Vegetable Gardening Rebirth

April 17th, 2008

   The stars are aligned for a big-time return to grow-your-own vegetables.

   Rising food prices, ghastly gas prices and a growing green movement are converging to make the idea of a backyard vegetable garden sound pretty good.

Vegetable gardening is making a big-time comeback.

   For the first spring in years, more gardeners say they plan to buy vegetable and fruit plants than ornamentals, according to a new national survey by the Garden Writers Association.

   Edibles went from fourth place to second on this year’s GWA “plan-to-buy” list, trailing only lawn products.

   It wasn’t that long ago that vegetable gardens were the norm. During World War II when it was considered patriotic to grow your own food, America boasted 20 million home veggie gardens.

   Then we got lazy.

   Why dig and sweat and get dirty when you can just drive to the store and buy whatever you want?

   These days, if I see a vegetable garden in one out of every 10 yards, that’s a generous estimate.

   Here’s what’s going on to change the trend:

   * Costly gas is jacking up food prices, not to mention the expense of driving to the grocery store.

   * Concern over gas use and global warming has spawned a “locavore” movement that urges people to eat locally produced food rather than truck it an average of 1,300 miles from field to fork.

   * Food-safety scares of the past two years have people wondering what’s in and on their store-bought food.

   * A reborn environmental movement questions the wisdom of using so many synthetic pesticides that end up polluting waterways and drinking water.

   * Organic produce is the latest food-industry darling as restaurant menus brag about organic ingredients and supermarkets display organic choices next to the “regular” offerings.

   * The growing “foodie culture” is shining new emphasis on freshness, flavor, quality and variety.

   * Parents are looking for wholesome, calorie-burning ways to pry their kids away from the computer monitor. And they’re noticing a not-so-healthy disconnect between kids and nature in general.

   * Ordinary yardeners are getting tired of mowing and dumping cash into their green-carpet yard.

   * And baby boomers are starting to retire, freeing time to finally pursue hobbies that weren’t possible when working full time.

   Now think about how a backyard vegetable garden fits into that picture.

   You won’t find food any fresher or more local than what you pick from your own yard.

   You know what sprays – if any – go onto your plants. Ditto with fertilizer.

   You can grow organically if you want and pay a lot less than store-bought organic produce. (This is one hobby that actually saves you money.)

   You can grow your own veggies with your kids or grandkids, making it a bonding as well as educational process that often triggers a lifelong interest in gardening AND leads kids to healthier diets, too. (Just think of the new vocabulary words the kids will learn when they hear your reaction to yesterday’s groundhog damage!)

Want purple carrots? They're easy to grow in your own yard. These are 'Purple Haze.'

   You can pick the tastiest varieties or the most nutritious varieties or just plain old fun stuff that you’re not likely to see in stores, such as purple carrots or white tomatoes.

   And you can’t beat the great exercise in the fresh air.

   So why aren’t we all doing this?

   I suspect a big argument is time, although the Nielsen numbers tell us we seem to find time for American Idol and an endless stream of TV sports.

   There’s also lack of veggie-growing know-how, and maybe biggest of all, overcoming inertia to get out there and dig up the lawn in the first place.

   Figuring out how to grow your own food is easier than ever. The Internet is crawling with excellent how-to sites.

   A few good ones:

   * Harrisburg-area vegetable gardener Kenny Point’s detailed and local vegetable-gardening blog at www.veggiegardeningtips.com. The site also offers Point’s downloadable veggie primer called “Amazing Secrets to Growing Luscious Fruits and Vegetables at Home.”

   * Kitchen Gardeners International tips on the new mixed-planting style of veggie gardens at www.kitchengardeners.org.

   * The National Gardening Association’s collection of veggie tips and articles at www.garden.org.

   * And, my blog at http://blog.pennlive.com/gardening fields local questions and includes a “Vegetable/Herbs” category that lists answers to past edible questions.

   Bookstores and online book-sellers give you lots of choices the old-fashioned way: a vegetable gardening book.

   My all-time favorite is Mel Bartholomew’s space-saving system called “Square Foot Gardening” (Rodale, 2005).

   Also check out: “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible” by Edward C. Smith (Storey Books, 2000) and “Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver” by Fern Marshall Bradley (Rodale, 2007).

   Sure, you’ll make mistakes at first.

   Sure, the bugs, groundhogs and weather will do everything in their power to discourage.

   And yeah, you’re going to get dirty.

   But when you sink your teeth into an organically grown ‘Brandywine’ tomato that you picked from your own garden, it’ll be one of the best dirty experiences you’ll ever have.

    Ten of the easiest crops for beginners:

   1.) Potatoes

   2.) Peppers

   3.) Cabbage

   4.) Tomatoes

   5.) Cucumbers

   6.) Onions

   7.) Leeks

   8.) Green beans

   9.) Carrots

   10.) Most any herb

    When to plant what:

   * Crops you can plant early to mid-April: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, collards, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, endive, mesclun, mustard, onions, orach, radicchio, pak choi, parsnips, parsley, peas, potatoes, radishes, shallots, spinach, turnips, Swiss chard.

   * Crops you can plant after danger of frost in mid-May: Green beans, lima beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, hot peppers, leaf lettuce (give shade), Malabar spinach, melons, okra, peppers, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, squash, Swiss chard, tomatoes, watermelon.

   * Crops you can use to replant space in summer after you’ve harvested initial crops: Beets, carrots, short-season corn, cucumbers, green beans, Malabar spinach, okra, potatoes, Swiss chard.

   * Crops you can plant in mid to late summer for fall harvest: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, endive, garlic (plant in October for spring harvest), kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, mesclun, orach, mustard, pak choi, parsnips, radishes, shallots, spinach, turnips, Swiss chard 

    Seeds or plants?

   * Vegetables that are best started by planting seeds directly in the garden: Beets, green beans, lima beans, carrots, corn, endive, mesclun, Malabar spinach, mustard, orach, okra, parsnips, peas, radishes, spinach, turnips.

   * Vegetables that are best started by transplanting young plants: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, eggplant, garlic (cloves), hot peppers, leeks, onions (sets or young plants), parsley, peppers, potatoes (eyes), shallots (bulbs), sweet potatoes (slips), tomatoes.

   * Vegetables that can be grown from direct-seeding or transplants: Collards, cucumbers, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, melons, pak choi, pumpkins, radicchio, squash, Swiss chard, watermelon.