Tear Up Your Lawn, Grow Vegetables?
By: Lowell
Published On: 8/2/2008 9:17:51 PM
Tired of paying so much money for food? Why not tear up your lawn and grow vegetables in your yard instead?
Nationally, people are growing more vegetables and fruits than flowers for the first time in at least a decade, said Scott Meyer, editor of Organic Gardening magazine.
"This year, it's really exploded," he said. "It's not only the high cost of food, but the high cost of every other activity. People are staying around their homes and looking to do things they find rewarding."
George Ball, chairman of W. Atlee Burpee, the country's largest seed company, said he has seen a 30 to 40 percent increase in vegetable seed sales this year.
"I think the thing that tipped the scale was the fuel and food costs," he said. "This is a big deal for middle-class people." He estimates that every dollar invested in seeds can become $20 worth of produce.
A $1 investment returning $20 in just a few months? Plus, as an added bonus, great tasting and healthy food for you and your family? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Comments
Trear Up Your Lawn, Grow Veggies (Mary I - 8/2/2008 10:33:01 PM)
Wow! If I was looking for a way to send my HOA board into an emergency meeting, this would do it. I tend to think a weed is an unloved flower which does not please one of my neighbors.I can only with glee think of what a tomato plant would do.
HOA be damned. (thegools - 8/2/2008 11:48:33 PM)
I have a very particular HOA board where I live. Still I have a vegetable garden smack dab in the middle of my very small "flower garden" in fron of my house.
First I planted large merigolds all around the perimeter. They provide a screen and the fascade. Then I chose vegetables that are attractive and show nice colors/flowers. Mostly I have edible flowers, Basil, peppers, and herbs/spices. Still, I do have two large tomatoes, in the back. They are well camoflaged behind a low hedge and are held up with camoflaged cages that are the same color as my brick house. They fit right in. My first tomatoes should be ready to pick next week.
As for HOA-OK vegetable gardens, if one is creative, it can happen, and it can still look like a flower garden.
Thank God I live in a neighborhood (Catzmaw - 8/3/2008 12:23:54 AM)
which has never heard of an HOA.
I tried a garden many years ago (Catzmaw - 8/2/2008 10:38:54 PM)
That's when the squirrels in my yard made off with all $20 worth of produce before it ever ripened. But now I have my ill-tempered attack cat and my very hyper Jack Russell Terrorist. If I can figure out how to keep the JRT from stomping on my tomatoes maybe I'll give it another go. Lord knows, the cat has been the best rodent catcher ever.
Ive been growing tomtoes for years (pvogel - 8/3/2008 12:23:38 AM)
This year I have tom. peppers, eggplant and basil out the yingyang!
we ill eat well till almost halloween
changing to edible landscaping can make a pretty yard (VA Breeze - 8/3/2008 11:57:20 AM)
using trellising, etc.
A good book on this "Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn", by Fritz Haeg.
I have many trees in my yard so I utilize pots and always plant so to make homemade salsa. Pepper plants are pretty also!
30 bucks in seed (skippy smooth - 8/3/2008 12:26:34 PM)
30 bucks in seed and tomato plants,add in 15 hours a week since may working in the garden so far this year.71 quarts of green beans,8 quarts of pickled beets,22 quarts of cherries,36 pints of peach butter,7 quarts of tomatoes,2 quarts of corn,so far this year.Tomatoes are just ripening in full force now,pole beans are still producing heavily,and i need to go pick about 60 ears of corn today and process them.We have had beans, corn, squash, and tomatoes in some combination every day for weeks now.Beats the hell out of watching t.v.I will now return to my chores.
Awesome! (Lowell - 8/3/2008 1:43:08 PM)
How much do you think all this produce is worth, aside from the nutritional and recreational benefits? :)
Hard to put a price on it (skippy smooth - 8/3/2008 3:39:24 PM)
But if you have not tried tomatoes or corn that was picked 5 minutes ago,you have not lived.IMHO
Almost forgot (skippy smooth - 8/3/2008 3:50:55 PM)
I am just about as internet savvy as St.McCaint but Irecently discovered GARDENWEB.COM where there are a lot of really smart people answering questions and discussing things like EARTHTAINERS for people with limited space.
Actually, I used to garden a lot (Lowell - 8/3/2008 4:14:07 PM)
as a kid, and you're right...you haven't lived if you haven't had garden-fresh produce. So much better than from the grocery store, it's not even comparable!