An Update, Then I Get Preachy

Well, in the way of an update. The Kittyhawk Woods 10k went off without a hitch this weekend. That's good, because Sydney was responsible for it. So, now that she has helped to raise a bunch of money for the Coastal Estuarine Reserve Foundation, CERF for short, we will be building some gardens in the coming weeks. I took advantage of the weekend off to replace the brakes on the Exxon Valdez. It took a Saturday and a half. I'm not willing to give the Lord's day to that godforsaken truck, so, in my world, last Sunday didn't start 'till noon. I hope no one was inconvenienced.

And now, to brass tacks . . . what does that mean anyway.

We've been planting a lot lately. This is my favorite time to garden really. Mainly because I'm not tired of it yet! But in all seriousness, this is the time when it seems such a natural thing to do. The Sun is here, offering its energy, but not yet torching the daylights out of your plants. Rain is plentiful. Days are warm, nights are cool, and the seeds in the ground right now, radishes, turnips, greens, carrots etc. are hearty. In spite of all of this pleasantness, a nagging question enters my mind as one group of seeds germinates while another takes a couple extra days, or for some reason doesn't start at all. Why build gardens for people? Or better yet, the question those potential customers ask in so many different ways: What's the point? Why not just go to the Teeter?

As these thoughts first crept into my noggin, I began to panic, then I relaxed as I remembered what I've gotten out of gardening. Let me be clear, we at Grow Your Own, are facilitators. We cannot guarantee that you will grow enough food in our standard eighty square foot container to feed a family of five for six months. You could, and you may, but that takes a degree of skill that may only be acquired over time. To learn those skills one thing is essential: experience. We are here to get you started down that road. So, what are we offering besides a rectangle full of dirt? To put it as plainly and succinctly as possible, having a garden will make you a better person!

Here's how, in no particular order:

Food production is an essential human skill. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I have a lot of faith in humanity, but . . . The last year has taught us that it never hurts to be prepared. Knowing how to produce food is critical to our survival, obviously. You may be asking, how will I produce a significant amount of food in my backyard? If the economy completely craps out how will my backyard garden sustain me? Well, it probably won't in the first couple of seasons. Maybe never. Maybe it is just a hobby, your zen moment after a hard day's work. But it will change your consciousness. If you ever grow cauliflower, for example, and spend an afternoon wrapping the leaves around the cauliflower head and gently tie it up with string to keep it white and edible, you will remember that. Every piece of cauliflower you eat, from that day on will be special. Your consciousness of the effort it takes to produce food will change the way you think about food.

Every time you, or your landscaper if you are fortunate enough to have one, fertilize your lawn, you might begin to ask questions. If my kids are eating those tomatoes, is it cool to apply that chemical that close to my garden? Is there another way to help the grass grow? Do I even need to help the grass grow? Do I need grass?

And price? You will undoubtedly supplement your garden with purchased produce, or certainly meat. All of the sudden a banana, which I challenge anyone to produce in their yard, on the outer banks of North Carolina, seems a steal at sixty cents a pound. You couldn't pick them yourself and fly them back from Costa Rica for that price. What about asparagus in winter, or strawberries year around. Would you drive to California's central valley, apologize to every migrant worker there without a health plan, pick up your arugula in February and drive back to the Carolina for a dinner party? And then there's the ever pressing question: Should you?

Which leads us to seasons. With a garden in your yard you will become highly aware of the seasons. In the spring you eat roots and greens, in the bountiful summer fruits and berries, in the fall roots again and greens, and in the winter. . . Well unless you can survive February on collard greens, I hope you canned something. It can be done, it was done for centuries before the world became "developed." And now, I'm not suggesting that you build a garden and live off the grid in one summer. I'm simply suggesting that by growing some of your own vegetables you will become more conscious of what it takes to grow a meal.

That consciousness will make you a better person. And each person made better in this community makes this community a better place to be. Who knows what one thousand backyard gardens could mean? I know at least it means one thousand individuals will be a little more conscious of what it takes to make a meal. It won't instantly solve America's obesity problem, or sort out farm subsidies. It won't save the planet from chemical pesticides and fertilizers. But it might create a group of people really concerned and informed about those and one hundred other issues. And at their out-of-season-produce-free dinner gatherings they might discuss ways to make this community and it's food supply better. It will certainly mean there are a thousand people out there who get just as excited as I do when they pass a horse show. Think of all that free nitrogen!!!

This past week I didn't grow a ton of tomatoes in my yard, but I did hear in the news that the G-20 summit decided to give several trillion more dollars to the International Monetary Fund to aid developing countries during the economic crisis. I couldn't help but wonder if by "help" they meant money to impose western values and food production policies on agrarian cultures in the developing world. I wouldn't have wondered that if I didn't have a garden, I'm just not that thoughtful. Poverty is not sustainable, it always ends in civil unrest, sooner or later. Unfortunately empires don't tend to be sustainable either, they always end in collapse. Can a garden in our backyard show us the middle of the road? I can't say, but it is something we haven't tried yet, and there is a lot of good metaphore material in that five by sixteen foot box.