May 2010
Growing Together
by John Bruce
If you and your neighbors are looking for ways to help dig out of the recession by lowering your food bills, then history offers a valuable lesson: Look to the earth under your feet.
Community vegetable gardens emerged as a cooperative solution to help the U.S. war effort during World War I. These so-called “victory gardens” took root in rural areas, cities and towns. Garden patches were planted in yards, railroad rights-of-way, city parks, and other public lands.
The victory-garden trend resumed full force in World War II. The U.S. Department of Agriculture informed the public that if they wanted fresh fruits or vegetables in their kitchens, they should plant victory gardens. Almost instantly, Americans were growing vegetable gardens. By some accounts, victory gardens then produced 40 percent of the nation’s produce.
These days, many point to the economic downturn, a desire to reduce one’s carbon footprint and protect the environment, concerns over food safety, and cravings for better-tasting food as the motivations driving folks to work the earth themselves.
Vegetable seed sales grew by double-digits from 2008 to 2009, the nation’s major seed companies reported. The number of homes growing vegetables was forecast to climb more than 40 percent compared with just two years earlier, according to the National Gardening Association, a nonprofit organization for gardening education. Community gardens encourage social interaction and self-reliance. They beautify neighborhoods, produce nutritious food, reduce family budgets, conserve resources, and offer opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy, and education.
Acts of leadership have helped spur a national revival of community gardening. Soon after her spouse’s inauguration, First Lady Michelle Obama planted the first garden at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden during World War II. Her deed sparked a wave of interest and earned a commendation of the American Public Gardening Association, a group for building awareness of public gardens and supplying resources to the industry.
Earlier in the year, ScottsMiracle-Gro along with its partners the Garden Writers Association and Plant a Row for the Hungry and Feeding America, challenged those who garden to plant an extra row and donate their surplus to local food agencies to feed the hungry. The program—GroGood—also encourages nongardeners to start a vegetable garden for food independence while helping those in need in their local communities.
So, just how do you go about actually beginning a community garden?
The American Community Gardening Association provides resources on its website, communitygarden.org. Click on “Start a Community Garden,” and you’ll find an entire step-by-step guide.
The National Garden Bureau (NGB), a separate group dedicated to educating gardeners about successfully growing flowers and vegetables from seed, recommends wise planning in a community garden area. For instance, the NGB suggests that wide beds—about three feet across—are better than rows because you cut down on the number of paths needed, especially important in small gardens.
According to NGB, the vegetables among the easiest to grow from seed in garden soil outdoors are:
• Beans. Gardeners can grow small bush or pole beans that climb six to eight feet. Warm weather vegetables, beans do not germinate well in cold soil; wait until late spring to sow.
• Cucumbers. Warm-weather crops, “cukes” produce an abundance of fruit. Grow on a trellis or in a cage to save space.
• Peas. This cool-weather vegetable grows best in early spring or fall and in blocks or double rows with a short trellis or pea fencing between the rows to ease harvesting.
• Radishes. The easiest vegetable to grow, radishes mature in 25 to 28 days. Because there are only so many radishes a family can eat at once, sow seeds sparingly, two to three times, 10 days apart, in spring and again late summer.
• Summer squash. Like cucumbers, summer squash plants produce copious amounts of fruit but grow as a bush, not a vine. Space for a mature spread of three to four feet.
Call your New Mexico cooperative extension office for community gardens in your area. See information box on next page for listings.
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