Powell over at The Valley Permaculture Alliance posted a good and thoughtful piece on why it is more than time to consider growing some or more of your own food.
I am including it here with the link to the post so you can check out related articles.
One of my all time favorite quotes:
Unemployment is capitalism’s way of getting you to plant a garden. ~Orson Scott Card
To which I would add, and "economy" and "inflation".http://www.phoenixpermaculture.org/forum/topics/inflation-and-gardening
"The past two weeks I have been monitoring stories
on inflation. As even the "mainstream media" has reported on grocery
prices going up fairly significantly and uniformly across the shelves.
This reinforces another reason to start a garden . . . while it is still
likely more cost efficient to buy food from a store it becomes less so
(especially using > $4 a gallon gas to travel to and from there) as
prices shoot up. While initial investments in gardening are high in
both time and money people have pointed to some pretty easy ways to
start.
Our soil is actually pretty good---chock full of nutrients. It may be alkaline, but generally not so much as to prohibit growing food. It may be low on carbon and nitrogen, but there are low cost (even free ... start a compost pile at the same time) ways of amending this. There are ways of dealing with weeds. It may be compacted but that can be dealt with. It may be dry. It may be salty. It may be convenient to outline or define its bed. It may require stoop labor. It may require daily labor. It may require protection from birds and other competitors for our food.
But inflation at the store = a reason to start devoting time to a garden. Start small and make your mistakes (and successes) first.
As Catherine will remind us in a week or so, the middle of July is when the winter sowing of seeds begins. Three weeks to outline, plan and dig a garden bed. Three weeks to make a start on all the other reasons besides cost for growing YOUR OWN (I grew this!) food.
If you are relatively new to this web site, the VPA or even the area or even visiting from a similar arid environment the how to's can be found here as can people ready to help.
Sadly, I see a day when growing your own food makes more sense economically than buying it. It is possible that day will be soon. Part of life is preparing for this possibility before it arrives. Maybe in the journey you will discover all of the other reasons for growing your own food."
Our soil is actually pretty good---chock full of nutrients. It may be alkaline, but generally not so much as to prohibit growing food. It may be low on carbon and nitrogen, but there are low cost (even free ... start a compost pile at the same time) ways of amending this. There are ways of dealing with weeds. It may be compacted but that can be dealt with. It may be dry. It may be salty. It may be convenient to outline or define its bed. It may require stoop labor. It may require daily labor. It may require protection from birds and other competitors for our food.
But inflation at the store = a reason to start devoting time to a garden. Start small and make your mistakes (and successes) first.
As Catherine will remind us in a week or so, the middle of July is when the winter sowing of seeds begins. Three weeks to outline, plan and dig a garden bed. Three weeks to make a start on all the other reasons besides cost for growing YOUR OWN (I grew this!) food.
If you are relatively new to this web site, the VPA or even the area or even visiting from a similar arid environment the how to's can be found here as can people ready to help.
Sadly, I see a day when growing your own food makes more sense economically than buying it. It is possible that day will be soon. Part of life is preparing for this possibility before it arrives. Maybe in the journey you will discover all of the other reasons for growing your own food."
-- Catherine, The Herb Lady
