In hard times, grow your own food

The economy is in shambles: Fuel prices are at an all-time high, food prices are up, companies are laying off employees, housing prices are slumping and gardening may not be your priority at this time. But wait -- have you ever considered that in bad economic times, one way to help your budget is to start growing some of your own food?

Growing a simple vegetable garden can save hundreds of dollars in food costs. For example, consider lettuce: You can pay $3 a head for an organic loose-leaf lettuce in the grocery store, or you can spend that same $3 to buy a packet of seeds that can yield hundreds of heads of lettuce! Investing in an edible garden can reap dividends now and later.

The best part is you don't have to wait until next spring to get started. There are still plenty of cool weather vegetables to be grown this fall and winter in our warm-winter area. So let's start a fall edible garden, shall we? Think cool-season vegetables and visit your local favorite garden center to see their starter plants. These might include lettuce, broccoli, carrots, beets, peas, cauliflower, and radishes.

In our growing area, fall is actually prime time to plant many of these vegetables to mature during the winter and into next spring.

Young plants may need to be protected with shade cloth or be located near taller plants, such as corn or tomatoes, which will provide a natural shade from the hot afternoon sun.

But probably the easiest way to produce vegetables in the fall is to grow them in containers, which offer many advantages to fall gardening. The potting soil is free of insects and diseases, so vegetable transplants, and seed, can get off to a good start. You can protect young, tender plants from the hot sun, heavy storms, and pests by moving containers to sheltered locations. You can grow the plants longer into the fall by protecting them and moving the pots into the sunniest spots once the days get cooler and plant growth slows.

The best plants for a fall container vegetable garden are greens and roots, such as spinach, lettuce, mesclun mixes, Swiss chard, kale, and Chinese bok choi, which mature quickly. Even if there isn't enough time to mature a full head of lettuce, you can still pick and eat the greens as soon as the leaves are just a few inches long. Plus, mesclun and some other greens will regrow from an initial cutting and keep producing as long as they have enough light, moisture, and warmth.

Root crops, like beets, radishes, and carrots, mature quickly from seed. Select fast-maturing varieties, such as "Red Ace" beet, "Kinko" carrot, and "Easter Egg II" radish. Within a few months, you'll have mature roots to cook or add to a salad. For more on how to grow your own food this fall and next year, visit the National Garden Association informative Web site: .

That group has been monitoring lawn and garden trends for almost 30 years. In 2007, while the number of vegetable gardeners in the country didn't increase significantly, the amount of money spent on vegetable gardening increased 20 percent. The 2008 survey numbers will be available in spring 2009, but based on past trends, when the economy hits hard times, people tend to grow more vegetables.

The association estimates there may well be a 10 percent increase in the number of vegetable gardeners this year. With high fuel and food prices becoming a new fact of life, these numbers are likely to keep increasing.

Tineke Wilders is a freelance writer. Questions to .


