Free Food?
My last post about the trendiness of gardening is somewhat tongue and cheek. I, like most nursery people love the idea that people are coming around to gardening. It's just that some people, especially celebrities say and do the strangest things. This article at Slate sums up the breathless nature of the new gardening scene. Concerning the White House Garden Alice Waters gushes, "To have this sort of 'victory' garden, this message goes out that everyone can grow a garden and have free food." Free Food? This is exactly the sort of thing we have been talking about here. There is no free food. The article quite rightly points out that gardening is sometimes hard work, but worth it. The time and money spent to grow food is well spent, but in no way free. It's great that The White House has a garden, it's neat to have more publicity about gardening, but beware of the chattering class. I am sure Alice Waters knows gardening is not free. She is just excited about the prospects of more people growing their own. Never the less, as people come to embrace the 'idea' of gardening, we need to be truthful about the work, and joys of gardening. Our readers depend on us to tell the truth, since so many in the main stream media tend to masssage the truth to fit their expectations.