Not long ago a large portion of the food we consumed as a nation was actually grown right in our own back yards. Millions of Canadians each spring ritualistically planted their vegetable gardens which yielded a bounty of fresh vegetables fit for their dining room tables. During World War II millions of Americans (and Canadians) answered the call of patriotism and planted their Victory Gardens. This due in part to the rationing of food. In the United States, nearly 20 million Americans answered the call and
“planted gardens in backyards, empty lots and even city rooftops. Neighbors pooled their resources, planted different kinds of foods and formed cooperatives, all in the name of patriotism. Farm families, of course, had been planting gardens and preserving produce for generations. Now, their urban cousins got into the act. The government and businesses urged people to make gardening a family and community effort.”
Today, the situation is much different as the back yard garden has been forgotten and relegated as an out dated relic of an era long since past. When one looks and sees for themselves the brilliance of a back yard garden from an ecological and economic perspective the back yard garden makes perfect sense for the government to stress the importance in the name of ecology and thrift. Most, if not all of us are completely dependent on buying food from one of the many large chain supermarkets such as Sobey’s or Safeway. Much of this food is grown and shipped from places well beyond where we live and work. Great amounts of fossil fuels are burned to grow, package and ship the food we now eat. The burning of colossal amounts of fossil fuels required to grow food on such a grand scale exacerbates the effects of global warming, poor health and quickens the pace of oil depletion. A sounder and more ecological approach to follow is to use any available land to produce food thus decreasing demand for commercially grows food.
Easy to grow foods include potatoes, zucchini, carrots, beets, onions which can easily be canned, dried or frozen for future use. You don’t have much of a green thumb? How about an herb garden? Herbs are rather expensive when purchased fresh or dried from the supermarket but when grown yourself the savings are impressive. Herb gardens are simple to design, and easy to maintain. Better yet, they almost always produce enough herbs to last the entire growing season.
By growing your own food you can help reduce the amount of fuels burned and pesticides applied to grow the food you would otherwise have bought at the supermarket.
So, this spring before you decide to plant flowers and sod why not convert a small piece of your back yard and turn it into a small garden patch. You’ll be surprised at how much fun and relaxing it is to garden and to eat the fresh vegetables produced.
Photo of the San Francisco City Hall victory garden courtesy Rhonda Winter.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good article. Food for thought on starting a community garden .
Square Foot gardening is a simlpe, organic concept city dwellers might explore, it requires little space and time. Enjoyed the article, it sparked my interest in reclaiming a small patch in the massive back yard lawn for a garden.
I am reminded of Lenin’s NEP and the overwhelming relative success of small peasant plots where industrial monoculture had failed; in the face of a looming era of widespread unemployment, perhaps ‘prosperity gardens’ are one way to restore legitimate and authentic fundamental value to our economy. As a thought exercise, take it one step further: what if governments, specifically municipalities, considered taking taxes-in-kind after the soviet model of the time? Let suburbanites pay taxes on their enormous lots with yams and cabbage, I say.