Grow Food, Not Lawns

I receive an industry magazine and found this advertisement for General Organics on the back. It's one of the first ad's I have seen where a fertilizer company is promoting the idea of food over lawns.

We sell General Organics, and I like this proactive approach. While the industry struggles to explain why it continues to sell systemic pesticides possibly linked to Bee Colony Collapse, these people have seen the future, and left all the other fertilizer companies behind.

Is that a tattoo of the Twitter bird on the lady? Check out the neighbors lawns. The ad suggests that it's "hip" to grow veggies, even if your neighbors don't. How much you want to bet these people have a "alternative" garden out back?

The caption below the couple say's, "General Organics provides your plants with complete and wholesome nutrition from start to finish. With GO you can grow your own fresh & healthy produce and your friends and family will enjoy the fruits of your labors."

Look out mainstream fertilizer companies. The magazine is from a hydroponic industry trade journal. Yup, the hydro trade is gunning for more "mainstream" garden dollars as we talked about in the past. 

Stop Stealing Dreams

So after I post the inspiring story yesterday concerning the Classroom Farm in the Bronx I was directed to an article in the NY Daily News. The article say's the program was terminated. According to the Daily News, "A celebrated classroom farm that yielded fresh produce and great jobs for students at a South Bronx public high school has been quietly shut down." It continues, "Green Bronx Machine withered last August when Ritz was moved to a basement classroom and told to stop growing food at Discovery". The Daily News says, "The city Department of Education referred questions to Discovery Principal Rolando Rivera, who failed to return repeated requests for an interview about why the program was shut down." Without the details it's hard to understand why the program was halted. Maybe a New York reader might have the answer? I do know our school system is broken. Here is a great video with Seth Godin that I watched right after watching the video on the school farm. What Seth say's dovetailed so well with what I saw in that Bronx video. It's called, "Stop stealing Dreams" It's 16 minutes well spent if your at all concerned with how the kids are being "educated" and what we can do about it. Seems the title, "Stop Stealing Dreams" fits well with the closing of the school program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXpbONjV1Jc

A teacher and students using horticulture to change their world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcSL2yN39JM&playnext=1&list=PL587786522B73DCBA&feature=results_video This is a great TEDx Talk featuring teacher Stephen Ritz and his Bronx classroom. According to the YouTube page, "With the help of extended student and community family they have grown over 25,000 pounds of vegetables in the Bronx while generating extraordinary academic performance. His Bronx classroom features the first indoor edible wall in NYC DOE which routinely generates enough produce to feed 450 students healthy meals and trains the youngest nationally certified workforce in America."

The future is now, and horticulture will play a huge role. Very cool.

The kids are all right

A fellow nurseryperson in Missouri posted this photo on her Facebook page. She came home to find some kids that live in the same building decided to construct an aquaponics system in the basement. According to many in our trade, the young just don’t garden like their parents and grandparents did. This has affected the bottom line of many garden centers and nurseries around the world with many going out of business.

If you owned a garden center and some people came in wanting to build an aquaponics system, could you help them? What if they asked about growing lettuce hydroponically? What if they wanted to grow lettuce in soil inside under T5 lights? Where do you send them if you don’t carry this stuff? Why?

Capitol Nursery in Sacramento closing it's flagship store

Capitol Nursery in Sacramento will be closing it's original retail outlet on Freeport Blvd. this Labor Day. According to The Sacramento Bee, "The chain's longtime owner, Chuck Armstrong, whose father and uncle founded the company in 1936, will retire at the end of August." Capitol Nursery has two other locations which will remain open.Over 40 part and full time employees will lose their jobs. Capitol Nurseries problems can be traced to a couple of obvious reasons. As Farmer Fred Hoffman said in The Bee Article, "It's the economy,...with the foreclosures, all those empty homes don't need landscaping." Also important, when gardening changed Capitol didn't change with it. According to owner Chuck Armstrong, "the closure of his flagship location indicates a disappointing culture change. Gardening no longer holds the old-fashioned allure that it did in the past. He said, "Years ago, on just about any block on a spring day, you would see dozens of people out in their yards, gardening. You just don't see that anymore."

This is why I feel staying small and nimble is the best bet for garden centers at this time. The changes come faster and faster these days, and large operations like Capitol have a difficult time turning the ship of commerce when necessary. When we went from selling mostly ornamental plants to selling vegetables there we're just too many gardening places still in business for the need. According to The Bee, "Since the start of the recession, nurseries around the country – including a half-dozen in the Sacramento region – have closed." There are plenty more to come.

What many people don't see are the suppliers who get hurt when this happens. Klupenger's Nursery, which has been supplying garden centers for 60 years just announced the closure of their Aurora, Oregon business. Between Capitol and Klupenger's there is 100 years of nursery experience being lost. While it's easy to say this or that is the reason these places are closing, it's a shame to see so many good nursery people out of work. Best of luck to them all.

I received this press release from Capitol Nursery after this post was written. Thanks to Keith Miner for forwarding this to me.

"Capital Nursery Freeport is Relocating All Operations to Elk Grove and Citrus Heights Stores. After 76 years, the Freeport Boulevard store is closing. The Elk Grove and Citrus Heights stores are under new management.

Capital Nursery, Northern California's premier choice for plants, landscape products, and garden services for more than three generations, is relocating its Freeport Boulevard operations to its Elk Grove and Citrus Heights stores at the end of this month. Under new management, the Elk Grove and Citrus Heights locations are ready to reclaim their long-held position as the number one trusted retail nursery in Northern California.

The Raley's supermarket chain, which for years has been interested in purchasing the nursery's Freeport property, recently made an offer that Capital Nursery could not turn down. A store closing sale will commence this weekend, offering a great opportunity for customers to stock up on gardening and landscaping needs. With the consolidation of operations into two locations, Capital Nursery is positioning itself to vigorously reestablish itself in the market, reconnect with longtime loyal customers, expand its customer base, and recreate the special quality garden center environment that Sacramento families have enjoyed visiting for decades.

About Capital Nursery

Founded in 1936 by the Armstrong brothers, Eugene and Charles, family-owned Capital Nursery has served multiple generations of Sacramento gardeners and homeowners. For decades, it had been the preeminent nursery in Northern California—with a reputation for the finest plant material and quality landscaping."

The decline of the county fair

The El Dorado County Fair has come, and gone. It's turning into the amazing shrinking county fair, and if the trend continues it may just disappear. Why do we have the fair in June? School is out, and they need kids spending money on the rides to make it work. If they wait till late summer, when fairs would normally be held, the kids have already headed back to school.

According the the fairs website, "The purpose of today’s fairs is to promote agricultural and animal husbandry, local resource and industrial promotion, education, entertainment, competition, youth development, and community outreach. Several trends over the years have allowed the fairgrounds to become revenue generating entertainment and exhibition venue that operates on a year round basis." How can you have a "biggest tomato" or " best tasting apple pie" or "plumpest chicken" contest, when the first tomato hasn't even ripened on the vine?

I wish the fair would go back to being what county fairs once where. A place to show off local agricultural wonders, and have some fun.  The fair has turned into a carnival, with a smattering of agricultural displays. Let's hold the fair in the late summer, and emphasize the agricultural side of the show. Since the fair is already struggling, let's have a make over where the interest in growing your own, and competing with others is the main focus. Sure, the kids will have gone back to school. So what? Hold the fair on the weekend. Give us a place to share and compete with others with real agricultural products. The time is "ripe" to re-emphasize the importance of fresh food, agriculture, and seasonality in our lives by bringing back the county fairs of the past.

Exciting times in gardening

I have been remiss in cultivating this blog, and thank a long time reader for reminding me to do just that. We have been busy at the nursery with a spring not dominated by cold and rain, like last year. The weather has cooperated and people continue to buy edibles like there is no tomorrow. I enjoy the edible crowd as they have put a lot of effort into their garden, and they will do what's right to keep it productive. When you hear that generation x or y are not into gardening, check the source. No sign of that here. My customer base is at least 50% under 30 years of age. They are excited about growing the stuff they consume and want to patronize local business, if you have what they want. They don't want synthetics! Get your organic groove on, because they want to know how to do it all! I disagree with those who say we are not in the job of education. I think that's exactly what is needed, and what we should do. Teach a person how to garden...

Small is cool! After thirty years in this biz I can say, keep it small and keep your cool! It's so easy when everything is riding on your decisions to work yourself to exhaustion. If it feels like it's getting out of control, slow down. Take the time to focus on the person in front of you at the moment. That's what it's all about. Not saying we don't need to "make hay while the sun shines", but we can only do so much.

There is no better time for the smaller garden business. Being small means you can react to changes that come faster and faster every day. Being small means you can excel at your craft, and command the price for your work that you need to stay in business. The future of garden bio-diversity rests in the hands of gardeners, and small garden businesses.

How great it is to be alive when so much is changing. In the garden trades we get to help guide people in their efforts to live better.It's a trade that is perfectly suited for the world we live in. Did I say these we're exciting times?

What's on the gardening public's mind?

A few post ago we talked about "The Future of Horticultural Businesses is in The Best Sellers List".  It concerned what books are best sellers in the horticulture and garden section at Amazon.com. I said, " as a person who makes their living working with gardeners it’s a signpost for the future as we decide which direction the garden center is to take.

I noticed looking at the list that "Aquaponic Gardening: A Step by Step Guide to Raising Fish and Vegetables Together has been climbing in the list to number 5.  According to the product description "aquaponics is a revolutionary system for growing plants by fertilizing them with the waste water from fish in a sustainable closed system. A combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, aquaponic gardening is an amazingly productive way to grow organic vegetables, greens, herbs, and fruits, while providing the added benefits of fresh fish as a safe, healthy source of protein. On a larger scale, it is a key solution to mitigating food insecurity, climate change, groundwater pollution, and the impacts of overfishing on our oceans."

Last year I wrote a post where I said, "we are at the cusp of a gardening revolution".  One of the subjects of that post was a company called, "Portable Farms" where they make turn-key aquaponic systems. Read why their customers are buying these systems here. Also read what people are doing to make themselves more self-reliant.  It's not traditional stuff we are used to selling, but then as we move into the future traditional stuff just isn't cutting it. So this is one area where the public seems interested, and from what I can see no one in traditional garden centers is addressing. It's a huge opportunity for the locally owned garden center or nursery(LOGON).

Many of my fellow nursery people are struggling to make ends meet. The traditional methods and items they have used or sold in the past are just not bringing in the profits like they use to. Many are going under. What can they do to re-invigorate themselves and their business? We need to sell ideas as well as items. We need to be the resource for the community when it comes to self-reliance. That means being up to date on what's on the customer's mind. Check out the local magazine rack. "Mother Earth News" is now one of the fastest growing magazine in the country.  What do you do when someone comes in and asks about, "deep organic gardening techniques"? Will you have an answer?

Think local to grow

Greenhouse Management magazine has published a report on "What do consumers want?" Plant brand companies Proven Winners and Ball horticultural conducted a consumer survey this spring and the results are here. The first thing we see is we call our customers "consumers". We can't pick on Proven Winners or Ball for this as it is wide-spread throughout retail. We are not individuals each with different want's and desires but rather consuming machines whose sole purpose on earth is to "consume" goods. I truly wish we could come up with a better term for the individuals that either shop at, or would like to shop at our stores.

The bad news is 11 million fewer households participated in gardening from 2005 to 2010. The average amount spent by household also decreased from $532 to $355. Ouch, that has to hurt and of course shows up in  the rash of garden center closing going on around us. According to nursery consultant Ian Baldwin, "Younger generations are much less interested in gardening". Another interesting figure according to Proven Winners, "women make up 93% of the customer base". So according to the article we are supposed to, "continue to serve the baby boomers as they downsize and retire," and secondly, "we must quickly develop products, services, and programs that appear relevant to the lives of consumers under 44 years old." Great, our target market (matures) is shrinking and downsizing, and we are not relevant to people under 44.  Quickly now, start becoming relevant!

It is a shrinking market and we are going to continue to see a shrinking trade. More small INGC will close, more wholesale suppliers will close, and more distributors will close.  These closed businesses will not be replaced by new business, so we are going to see a continuation of the shrinking horticultural trades. This of course worries the large concerns like PW or Ball Horticultural. They depend on a broad market to sell their goods and are not good at niche selling, which is where the action is in the trade. So you have to look at these surveys with a certain amount of skepticism and an abundance of local knowledge.

Questioning someone like Annie's Annuals in  the SF Bay Area  about the percentage of annuals sold vs. perennials you might find they have results way different from the survey suggests.  Go into any hydroponic shop in the area and watch to see the male vs. female ratio and you will find it is predominately a male customer base, and well below the 44-year-old criteria. The survey also asks, "What are you interested in?" with 10.78% saying perennials, 10.64% saying containers, 9.84% shade plants, etc. Where is the percentage of the one area the survey say's is growing, vegetable gardening?

I get a feeling we are trying to hold on to a way of looking at gardening that was more appropriate 10 years ago. There is no "average" gardener anymore. There are a myriad of different types and styles of gardening that get missed by these surveys. The surveys are really more appropriate for large concerns that try to appeal to a large swath of customers over a large geographic area. The survey tells a smaller garden center what? That purple is the favorite color for 2010?  Remember how we we're told back in 2007 that DIFM (do it for me) was the next big trend? Many of the same people giving advice now we're telling us to jump on the DIFM bandwagon. How did following that trend work out?

We have been saying for years that the way forward for the smaller garden center was to "make the trends" rather than follow them. Again and again its businesses that create trends that set the course. There are lot's of them out there, but you won't find them listed in the trade magazines, or in these surveys. We mentioned Annie's Annuals, but there is also Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, which jumped on the organic bandwagon before there was a bandwagon. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, which this week is putting on the Pure Food Expo at The Sonoma County Fairgrounds. The Cactus Jungle in Berkley where they only deal with cactus and succulents (which didn't even show up on the survey), and make their own potting soil.  Two Green Thumbs, the only miniature garden center around.  The list goes on.

Don't follow trends. By then it's too late. Look out into your region of influence and find out what needs are being poorly met by the current players. Or better, create a whole new category that you can call your own. The smaller and more niche oriented your business the better chance you have of attracting, and creating "passionate gardeners".

Growing your own is in, and will be for awhile.

I was asked by a Master Gardener in the Sacramento area for some insight as they are re-modeling their demonstration

garden. They ask, "will vegetable gardening continue to be popular with the general public? I’ve read pros and cons, but most of the cons have been from ornamental-type folks."

My answer is based on where we do business and the economics of our area, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northern California. Right now we have an unemployment rate of 12%.  With that kind of rate you can well imagine that ornamental plantings are the last thing on people's minds. Some "well to do" types in The Bay Area and Sacramento may be doing some landscaping, but for all intents and purposes landscaping is dead. Nurseries and garden centers that catered to the landscape trade are suffering, or out of business. I talked to a sales representative who was lamenting who it seems every month brings another nursery closing, and one less customer. This will continue. There are just to many nurseries and garden centers still hanging on. There is not enough business to keep them all afloat.

Right now and for the foreseeable future we are focused on consumables, and smaller container sized perennials and annuals. People still want to dress us their gardens with color, but are looking for less expensive choices that give maximum impact. Container gardening is still poplar and flowers cheer people up. What they are not planting is landscape trees and shrubs. Why go through the expense when you don't even know if you'll be in your overly mortgaged home for long. I know a number of avid gardeners who have had to walk away from their homes and gardens, and are in no mood to replant now.

Once people settle down and get their finances in order they will have a better handle on how to move forward. I just cannot imagine a quick return to fully landscaped outdoor entertainment centers, complete with outdoor rooms, throw pillows, and big screen TV. People will create their own versions of the outdoor living space which more likely will include vegetable plants, medicinal plants, and cool spaces to enjoy them. "Since we cannot afford to eat out let's eat in and invite our neighbors over for a meal constructed from our garden." It' s the combination of growing and eating that will inspire people going forward. There is a wealth of heirloom vegetables that we have not even become familiar with yet. Fruit trees that are just now becoming popular, and fruit varieties many people have forgotten about. Growing, and eating the fruits of our labors excites me, and I believe many others.

For the Master Gardeners wondering how to redesign their demo gardens I would say an emphasis on low water use plants, both natives and Mediterranean plants would be in order. Not just because they make more sense here in our climate, but also they will take less effort to care for as people will be spending more time in the food-producing aspect of the garden. Look back at the old missions of California and you see a landscape based on a lack of summer water, and an emphasis on using that water for growing food. The grow your own consumables is fulled in part by food cost, but more than ever on food safety. You cannot underestimate how concerned people are about what is in, and being put on their food. Want to make sure it's safe? You have to grow your own.

There was a nice post at from Susan Harris at Garden Rant today concerning Thomas Jefferson's garden at Monticello. Jefferson grew all sorts of vegetables and fruits in his garden. Always experimenting and trying something new he kept copious notes of his work. It an interesting read and the way forward for many of us who find ourselves looking for inspiration in the garden. Always experimenting, trying new things, and growing most everything he needed in his garden. From the post, "as an eater, Jefferson chose mainly vegetables, using meats as condiments.  For salads he planted lettuces and radishes every two weeks throughout the growing season.  And get this - to produce a suitable salad oil for all those salads, he grew his own sesame.  His favorite cooked vegetable was the pea, of which he grew 23 varieties." Meat's as condiments, and greens the main course sounds like a diet for modern times as well.

Authenticity vs. fiction in the garden

The Dig, Drop, and Done Bulb Ladies post sure hit a nerve. As a juxtaposition I want tell you about another company that

is creating buzz in a different way. Baker Seed is a company I have written about before in a post called "Closed on Saturdays". Baker seeds is a Missouri company that specializes in hard to find heirloom seed. Jere Gettle and his wife Emilee started the business in 1998 and it has grown since. They recently opened a "Seed Bank" in an old bank building in Petaluma, California. They are closed on Saturdays, which in retail is almost unheard of. Most amazing they have organized the first National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa California in September.  The list of people attending and speaking is impressive with Alice Waters, Dr. Vandana Shiva, and others. The expo has events, a trade show featuring 250 natural vendors, and demonstrations. I want to go! Let me get this straight, it took a young couple from Missouri to come to uber hip Santa Rosa in The Bay Area to put this on? Why hadn't it been done before?

While at The IGC show in Chicago last week I had a chance to meet Jere Gettle. While standing in front of their simple booth someone commented on the "old time" clothes the people in the booth we're wearing. I was told, "they dress like that all the time". In other words they are authentic, unlike the Dig, Drop, and Done Ladies. That's why I was attracted to their booth and company. These people are real, and are offering you a way to grow a lifestyle based on authenticity and self-reliance. They are even closed on Saturday's (religious reasons), yet it doesn't seem to hurt their business. They actually inspired me to close my nursery on Sunday's (not religious reasons).

So how is it that a young couple from Missouri can create this kind of buzz just being themselves, and the bulb industry feels the need to come up with a group of fictional characters to sell bulbs? What's going on here? People will respond to authenticity. We have become jaded to the constant barrage of phoniness and migrate to companies that are truthful and authentic. Perhaps if the Dig, Drop, and Done Ladies we're real people it might be more effective.  In addition The Bakers are offering a lifestyle based on the growing of pure food. The Dig, Drop, and Done Ladies are offering a quick fix so they can continue their "lifestyles" outside of gardening. The garden is a second thought with The Ladies, the garden is the main event with the Bakers.

These days people are desperate for a authentic, hopeful message. If you give people the tools and knowledge needed they will respond. We underestimate the amount of work people are willing to put into their garden IF they are inspired. Let's quit trying to make gardening "easier". Let's be truthful about the work and rewards of gardening and we might create a new "passionate gardener".

Compost tea serves up controversy

We have started brewing and selling compost tea at our garden center. Never having brewed or used it I though it would be fun to see what happened. So we have been applying it in my vegetable garden as a drench. No other fertilizers or plant growth products we're used. We do routinely mix in organic matter before planting. In the past we would have to fertilize even after the organic matter was mixed in since the plants would show signs of nutrient deficiencies. This year the tea is all we have used. The garden has never been so lush or vibrant. I understand there is some controversy on the use of compost tea. Linda Chalker-Scott is one of authors of The Garden Professors, a blog for the extension service of Washington State University. Linda has written about compost tea and why she feels it's an un-proven science. Here is a post from 2010.

We are wondering if anyone else out there uses brewed compost tea, and what the results we're? I am trying to reconcile my  success in the garden using this stuff, with the science that Linda writes about. It does seem the controversy centers on the use of compost tea as a foliar spray (applied to the leaves) for fungus and insect control. We use it as a drench for "feeding" the soil, and plants.

Do you use it, or have you used it? What we're the results for you? Any explanation on why it "seems" to work in my garden, yet scientifically it shouldn't? Fascinating subject. Thanks in advance for your input.

Self-sufficiency is not a crime

At a time when we need more people growing their own food and becoming more self-sufficient we have government pushing back. Check out this picture of a families home in Oak Park, Michigan. Seems they have run afoul of local ordinances. According to theagitator.com "'City code says that all unpaved portions of the site shall be planted with grass or ground cover or shrubbery or other suitable live plant material.'  Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are what Basses see as suitable."

According to Oak Park’s Planning and Technology Director Kevin Rulkowski  the city disagrees. He says, “If you look at the dictionary, suitable means common. You can look all throughout the city and you’ll never find another vegetable garden that consumes the entire front yard.” Of course you won't find another vegetable garden that consumes the front yard, it's illegal. Since when do we allow the government to tell us we cannot grow food to eat?

I know we have heard stories like this before, but these are times when growing your own should be a right, if it isn't already. These homeowners should be held up as examples of what we should be doing in our front and back yards. I hope these people are not forced to remove their garden. The city should be ashamed for telling these people to stop being self-sufficient and toe the line of mediocrity and conformity.

And as far as putting shrubbery in the front yard I asked famous plantsman Roger the Shubber and he had this to say, "Oh, what sad times are these when government ruffians can say Ni at will to vegetable growers. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even  I, a Shrubber by trade say let them grow food, and skip the shrubbery".

Here is a petition you can sign in support. 

Our garden in early July

Here are some pictures of my vegetable garden this morning. Things are finally coming along now that the summer heat has settled in. We are located in the Sierra foothills so we are a bit behind our friends in the Sacramento Valley. We have also seen great results with our compost tea. That's all we have fed with this year. Tonight we will sprinkle about a half a cup of earthworm castings around the base of each plant.

The basil is very lush this year.

The white container pictured is what we use to bring home the compost tea. There is a small battery operated pump attached that keeps oxygen bubbling through the blend, which is so important. Without the oxygen the beneficial bacteria and fungi would start to die after about 45 minutes. With the special container it gives us a few hours to work with it.

Even more relevant now

With this blog I have tried to look to the future of the locally owned independent garden center. In January 2008 I wrote a post that is even more relevant today. "Organic vegetable and fruit gardening will lead the way"

"What with the concern over the younger generations seeming lack of interest in gardening this prediction would seem out of the blue, but I think vegetable and fruit gardening is going to become quite fashionable over the upcoming years. Vegetable gardening would seem the obvious area of interest in gardening for most people, including the younger generations. It’s will just take the right series of circumstances for it to go viral.

The interest in organic food would seem to indicate that organic is likely to go mainstream, if it hasn’t already. The next step from buying organic would be growing organic. In the not so distant future it will be a source of pride to have a dinner party with organically grown food from the garden. What with the interest in eating local food, you can’t get any more local than that. 'Those delicious squash we’re organically grown, BY ME!'”

So you have two big trends that will work toward the resurgence of vegetable gardening, the organic movement and the 'buy and eat local' movement. There is another movement, the 'slow food movement', which advocates eating our meals slower and savoring the flavors of the food and enjoying the company of friends. Its more about the process than the end result, food in our stomachs. In addition to the slow food movement there is the whole eating healthier movement which means eating more fruit and vegetables. As people realize that home grown tastes better they will have more reason to grow their own since you can extract he greatest flavor from home grown.

There is also the self-sufficiency idea of vegetable gardening which is quite empowering once experienced. 'I can grow my own food' is a big draw for many people who feel they have lost the ability to fend for themselves. It empowers. I am not talking survivalist thinking but more like someone that installs solar panels so they don’t feel be-holden to the utilities. Its liberating.

From the interest in growing vegetables will flow an interest in gardening in general. Once people realize that they can change the world by growing their own food they will gain an interest in landscaping the yard. They will find that by planting this or growing that they can impact peoples emotions. It will become fashionable to have areas in the garden that are designed to affect how we feel and react. Meditation areas, inspiration areas, energy areas, calming areas, play areas, romantic areas, etc.

I feel we are on the verge of a whole new renaissance in growing our own food. Not just for survival, but for the aesthetic, social and physiological benefits that growing our own food organically brings. When it’s all said and done, it will be the outstanding flavor and pride that comes with growing your own that will really get people on the bandwagon. Until you have tasted the difference between a home grown tomato and store bought one you wont understand."

January 2008

In the post I mentioned how, "It’s will just take the right series of circumstances for it to go viral." We have seen the right set of circumstance arise since then. The economy and food safety have driven even more people into the grow your own movement. One year earlier in 2007 we we're being told the latest greatest trend was, DIFM (Do it for me). That trend's not so relevent now.