The Revolution Has Begun!
June 06 2012
I was struck this weekend by how many of my neighbors have taken up gardening. The home next door to our house is divided up into three separate apartments and two of these apartments have seen new tenants arrive in the last few months. And since the weather has improved, all of these new residents have started growing their own food.
Their backyard is very small; in fact I’d say it’s no more than 20m square. The folks on the main floor have still managed to plant kale in containers, beans and peas along the side of the house as well as tomato plants and various lettuces in a converted wooden skid.
The couple that live on the second floor have tomatoes, lettuces, spinach and cucumbers growing from their second floor balcony! Even the First Lady Michele Obama is getting in on the act by publishing a gardening book: American Grown.
At our house, thanks to the wonderful book: The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener we’ve learned all about “cold frames” which have extended our growing season by a lot. In fact, we’re already eating lettuces, radishes and spinach from our garden and have been for a few weeks now. This is unheard of in Nova Scotia unless you have a green house or other.
What this tells me is that more and more people are getting into gardening and thinking about where their food comes from. What my neighbours are proving is that you don’t need a lot of space, or heck, even a backyard, to grow your own food. The more we take food production and food preparation into our own hands, the healthier we’ll all be.
By cooking at home and growing even a little of your own food, you can escape the clutches of the greedy corporations… and eat healthier as well.
