18 Apr 2008
Do you know "The Three Musketeers," of 1973? The late Oliver Reed as Athos? The older warrior holding up against the young whipper-snappers, nay!, overcoming them? Tre'sor!
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Pangolin Posted 8:16 pm
18 Apr 2008
Googled.
Aack, they were French Calvinists. Can you imagine anything more insufferably painful than the combination of frenchman+Calvinist. I would have hunted them down too if just out of pity. At least the Catholic priesthood was habitually corrupt and therefore subject to blackmail. I shudder at the thought of a french Calvinist.
I'm sure there was a garden in there somewhere; perhaps the collapsed wall that could be built as a folly on an estate.
Enough of tangents. My apologies to all trying to figure out how this connects.
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SMLowry Posted 9:29 am
19 Apr 2008
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caniscandida Posted 4:24 pm
19 Apr 2008
But in fact I do not remember Huguenots in "The Three Musketeers." However, the subject came up in a sexy and evil episode in the sequel, "The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge." Faye Dunaway, as Milady de Winter, finds herself in an English prison, guarded by a sensitive young Puritan; she wins his sympathy by telling him that she is a persecuted Huguenot -- which is a lie, however -- ; when he sits with her in her cell to do Bible study, she seduces him, and murders him, and takes his keys, and escapes.
SMLowry,
congratulations on the good start our garden is having! Back in the 1970s, when I spent the summer with my grandparents on the New Jersey seashore (and worked as a projectionist, showing such movies as "The Three Musketeers" and its sequel), I vaguely remember that the only brassica that my grandfather planted was broccoli; possibly there was cauliflower and kale and cabbage, but I am not sure.
But he always planted beans. His favorite variety was pole beans, which were rather spectacular, because they required an elaborate system of sticks and strings.
I would like to be able to ask him how he went about planning the garden every year, moving the vegetables around so that the soil would not be depleted. Usually whatever he did worked; but every now and again one of his vegetables came in feebly. I think the cucumbers might have been the most delicate in that regard.
There was a loose cat in the neighborhood, whom he hated with a great passion (well, he was a Scorpio, after all, and Scorpios rarely do anything less than passionately), because the cat would enter the garden sneakily and poop there. It seemed to find the prepared soil of the garden a nice place to dig and bury its poop. I do not think that would have been bad for the plants, actually; but yes, it would have made my grandfather's job a bit messier.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Pompey Road Posted 5:57 am
20 Apr 2008
Fertilizer company stocks reflect the recent increase in demand. We need however to grow organic. In Eastern Ky. I know of gardens that have been tended for over 120 years and the soil is rich and black and productive. The mules and cows and chickens produce the fertilizer needed to keep the soil tip top and not burn it up.
A chicken house used to be the most effective for a compost heap. The straw and vegatible matter that was placed under the chicken house to catch the droppings went right into the mix. You got the added advantage of fresh eggs and in this post out of respect for those of us who don't eat animals. You know what else you got...
The price of feed even for county folk who have the room and no zoning laws has put a crimp on the family garden.
I loved the post about children working in the garden during summer vacation, yea right, like all of us that had that program made available to them in past generations rejoiced in that prospect.
The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.
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Erik Hoffner Posted 7:27 am
20 Apr 2008
Also coming up are radishes, and Wiscidea, if you're reading this, the time tested kids' first gardening project is just that: your nephew should be helped to grow some radishes this year, even if he doesn't like to eat spicy stuff like that. Radishes sprout so readily from seed that the child can scarcely fail at it, and then they make a rewarding and colorful harvest in a short time.
Many a kid has been hooked on gardening by the lowly radish.
Erik
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