A Basket for the Next Generation

December 6th, 2011

   The lucky winner of my gift basket filled with $180 worth of gardening goodies is… pause for theatrical effect… Kim Hess of Monroe Twp., Cumberland County.

Kim Hess, George's gift-basket winner.

   Kim and her husband, Mike, are young gardeners who just moved in September to a quarter-acre lot in the suburban development of Monroe Acres.

   They’re looking forward to building their own raised-bed veggie garden in the back next spring.

   For the last two years, the Hesses did their growing in a rented plot at the Dauphin County Community Gardens along Elmerton Avenue, not far from the State Farm Show Complex. They had been living in a condo in Harrisburg.

   It’s heartening to see young couples like this interested in gardening – especially vegetables.

   For a few decades, home vegetable gardening was becoming a lost art. I’d see hardly any veggie patches in my travels, and the prevailing opinion was, “Why would anyone want to go to all of that trouble when you can just go to Giant and buy whatever food you want?”

   But in the last few years, edible gardening has been making a comeback. The twentysomethings or Gen-Y’ers or whatever you call them have been leading the way.

   Many of them are thinking just the opposite: “Why wouldn’t we grow our own food that’s fresher, cheaper and more nutritious than stuff shipped from who knows where?”

   Seems to me edibles are a lot more productive use of space than all of that grass. Plus it’s great exercise out in the fresh air, it’s a wonderful skill to pass along to kids, and it’s fun to try some of the less common crops like kohlrabi, purple carrots and heirloom muskmelons.

   All of that comes out secondary to the real No. 1 reason to grow your own food – those big, red, ripe, juicy tomatoes picked right off the vine in early August. Those alone are worth the effort.

   Anyway, the gift basket was the prize for those who signed up for my biweekly e-mails about the latest news and postings on this site. Newcomers in the last month – and “old-timers” who arm-twisted their friends to sign up – were eligible.

   The basket included a handy-dandy set of my gardening manuals (click here if you’re interested in your own set), Judy Lowe’s new book on herbs, several packs of seeds, a trowel, a jug of Preen weed preventer, a bottle of St. Gabriel Lab’s new organic Stink Bug Killer, a bottle of Messina Wildlife’s Deer Stopper, a 12-pack of CowPots and more.

   Thanks and welcome to all who signed up to get the e-mails during the give-away. If you don’t get the e-mails but want to, it’s not too late for that. Just click on the “Sign Up for George’s Free E-Column” button in the left menu. You just won’t win a prize anymore, that’s all.

   There’s no charge, no obligation, I don’t sell or trade your address, and you can unsubscribe any time if you get tired of me.