did you know that Victory Gardens produced 40% of our vegetable produce consumed?

[nashville_brook]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden

Does that not seem rather a lot of food? A little less than HALF of all veggie produce consumed during the war years were produced in backyards and on window sills. 40%. That's a lot of food.

...home front urbanites and suburbanites that the produce from their gardens would help to lower the price of vegetables needed by the US War Department to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military: "Our food is fighting", one poster read.

Seems to me that as the era of cheap oil ends, transporting produce up from say Chile, or Nicaragua to sell in your local Publix, is going to become stupidly expensive. Seems that there should be a public interest in encouraging people to produce their food.

We should get tax credits -- like the home office deduction, or like what farmers get *not* to produce certain crops -- for transforming the backyards of suburbia into productive farmland. HOAs could organize "Garden Markets" where people could trade their produce and canned goods. Schools could do larger community gardens, utilizing public spaces.

There's an upscale, condo version of this too. If you don't have a backyard, you should still get the tax credit for transforming a spare bedroom into a hydroponic gardens. Added bonus of alieviating season affective syndrome -- nothing fights depression like a thriving hydroponic garden.


Eh, thoughts before weekend gardening...

[villager]

1. The raised beds I put before going out of town are mulching away...

The planting of the veggies begins when I return early next week!

[nashville_brook]

4. I'm starting my first raised bed here in Florida this weekend.

it's a little late, but not too bad. i've done small containers for a while, and it's time to expand.

[villager]

9. My thoughts exactly! Now, if I can just get some blackberry vines to put along..

...that back fence...!

[Quantess]

21. Hope it isn't Himalayan Blackberry.

http://www.lakewhatcom.wsu.edu/GARDENKIT/UnWantedPests/Blackberry.htm

[madokie]

65. That would be our blackberries

back in the mid '50s we would pick those blackberries and sell them for 10 cents a gallon.

[Quantess]

2. Sounds like a great idea!

I love gardening, and if more people got into it, they would love it too!

It is such an amazing feeling to eat your breakfast right off the bushes in June.

[nashville_brook]

3. When I garden, I totally use more fresh herbs in my cooking, too...

cause, they're always there -- next to the peppers or whatever. We eat better when we garden.

[nashville_brook]

5. "Every garden a munition plant"

[Quantess]

7. I love the Victory Gardens artwork!

Also, I like that the posters portray women as healthy, trim, strong, and not anorexic. But that's another can of worms...

[nashville_brook]

16. that's a good one!

[Captain Angry]

6. When I finally land a job,

the ability to have a small garden will be a key buying point for whatever place I end up.

I don't eat nearly enough vegetables. I think this would help me get over that. I have a dream that someday I will be able to make the family pasta sauce recipe from only items I grow.

[uppityperson]

8. More and more people will be planting more and more home gardens soon

You can plant some veggies in with your flowers, and flowers in with veggies. They don't need to be segregated. (odd, I know I already wrote and posted this. Then DU wouldn't load for a bit. huh)

[pansypoo53219]

10. this year

i attempt peas. my pole beans did real well. peppers so so. for the rest, i support the farmers market.

oh, yeah, the tomatoes. the ones not et by chippies.

[pnorman]

11. 40%? I had no idea it was that high!

I was aged 11 through 15 during that period, and remember Victory Gardens very well. I recall those tomatoes to this day. Just handling the plant released a wonderful tomato-ey aroma that lingered for a long time afterward! And the TASTE of those tomatoes were to die for! But in recent decades that has all been bred out of commercial tomatoes!

In addition to all the vegetables,we raised livestock --- ducks (Pekins and Muscovies), and rabbits. Mmmmmmm!

pnorman

[Quantess]

13. Well the ducks eat all the slugs! And they help fertilize the soil!

As do chickens and geese! Not sure about rabbits, I think rabbits do more chewing than pooping. :shrug:

We have chickens, and although they mess with newly planted things, they give back more than they take, in terms of chicken manure, eggs, and entertainment. Chickens are not boring at all, when you let them out of their cages.

I love ducks. I think ducks are the cutest. The Muscovies have red, warty, pocked, faces. My old neighbors raised them for meat. They also raised goats for meat and milk. They killed the boy goat youngsters for meat. They made sure the female goats kept getting pregnant to keep the milk flowing and the meat-babies born.

Looking back, I appreciate my neighbors' honesty about raising animals for meat. It is still gross to me, and I could not do it, but they represent the old fashioned way of meat farming. The animals had decent lives. The animals were well cared for, until their sudden deaths.

[Rosemary2205]

28. you get tomatoes all year now. Then you got them only for how long they grew.

Seasonal food makes it more special to begin with. :)

[ensho]

31. you can can tomatoes - helped my mother do the canning every summer

and nowadays freezing extra vegs.

canning eliminates having to refrigerate.

[Rosemary2205]

38. canned maters are fine but compared to fresh?

tomatoes out of the backyard, still a little warm from the sunshine

Orgasmic :) :) :)

[ensho]

66. true, but if you don't want to waste the toms - you can them or

sell them or give them away. one tomato plant can produce many toms.

[Ghost Dog]

46. I never heard of canning at home until recently (out of US):

Bottling in glass jars is what I used to watch my mother do, in '50s - '60's UK.

Ed. I must look into this.

[ensho]

67. it is glass jars! but in the US it is called canning -

nt

[JDPriestly]

74. I also helped can. I loved it, but my fingers are rather insensitive

to heat -- maybe because I did so much canning.

[pnorman]

48. Yes, but a very pale imitation of what was once "the real thing"!

And we're just starting to get a grasp of the hidden costs of that "year round" system of food production/distribution. And it is SCAREY!

pnorman

[havocmom]

54. 40% was about what we imported when bush took office

and the GOP Congress canned the nation of origin labeling law right after that, so the number probably went up drasticly. America is NOT safer when it imports so much food.

[JDPriestly]

12. I have a small garden plot io n my backyard.

I just started it last year. Here in East LA, the soil is horrible, and my garden produces very little. Chard does well. I have a some heads of cabbage, but it got cold and several of them went to leaves and didn't actually form into cabbage heads. I planted some beans and they are doing well. I grew lettuce in pots over the winter. I picked the leaves as I went along making sure the lettuce did not flower. It gets bitter if it flowers. I also have two tomato plants.
My focus is on trying to improve my soil. That's why I planted beans.

I like the gardening book entitled "The Gardener's Bible." The author strongly recommends raised beds -- but I haven't built them yet.

I'm composting, but it is taking a long time.

[nashville_brook]

15. raised beds are wonderful for places with crappy soil. it's kinda cheating!

i need to do cabbages. that's something i've not done.

[JDPriestly]

52. My idea was to have cabbages for the winter.

Unfortunately, if the temperature goes below 40 or so, the cabbages produce leaves rather than heads. At least that is what I have read.

[tsuki]

79. I planted my cabbage last Oct. I covered it during the cold spells with

plastic. It did fine. I use the dark green leaves for tamales, the lighter green for cabbage rolls, the white part for slaw, kraut and casserole. I planted the broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprout, collards, and kale at the same time. I had huge heads and/or great leafage (is that a word?)

As an added bonus, no bugs, worms or such.

[K8-EEE]

17. Hey big shout out from the Valley! On the raised beds.....

I bought a snap together set up from Gardener's Supply, cuz I'm not that good at building stuff. It will solve your soil problems for sure! Along with that I recommend the book "Square Foot Gardening," you can get it from the library, basically you plant the raised beds in 1-foot grids, to maximize your harvest. I'm growing SOOO much stuff in mine, tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant, herbs -- it's amazing how much you can get out of a small space using that method!

Stop by the DU gardening forum to see some examples!

[roody]

53. Plant fava beans to enrich the soil. It may be

too late in the year. Fall planting is good.

[NMDemDist2]

57. go to the Starbucks and get coffee grinds a couple times a week

and work it into the soil, also if the soil is very hard or clay, grow lots of radish, they'll break it up for you.

Radish seed = very cheap
coffee grinds = free

[JDPriestly]

73. Thanks. Will do.

Can you believe there are no Starbucks in my neighborhood. Too poor. I think we must be the only underStarbucked area in the U.S.

[NMDemDist2]

82. ask any coffee shop to save them (maybe bring them a 5 gallon bucket

with a lid and your name on it) or ask a large office to do it for you. you can get buckets at Lowe's or home depot real cheap

[ensho]

68. Organic Gardening mag. would be helpful in getting better soil

nt

[JCMach1]

14. Time to dig up those crappy lawns and plant some food

[K8-EEE]

18. Amen! Especially here in So. CA -- lawns are a waste of water

You can fill your house with fresh veggies, herbs and flowers 10 months a year -- and people slave over GRASS!

Grass is fine - in some climates, but it's too hot and dry to have these enormous lawns here.

[Quantess]

19. OMG! If I lived in zone 9 or 10 I would spend ALL DAY LONG in the garden!

Do people living in California even realize what cool, amazing, plants can be grown there??!!

[K8-EEE]

36. Sadly, many do not because

The days of tiny houses on big lots (mine is circa 1920) have given way to condomania. Complete with tiny landscaping belts with evergreen shrubs and ground covers that stay manicured and distressingly THE SAME all year long, maintained by a team of "mow blow & go" gardeners.

However!! I feel like gardening is really having a resurgence....and my friend grows the most amazing stuff on her condo patio!

Victory gardens are sort of a good outcome of the crap BushCo economy -- just like, less crowded freeways because of the ridiculous gas prices.

[Arctic Dave]

49. I would too.

I remember growing up in San Diego as young kid and eating stuff off the vine from my moms garden. Apples, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, berries, and all the veggies you could shove in your face.:9

[NickB79]

77. The things I saw in Puerto Rico last summer made my head spin!

The grandfather-in-law's yard was like an exotic produce section of a grocery store. Plantains, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, perennial pepper shrubs (whereas peppers are tender annuals up here in Minnesota), breadfruit, avocado, herbs I've never seen before, even coconuts!

Oh yeah, and there are wild iguanas all over the place that taste like chicken in case the veggies don't quite hit the spot :) There are flocks of wild chickens too, but you'd have to be starving to dare go head-to-head with a pissed off Puerto Rican rooster!

[JCMach1]

20. In Florida some grass can grow withoug irrigation... My family has grown their own food

(i.e. vegetables) for generations. These days, all you need is a good, energy efficient freezer, and enough space to grow some veggies.

Nothing beats fresh vegetable from the garden...


mmmm the thought of fresh pesto and steamed green beans....

[nashville_brook]

32. another cool thing about Florida is everyone has wells for irrigation -- "free" water

[JCMach1]

62. Where my family lives most of it recycles directly and slips right back into the aquifer

so the cities can drink...

[nashville_brook]

63. i have a dream of collecting rainwater in cisterns, and using that --

there's a major problem in the part of Florida where I'm originally from (brevard, on the indian river) with runoff killing the river. i've wanted a cistern for a long time, just because i think it's cool to get "free" water -- but it's also healthy for the environment. you can get nifty barrels now that have spigots, making it super easy to collect rainwater.

[ensho]

69. thanks for info on barrels with spigots for sell - didn't know that

nt

[nashville_brook]

33. no freakin' doubt!

[Ghost Dog]

22. I recall Peter Kropotkin greatly inspiring me in this area,

reading his book "Fields, Factories and Workshops Tomorrow".

I'm seeing more and more of this kind of project everywhere.

[judasdisney]

23. AP 4.17.08 "Guyana Gives Away Seeds Amid Food Crisis"

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqjkeT3OkY58ihi42VFfYKZd9R9QD903Q4IO0

Guyana gives away seeds amid food crisis
Apr 17, 2008

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Guyana is tackling the soaring price of food in markets by sending citizens to their gardens to grow their own.

President Bharrat Jagdeo said Thursday the government would give seeds — mostly rice — in rural communities, hoping that people will sow them on idle land and in gardens in the small South American nation.

"I don't want to say that everyone should become a farmer because not everyone is cut out for that, but when the economics are right you can do anything," said Jagdeo, who did not reveal the cost of the program.

Indian communities would get seeds for a special variety of rice suitable for the hilly communities where many life.

Isolated protests have broken out over rising food costs in Guyana, where chicken costs 50 percent more than it did last year. Rice prices have risen 80 percent. U.N. officials have expressed alarm about food price rises worldwide.

Guyana also announced Thursday that it has restricted rice exports to Africa to ensure that poultry farmers have enough feed stock.

[malaise]

70. Guyana eats more locally grown food than most places

Additionally Guyana has tons of cheap fish and shrimp of all sizes.
The Labour Day project in Jamaica (May 23rd) will be promoting Eat what you Grow.
Right across the Caribbean, the stupid neo-liberal political lackeys have finally realized that if we don't start eating what we grow, we'll all be starving soon and there are aggressive programmes promoting home gardens.
I find it amusing since we have a permanent vegi garden.

add

[aquart]

24. It was 40% because it wasn't coming from anywhere else.

It wasn't that Americans raised so much as that so much was going elsewhere...or simply wasn't being grown. Our farmboys were in uniform.

So were our truckers.

Someday, you ought to take a look at rationing recipes.

[nashville_brook]

42. the trucking unrest (high fuel cost) is what actually got me thinking about this -- here's my fear..

truckers make money in the tiniest margins, so when diesel goes up, they can't afford to work. what if there comes a time, this summer perhaps, when for whatever reason, we can't get the produce we're accustomed to using?

it's conceivable that the end of *cheap oil* could impact the way we eat -- moreover, the way we're currently eating --driving our salads all the way from central and south america -- is unsustainable economically and environmentally. aside from transportation issues, factory farming is unsustainable too as it's largely an oil-based, and water-intensive industry. water in the heartland and out west is becoming a serious problem. so, we've got numerous stressors on our dinner table. also -- who's to say we *shouldn't* have instituted WW2-style resource-scarcity. we were asked to buy more instead of pull in our belts. we've been in Iraq and Afghanistan much longer than we were in theater in WW2, and we're starting to feel the pressure.

one other thing -- much of our food crops are now going to feed the burgeoning alternative fuel industry. this is the first year we've begun to feel that pinch. who's to say how this will shake out in the future.

during WW2, there was an effort to address the stressors on the economy. Bush hasn't addressed these stressors on our economy now, b/'c he just doesn't care. we can starve as far as he's concerned.

my quality of life would tumble dramatically if i couldn't get produce for our meals. so, the inspiration comes from wanting to be self-sufficient in the event of a strike or hyperinflation of produce.

then, the other side of this is that socially, it's the smart thing to do b/c right now we're actually living on land that should be farmland (suburbs, sprawl cities). it's also smart to encourage people to become "producers" instead of simply consumers. it's smart to localize our needs.

[ensho]

83. WWII was when margarine was invented as butter was rationed and

one of my jobs as a kid was to take care of the margarine. it came in a clear thick plastic (plastic was recently invented) bag with a orange capsule in it. through the plastic you broke the capsule and released the orange/yellow dye. then you mushed the mess around until the whole bag was a yellow color. cut the bag open and squeese the stuff into a container.

I have not eaten margarine since. I raised my children on butter. none of us were overweight.

(I personally think taking fat out of food is a nutty and unhealthy thing to do)

[Fly by night]

25. Four days after my last frost (I hope), I'm harvesting 10 kinds of veggies already ...

... from my raised beds here in my middle TN holler. (I had to cover up my 60 tomato plants with three layers of protection, as well as the potatoes and pole beans, but they all made it unscathed).

I wish I knew how to attach photos to a DU post 'cause I am really proud of my Garden this year. I have 10 raised beds, 4 ft. X 120 ft. that are framed by rot-resistant cypress planks, that have been raised organically for almost 40 years now. After last night's soaking rain, everything green is smiling and giving back. I'm about to have enough broccoli to give away, and that will start my annual ritual of feeding the multitudes (mainly down-on-their-luck fellow AAers and residents of my former residence at a federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house). I can usually take loads of extra food to town three days a week from now until late October. Sure feels good.

So, Brook, if you and/or others want to see a few pictures from my Garden, PM me with your email addresses and I'll send them out later today.

"When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the Garden." Minnie Aumonier

[Ghost Dog]

44. How to attach photos:

Use this simple and free site to upload your images. Once uploaded, copy and paste the 'direct link to image' (at bottom of page) into your DU post. Post. That's it.

Link: http://imageshack.us/

[Fly by night]

55. The link wouldn't work on the Garden pictures I have. But I'm happy to email them to anyone.

Just PM me your email address(es) and I'll send all y'all a few.

My neighbor took the pictures of the garden, and they are labeled on the computer as a "file" (no .jpg suffix, etc.) The Image Shack site couldn't recognize them when I tried to upload them. But thanks for your suggestion nonetheless.

Now back to the Garden and, later, a dinner of romaine and mesclen lettuces, spinach, green onions, radishes and steamed broccoli and greens.

Yum. yum -- come get ya' some!!

[JDPriestly]

75. Wow! If you can do that in Tennessee, we should be able to

do even better with winter gardens (and the right soil) here in Southern California.

Do you find that the short fall and winter days inhibit the growth of your vegetables?

[Fly by night]

81. There are certain veggies that prefer cool weather & can survive light frosts.

Those are the ones to plant early (or late) to take advantage of the cool weather. The brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.), root crops (onions, beets, turnips, carrots, but not potatoes) and salad greens all do great in cool weather. In fact, if you plant them in the fall here, they may freeze back but (often) they will recover in the spring to give you an extra-early treat.

Yesterday, I had two young children (ages 3 and 8) help me harvest radishes and broccoli and plant peppers. Neither of them had ever done any of that before and they were in Garden-heaven. Afterward, we stood around with their parents and ate the raw broccoli. None of them had ever tasted broccoli so sweet.

I imagine that you can do even better in SoCal, though you might have to use shade cloth for some of the traditional spring veggies. My guess is that you could over-winter many of them and eat fresh from your Garden even longer than me.

Now it's time to plant more peppers, eggplant and squash. Springtime in Tennessee is as close to heaven as I am likely ever to get (though summertime in the New Mexico mountains just south of Taos is a very close second.)

[JDPriestly]

86. I had lettuce from containers (situated in good sun) all winter.

It was my first try, so I did not get a lot, but this coming year, I will plant lettuce again in containers. I'm sure I will get a much better crop.

I'm trying to grow a lot of herbs right now.

I have a lot of arugula.

[JDPriestly]

87. I had lettuce from containers (situated in good sun) all winter.

It was my first try, so I did not get a lot, but this coming year, I will plant lettuce again in containers. I'm sure I will get a much better crop.

I'm trying to grow a lot of herbs right now.

I have a lot of arugula.

[Fly by night]

89. Some good container veggies: peppers, basil, squash, and tomatoes.

But with squash and tomatoes, be sure to get the "bush" type rather than the "vining" type. Bush tomatoes are generally labelled as "determinate" types.

Good luck with your Garden. If you want to see pictures of mine, PM me your email address and I'll send them on.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. I live in a condo townhouse and can only plant veggies on my deck. I have tomatoes, chile peppers

and basil growing out there right now. I need to look for other container veggies.

[nashville_brook]

35. last year i grew the BEST cucumbers in containers!! omg -- what a difference!

they were the best damn cukes i've ever had in my life! i let the vines crawl up the patio supports. they were pretty too.

Chard might do well. Oh! and a lettuce box (like, baby lettuces) -- that's almost too easy. Nothing like clipping your dinner salad from your deck!

[K8-EEE]

37. I'm doing container cukes this year!!

I started them from seed in March -- hey are getting their first blossoms!

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

43. Thanks for the advice! Will do some research on this. I do know that I want to grow scallions too...

yummy salad stuff.

I also read that some eggplants work in containers. :)

As to the lettuce, years ago I found a warm weather lettuce. It was terrific to go out and harvest the leaves. I haven't been able to find it since.

[tsuki]

80. Hang your tomatoes upside down and grow them. I was kind of

skeptical, but a friend of mine did that, and she is now harvesting. I am a couple of weeks away.

[Rosemary2205]

27. I like it.

I'm all for changing our culture to growing food instead of grass (what a freakin waste). It would be so wonderful to have a house be higher in value because it already has well developed veggie beds, compost pile and fruit trees. I'd really love to see these homeowner associations and gated communities change their charters so people are allowed to put up sheds and greenhouses and veggie beds. -- use the common area of the community to have a weekly or monthly produce exchange or sale.


I doubt it will happen, Americans for some bizarre reason are married to thier grass. But I love it.


BTW - there was not a lot of fruit and veggies around during the war era. There was a lot of rationing. Plus there were fewer mouths to feed because #1 there were less people and #2 a third of them were off to war and Uncle Sam was feeding them and #3 people lived more than one generation in a house so you had more labor spread out to get all the work done.

[K8-EEE]

41. My daughter is going to UC Santa Cruz in Sept & Hopes to get a plot

in their community garden....they have so many garden-based programs there AND different vegan choices in the dining hall every day, that is why she chose USSC!

Every school could benefit from a garden, IMO...

[Rosemary2205]

45. Those goofy Californians! LOL

community garden -- what a bunch of commie liberal hippies ! :rofl:

:)

[scarletwoman]

29. Fun thread! k&r (nt)

[tomreedtoon]

30. What about we people with Black Thumbs?

I literally have the touch of death with anything that grows. Nothing works. I can't even grow grass on my lawn; if I owned it instead of renting, I would pave it over and paint the concrete green. I'm afraid to even go near a Chia Pet.

Sorry, but nice as this sounds, it only works for those people with The Gift, and a lot of time on their hands to go around killing varmints, spraying for bugs and firing buckshot at garden thieves.

[nashville_brook]

34. doesn't have to work "for everybody" for everybody to benefit

for those with the Black Thumb (which i totally have too, i'm just tenacious) you can enjoy your neighbor's bounty via the community exchange...maybe your kids will benefit from learning the skill at school and eating better food in the cafeteria.

there's plenty of tax credits i don't get to take now -- like the one for giant SUVs, or having businesses in the Cayman Islands. there's years i haven't taken the home office deduction, b/c i didn't freelance. no big -- it's a SOCIAL good -- that's the idea behind the tax credit.

plus, if there's a tax benefit, people who FORMERLY thought they had the Black Thumb, might double-down and take it more seriously, thereby greening-up their opposable digit. Start with an herb garden -- herbs like neglect. There's no one who can't grow mint, it's basically a weed. Then, move up to basil. Squashes are next -- EASY! Lots of people start gardening with tomatoes, and that's unfortunate, because they aren't easy. Tommytoes can be really fussy and lots of critters like to eat them (bugs, worms, four-leggeds). So, often, people have a bad experience with tomatoes and give up.

[K8-EEE]

39. I disagree!

I used to think I had a black thumb, but actually, I just didn't know what I was doing.

As for the pests, it's all about EXPECTING the damn things and not just waiting around and noticing them when your plants show obvious damage....organic controls only work for infanticide on bugs really, once you have a full-on infestation fuggetaboutit.

As far as having the time/inclination -- you are right on that one. I get up an hour early to have time in the day, just checking out what's going on, deadheading, and making lists of what needs to be done. But it's my favorite time of the day! It's my gym, my church, my retreat, my little produce and flower market -- I feel like I get a LOT back for the time I put in!

[havocmom]

40. A garden teaches our children well and feeds them well.

I can take ANY age child and find age appropriate natural science lessons for him/her in a garden. More importantly, time in the garden with kids shows them they do NOT have to accept things as they are. They have the power to change their immediate surroundings. How important is THAT lesson?

Give them memories of good quality time spent with people who love them. Give them the satisfaction of producing some food they can eat and share with others. Give them REAL self esteem, not mass marketed pseudo-self-esteem.

They need nourishment and food they help produce will nourish body, mind, and soul.
Teach your children well. Their father's hell can be changed.

[annonymous]

47. I am planting more stuff this weekend

I already have lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, parsley, chives and strawberries. I just planted a blueberry bush and need to plant cucumbers and bush beans. The cost of produce in the supermarket makes me want to expand my garden and I only have a small 4' x 9' plot to begin with. I have an upside down tomato planter with tomatoes and peppers in it as well as several containers of various sizes. I grow flowers in the containers out in front of my house and in the small hanging containers mounted on my fence in the back. I hope to save at least $200 on produce costs.

[Uncle Joe]

50. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for thread, nashville_brook.

[nashville_brook]

59. you're very welcome -- :) -- spring thoughts!

[bonito]

51. K&R

[Fly by night]

56. "When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the Garden."

I don't know who Minnie Aumonier was, but that sentence of hers contains the wisdom of the ages and the solution to whatever ails ya'.

[nashville_brook]

58. totally words to live by!

[east texas lib]

60. Wait a minute! What's that, in between those rows of corn?

Now that's a REAL VICTORY!:smoke:

[ensho]

71. ain't that the truth.

but if you are not careful, before you know it they are waaay tall.

[mistertrickster]

61. I tried a little experiment last winter that worked well. Winter gardening under glass.

Had some old storm windows and built a wall of bricks around a raised bed--no mortar, just stacked bricks two high.

Put a window over it and grew lettuce and radishes. The lettuce is still growing (without the glass). Our temp in South-Central Kansas got to nearly zero several times and the cold-loving veggies didn't freeze or wilt.

A big advantage is no insect pests to worry about in the winter AND the leaves on the trees have dropped, so shade isn't much of an issue.

[nashville_brook]

64. cold frames! that's awesome! i saved a bunch of old windows for that...

but moved away from the cold weather before i could use them.

[pitohui]

72. because after all the little woman of the house has nothing else to do all day, right?

believe it or not, gardening takes time and it takes money

the idea that i should hold a job (sometimes two jobs) and that all of my limited discretionary time should be taken up with basic survival issues is very, very convenient to a gov't that wants to limit public participation and activism

at some point, the person who follows all these "rules" for exercising every day, growing their own food, for endless fussing over their body and their food -- that person is very effectively removed from society as a political unit, they simply don't have time to participate in the community

i think we need to question why so much of our public propaganda effort is focused on telling people to worry about food and their bodies all day long to the exclusion of any other concern or interest

i do have a garden but to pretend that it saves money is a joke, gardening is gambling, it involves money, effort, and risk, and the person who claims they've never ended up feeding the caterpillars is either a liar or they've never gardened

[JDPriestly]

76. I'm not working so much any more -- just part-time.

It would not be worth my while to garden if I worked, and that is why I neglected my garden when I was working the very long hours that I worked.

I have to say, however, that gardening is rewarding. It makes me feel very peaceful. I love the feeling of working with soil and plants.

[MadHound]

78. Wow, if you're gardening, and it is eating up your time and money, you're doing it the wrong way

Try a no till garden, where everything is mulched in straw, thus cutting down on weeds dramatically. Try using organic fertilizers in the fall, like spreading manure or growing a cover crop. There are several organic alternatives that are easy as spraying and not time consuming at all. And drip irrigation is defintely the way to go.

Yes, there's some initial time and money invested in a garden. But if you do it right, you don't have to spend more than a couple hours in the garden every week. Yes, it does save you money, especially if you save your seeds, and there are ways to minimize your monetary outlay. I don't know how you garden, but I do in such a manner as to save myself money.

Oh, and between my gardening, orchard, mushrooms, berries etc., I still have plenty of time left for other things, like remaining active in politics and my local community.:shrug:

[nashville_brook]

85. i actually see gardening as a nexus for participation. but if you don't, and gardening is a drag,

then you shouldn't put yourself thru it.

i believe self-sustainability is a very political act. not being dependent on the whim of economy is a powerful thing. the rich enjoy this b/c they have $$ -- gardening is just a small way for a not-rich person to achieve a measure of independence. since this is a "productive" activity that has a positive impact on the economy and environment, I believe it should be supported in the same way we should support energy efficiency -- using tax incentives. the larger picture is to move incentives from large corporations to individuals, where it can do the most good.

got to say, i never thought that growing vegetables had a direct relationship to time spent in political activity. maybe you've got something there. can you provide an example?

personally, i'm not advocating a "greening of america" vision where no one participates in their community. on the contrary, my idea is to encourage participation thru trading in surplus. there's an added benefit of getting people together via a non-controversial tomato (for instance) rather than an issue that automatically puts everyone on opposites side of the fence, so to speak.

[RebelOne]

84. I remember my mother growing a victory garden in our back yard

in Philadelphia during WWII.

[noonwitch]

88. Some Detroit neighborhoods have community gardens.

Seeds are cheap and you can buy them with food stamps/EBT cards.