Kspitz’s Weblog

            Many people think that gardening is a complicated, daunting and “icky” dirty task. When I talk about being involved in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and growing most of my own vegetables, they say things like,

“Oh, I wish I had the time to do that”, or “oh, I wouldn’t know how to do that”, or “that sounds wonderful, but it’s just too much work!”.

I think that the desire to grow your own food is mostly a matter of perspective and deciding how you really want to spend your time. Consider the following two scenarios:

On a mid-summer day, I decide to have a fresh green salad for lunch or dinner.

Scenario #1:

I walk out into the backyard and harvest a huge bowl of fresh salad greens, pull up a few carrots and an onion, trim the ends and toss them into the compost and then walk back into the house to wash and prepare the salad.

Scenario #2:

I get into the car, drive to the store, park the car, find a shopping cart, push the cart through the store, pay $15.00 per pound for organic greens in a plastic bag, $3.00 for ½ a lb of organic carrots in a plastic bag, .50 for an onion in a plastic bag, put it all into another plastic bag, walk back to the car, drive home, and then walk back into the house to wash and prepare the salad!

I have to ask, which scenario takes more time? Which takes more work? Which produces more waste? Which costs more?

“Oh, but it’s not that simple”, you say. “What about tilling the garden, and the weeding and the bugs? I just couldn’t deal with that”…

Once again, it’s a matter of desire and perspective. Gardening techniques have evolved with the times. My home garden consists of 4, 3 x 8’ raised beds that my husband and I built in ONE Saturday morning. It took me the rest of that Saturday to fill the beds with dirt and plant my seeds.  Weeding and watering of these beds takes about 30 minutes a day, 3 or 4 days a week.  To deter the bugs and the squirrels, I cover the beds with a light fabric held in place by bungee cords or just a few stones leaning against the frames.

That’s it.

Now, of course, there are much larger gardens and yes, they involve more work, but the reward – the amount of food you harvest – is also much greater. Once again, it comes down to desire and perspective.

Consider for a moment what would happen if everyone who lived in a city made the effort to grow even a small portion of their own food.  What if neighbors got together and shared a garden space? What if cities designated permanent garden plots in close proximity to every neighborhood? Perhaps we would actually end up with more time, more money, and greater knowledge than we have now. We would actually be expending  far less energy while at the same time creating healthier, and quite possibly, happier people. Gardening would no longer be considered a bothersome, dirty task, but an enjoyable exercise in self-sufficiency.  

It all depends on desire and perspective.

Gk