7 Million New Veggie Gardeners in 2009

15 years ago

According to a survey by the National Gardening Association, an estimated 7 million new households (for a total of 43 million households in the US) will be planting and growing some of their own food supply in 2009, including vegetables, fruits and herbs.

I have noticed that some seed racks are emptying out very quickly, and a few highly-sought-after vegetable varieties are cleaned out as soon as the racks are put out by the retailer. It also seems like the fruit trees, bramble vines and grape vines are selling very well this year.

Even on-line seed retailers seem to be running slow in filling orders (probably due to a higher than usual volume of orders) and lots of seed has been back-ordered and slow to arrive.

So, remember this as you are buying your seeds and plants and plan accordingly. I already have purchased all the seed I need for the spring, summer and fall gardens. With a large number of new vegetable gardeners, it also is likely that some garden supplies may sell out as well so I am purchasing what I need early (Slug-go!)so I'll have it when I need it.

I've always left my garden gate unlocked. I've always figured if someone needed food badly enough that they'd come into the garden and take it....then, clearly, they "need" the food and can have it. I also have told a lot of our neighbors over the years to come help themselves to tomatoes anytime they want when we're overloaded with them. I'm beginning to rethink that "unlocked gate" policy though.

Our garden sits in a big open area between the house and the road because that is where our best soil is. In fact, my garden site was our original choice for the house's site until I realized it was the only area where we had a little sandy soil instead of red clay. So, the house got moved farther back (our house is quite a ways back from the road) and about one-third of the garden is sandy soil although the rest is red clay. I am a little nervous that too many people (strangers, not neighbors) might stop and help themselves to the veggies this year. Still, it seems wrong to put a lock on a garden gate.

I do know that garden theft, including rose bushes stolen right out of the ground, has been on the rise in recent years. Still, even though locking the gate makes sense, I don't like the idea of doing it.

I've linked the article about the NGA survey below.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: NGA Garden Survey for 2009

Comments (7)

mulberryknob
15 years ago
Such a shame that it takes an economic downturn to prompt people to garden. When I was in Italy in Jan, 1999 for the birth of a granddaughter, I was amazed at how many small yards--most yards in Italian towns are small--had veggies growing in cold frames and covered row tunnels. My daughter said in the summer there were gardens and mini-orchards and vineyards everywhere.
Just three years ago the hardware store in Stilwell discontinued their seeds for lack of demand. How quickly things change.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
It is, isn't it? I love gardening so and have done it forever. Sometimes it is easy to forget that there are lots of folks, though, who did not grow up gardening and really haven't been exposed to it very much.

When I was a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, lots of folks in our city neighborhood had fruit trees and veggie gardens, and a surprising number of them had chickens in little coops that sat back at their property line. One of our next-door neighbors raised rabbits and the other had a huge garden and a greenhouse. No one really thought the gardens and fruit trees was "special"--we all gardened. Later on, as a young adult in the same neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s, I couldn't believe how many of the gardening folks were gone and how few gardens remained. One neighbor still did have chickens and some still had some old fruit trees that they really didn't prune and maintain.

When we moved here to Oklahoma in 1999, I thought there would be a lot of people with gardens out here in our rural part of Oklahoma, but there aren't all that many. Most of those gardeners are about my mom's age (85). For some reason, the "kids" (who now have kids and even grandkids of their own) don't garden although they seem perfectly willing to help their parents maintain their gardens and, of course, they're very willing to eat the fresh produce.

I think it is wonderful that so many people want to grow some of their own food. However, if they're thinking they'll save oodles of money, they're wrong, at least for the first couple of years. The cost of tools, amendments for the soil, framing for raised beds (not everyone will use raised beds though), seeds, plants, fertilizer, fencing, etc. can make the start-up costs high. Of course, some folks will just rototill the grass and plant right into that soil without giving it much thought, and I suspect they'll be disappointed in the yield they get.

I bet there will be a lot more fruit and vegetable discussion on the forums this year. : )
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oldbusy1
15 years ago
Well. i have to admit it, i am a roto till and plant guy. But i still do pretty good with the harvest.

I am trying to do better this year with composte and adding organic matter to the garden. But it is going to take alot to help this tired ole dirt.plus it is a rather large garden for just 2 people.probably 100' x 100' and i have 2 areas that size.But that is why we sell at the farmers market.

Plus i have way to many irons in the fire. i have cattle,chickens,dogs,pigs plus i do my own hay and help my cousin with his. So my summers are always busy.

now i have this 16x48 greenhouse too.

I went out and dug some gooseberries lasy year so i could plant closer to the house. i am also goint to plant a few arapaho black berries and some red raspberries.

I do have some wild blackberries out in the fields but by the time they are ripe the ticks and chiggers are in full swing and i just dont feel like picking them. I just wanted a few where i could irigate if i needed too. I know they will spread but i think i can handle them.

But i would'nt know what to do if i did'nt have so many projects.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
Busy1,

You do sound busy. It does take a lot to add organic material to the soil, and even though I do a lot of it, I still don't feel like I do enough of it. The increase in yields from improved soil is terrific though, and all the folks I share our produce with always tells me it tastes better than the stuff from other local gardens. I truly believe the soil makes the difference.
' With all those animals, at least you have plentiful amounts of manure to compost and add to your beds if you choose to use your manure that way.

I try to leave most of the native berries for the wild critters, but I pick some every now and then. We seldom have ticks and chiggers on our property anymore....thanks to almost ten years of having guineas scour the property and eat every one that they find. We sure did have a lot of both ticks and chiggers our first few years, though, before the guineas worked their magic. I can't imagine living here without the guineas--they are our most effective method of pest control.

Dawn
mulberryknob
15 years ago
Not only are there new gardeners, but a lot of gardeners are enlarging their gardens. I've seen several gardens here in Adair Co and down in Crawford Co get tilled up outside of their original borders in the last month.

And my SIL in California raises more veggies,grapes and fruit on a hankie sized lot in Bishop than I would have thought possible and even she is finding room to tuck in more dwarf fruit trees and is planning on putting veggies in the containers that usually have annuals on the deck.

About time, I say. Our garden is as big now as two people can handle, but we lost the cherry to the ice storm so had to replace that and have added some more SemiDf trees, another fig and a couple more blueberries.
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
Original Author
15 years ago
Dorothy,

The only thing that keeps me from enlarging the garden is the lack of fencing to keep the deer out.

Back in the early days here, I could plant outside the fence and the deer and rabbits seldom bothered the plants, but I think that maybe they just hadn't really noticed we were here. Now, there's either more deer or they are smarter (or hungrier) and nothing is safe from them. This week or last week they nibbled at the Burford hollies right beside the porch.

I would love to enlarge the garden though, but doubt we'll do it this year. Maybe next year, if I start nagging DH now....he HATES putting up fencing so it takes a long time to light a fire under him to do that.

If I pick the spot now to enlarge the garden for next year, though, I could start working on getting rid of the bermuda grass.

Dawn
ox41234
15 years ago
For many of us gardening is simply a pleasure that work and place have denied.

In my case my family comes from Oklahoma. My great-great grandparents were farmers and so were my great grandparents. My grandparents moved to California in the Depression and they couldn't get far enough away from dirt farming, as it was called. My grand aunt, whom I visited recently in a rest home and is incredibly close to 100, commented that her mother wouldn't let her do any gardening chores, because she didn't want her daughter to grow up and be a farmer's wife.

I and my siblings were raised in the suburbs and we moved constantly to keep up with my father's career. When we grew up we all became professionals and worked in big cities: London, San Francisco, Tokyo, Denver, New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Houston, the list goes on. My siblings and I raised our children in big cities while working under extreme stress; growing a tomato plant in a pot on the patio of the flat on the 32nd floor was considered extreme gardening.

Now our children are focusing on their children (and yikes! their children on theirs!) and I am focusing on my 5 acres. My sister's concept of gardening is having a few petunias in a pot and ensuring that someone (not her) mows the lawn. My brother lives in the north country where summer doesn't arrive until mid-June. I'm planning 6 8' x 4' raised beds (24" high, because of my back problems) and I'm spending a small fortune hiring young people with broad backs and less-than-ambitious career aspirations to help me keep these 5 acres in check.

I am sure that my great grandparents, who spent their entire lives squeezing a living out of this Oklahoma dirt, would think I was nuts taking pleasure out of planting potatoes and feeding the guinea hens every morning. But there you have it.

I think that many of us miss what we have never had. It's like the old 1960s television serial "Green Acres":

Green acres is the place to be
Farm living is the life for me
Land spreading out,
so far and wide
Keep Manhattan,Â
just give me that countryside.

New York
is where I'd rather stay
I get allergic smelling hay
I just adore a penthouse view
Darling, I love you,
but give me Park Avenue

7 Million New Veggie Gardeners in 2009

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mulberryknob

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
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oldbusy1

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7 Million New Veggie Gardeners in 2009

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mulberryknob

Okiedawn OK Zone 7Original Author

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oldbusy1

Okiedawn OK Zone 7Original Author

mulberryknob

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ox41234

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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
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