"Recession Gardens" are sprouting, and so are the scamsters
You know, it's kind of like watching soaps for a while. Once you've tracked them for a year or two, you pretty much know what's coming up by what you see happening any time you tune in at a future date, even years down the road.
I knew that the economic bubble would burst, I knew that a Depression was in the making, and I knew that some equivalent form of "Victory Gardens" would be promoted as a way of gettin' through tough times. Well, they're calling them "Recession Gardens", and commercial industries associated with the products that new gardeners buy are hyping the money-saving angle all to Hell, to get as much money as they can off of the ignorant who are already struggling financially.
THAT SUX, and there is a special kind of Karmic payback for scamming people when they are down.
Any experienced grower knows that the horticulture industry is long-known for deceptive practices, and we know what they are. There is a LOT of "snake oil sellin" going on out there.
Newbies, however, are the most common victims of these industries' sleazy practices, because they don't know this, and it's a damned shame, because they tend to blame themselves if they don't have the record-breaking, money saving yields touted by everyone from Burpee Seeds to Miracle-Gro, the first time they try to grow something.
They also tend to abandon gardening, which is a real tragedy, because they lose, in five ways:
-- They lose the money and time they invested in a failed effort.
-- They lose self-esteem, and self-confidence, and they get the mistaken idea that the only people who can successfully grow things are those who have that mystical "green thumb".
--They lose the actual profitable yields that come from being able to grow healthier produce at home, once you get it all together, but it takes time and experience.
--They lose the physical, mental, and emotional benefits that come from growing their own produce.
--They lose the freedom of being a complete slave to the commercial food industry.
This is why I answered the call to begin teaching community ed classes in basic organic horticulture in Alamogordo many years ago. I was absolutely furious at how many people became failed gardeners because they didn't know what they needed to know, and because the commercial suppliers of everything from seeds, to plants, to plant foods, to pest control, to gardening tools, were often unethical, and were instrumental elements in new gardeners' failures.
That really pissed me off, as did all of the time, effort, and money I wasted learning these hard, hard lessons myself.
I'm a thinkin' that I just might get into teaching this stuff again soon, because it's a gonna' need doin' again.
Here's the latest from CNN about the Recession Garden hype. Note the extremely inflated claims made by Burpee Seed Company. Oh, and even the National Gardening Association is full of shit in this piece, because they fail to mention that any real economic profitability from home gardens may take 3-5 years to achieve, because of all of the up-front costs, the time it takes to develop the tilth of the soil, the learning curve involved, low or absent yields during the first 1-2 years for most crops grown by new gardeners, and loss to unavoidable things, such as hail, late/early frosts, bad grasshopper years, etc.
Sheesh.
Gardening or raising animals for food is a major investment in time, self-education, and labor, and to pay off, it is something that you need to do for many years at a stretch before you can reliably supply yourself with high quality, lower cost food in large amounts. Plant and animal husbandry must be an integral part of your life to be profitable, and it takes around 5 years before your labor level drops off significantly, and your yields remain consistently high.
Fruit and nut trees can take the better part of a decade to begin bearing useful yields on an annual basis.
You can't just read about the Obama family planting a garden at the White House, buy some seeds, and then expect to get your year's produce if you water and weed. If the Obama's actually took the time needed to set up and run a truck garden that would feed their entire family, they wouldn't have a whole lot of time to run the Nation, especially during their first year.
Oh, and as an aside: the dingleberry who wrote this piece even used the word "uptick", and also implies that gardening skills are "innate", but not "these days".
AAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
At least this piece gives some lip service to the kinds of things would-be gardeners need to consider.
(CNN) -- As American families try to stretch their food budgets during the recession, some are turning to the backyard, rather than the grocery store, as the place to look for produce.
Susan Hopper of Tampa, Florida, uses her garden to teach her students where food comes from. Recession gardens are catching on with many first-time planters who want a healthy meal at an affordable price.
The gardeners are following seed-strewn paths laid by Michelle Obama and Eleanor Roosevelt, both of whom have used the White House lawn to show the value of a garden during tough times.
The scope of today's trend is shocking even to those in the industry. W. Atlee Burpee & Co., the largest seed and gardening supply store in the country, says it has seen a 25 to 30 percent spike in vegetable seed and plant sales this spring compared with last.
"I've been in the business for 30 years, and I've never seen anything like it -- even remotely like it," said George Ball, chairman and CEO of the company. In 2008, there was a 15 to 20 percent uptick in seed sales because of high food and gasoline prices. Not since the '70s, when the company saw sales increases in the 10 percent range, has gardening seen such buzz, he said.
The National Gardening Association expects 43 million American households to grow their own fruits, vegetables, herbs and berries this year. That's up 19 percent over last year, according to a 2,559-household survey the group conducted in January.
About a fifth of the gardeners this year will be new to the activity, the survey says. Most -- 54 percent -- said they will garden because it saves them money on food bills. A slightly larger group say they garden because homegrown food tastes better. There's evidence that recession gardeners stand to see substantial savings at the grocery store checkout.
Last year, Burpee released a report saying a family will get an average 25-to-1 return on its investment in a garden. So, by that count, a family that spends about $200 on a medium-to-large garden, as Michelle Obama reportedly did, will save $5,000 in grocery bills over the course of a year.
That statistic is inflated, said Mike Metallo, spokesman for the National Gardening Association. Metallo's group says a $70 investment in a garden will yield $600 in produce for the year. To get those savings, a gardener has to know what to plant, when to plant it, where to plant it, how to deal with different soil types and how to care for the garden. That knowledge isn't innate these days, especially for urban dwellers.
Bobby Wilson, president of the American Community Gardening Association, says all of that interest is great, but he worries that Americans aren't equipped to grow their own food without some help. "Many of the people that want to get into the gardening and greening movement right here have never gained the skills," he said. "Many of them came up in an era where there was no vocational education, so there was no need to learn anything about horticulture or agriculture."
He said all of the country's elementary schools should have gardens so future generations will learn how to save money and fend for themselves. Susan Hopper, a 41-year-old elementary school teacher in Tampa, Florida, said she started a garden last year, partly to teach her family and her students about the food chain.
"I have three children of my own, and they think chicken comes in tenders and nuggets," she said. "I was concerned about their health, and I wanted them to understand that food is a process that we're a part of, and it just doesn't come in neat packages."
Hopper grew up watching her older family members garden, but when she first decided to plow a patch of her own yard, she wasn't too successful. Florida's growing season is somewhat reversed, she said, so even though she had read Internet articles about how to garden, she didn't know the local tricks needed to make her plants survive.
In the process of digging back into the soil, though, some new gardeners are struggling with the fact that they're several generations removed from a farm. Pamela Price, a 38-year-old mom in San Antonio, Texas, said her garden isn't profitable just yet because of droughts in her state. She grew up in a family of ranchers and farmers, but she's forgotten much of what she learned when she was young.
"We are fortunate that we don't have to rely on [the garden], but I certainly want to make sure that, in the event that something happens, we would know how to," she said. "It's a life skill."Price said she's started to look at her local environment anew as she leans which plants will or won't grow in the harsh climate.
That gives her a connection with history, too, she said. She recently read a book about how some of Texas' residents a century ago had similar issues. Wilson, of the community garden association, said new gardeners should seek advice from neighbors. On every block, there's a gardener who is willing to talk about the process, he said.
Face-to-face conversations are more helpful than Internet searches when it comes to learning about the local environment, he said.
One way to tap local garden knowledge is to join a community garden, where neighbors turn up communal plots together. The activity is expected to see a fivefold increase this year, with 5 million households saying they're at least "very interested" in participating in a community garden, said Metallo, of the National Gardening Association.
New gardeners should start out small, he said. That way you'll learn as you go and won't get as frustrated. "You don't have to go hogwild crazy," he said, adding that people who tear up their entire yards are usually disappointed.
"Get comfortable with it."