Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

[Sally Furniss]

Home Gardening During the Pandemic

By Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP

http://www.birdflumanual.com/articles/homeGardeningDuringPan.asp

 

[gsgs]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

home gardening in times of gigantic harvesting machines
looks inefficient and economically unwise to me

 

[mixin]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

That's a good reference; thanks for posting it Sally.

Gs, once a garden is established, it is cheaper to buy seeds and grow your own vegetables than to buy them. But it is a lot of work. The Amish here have very large gardens to feed their families.

I've grown potatoes (very easy), green beans, peas in small raised beds. The peas took way too much room for the amount actually harvested. Didn't have good luck growing melons. I grow tomatoes just about every year.

 

[Amish Country]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

home gardening in times of gigantic harvesting machines
looks inefficient and economically unwise to me

Home gardening is a great way to stretch the food budget. Seed costs significantly less than the produce it produces. I have read estimates that during WW II that Victory gardens in the US produced up to 42% of the food. Yes it takes time and effort and not everyone is physically up to the work involved. My opinion is that it would be a good idea for anyone planning to start gardening to check with their doctor or appropriate healthcare professional to check they are physically capable of the work involved and it is safe for them to engage in this activity.

My experience is that our home garden is well worth the effort I put into it. My family gets organically grown produce in season. Much of what is not immediately used can be preserved for future use. So far this year the garden and local wood lot has produced morals, asparagus, rhubarb, herbs and onions. I do not think our budget would stand the expence of comparable store bought commercial farm produced produce. Even if we could find it, commercial produce would not be as fresh as the produce that comes directly out of our garden and straight into the kitchen.

Right now I am surrounded by (IMHO) the best and most successful farmers in the world, the Amish. The "gigantic harvesting machines" harvest machines they use run on hay not fossil fuels, reproduce themselves and produce fertilizer. The Amish successfully compete against big agara-business farms and out produce them using sustainable agriculture methods. Check out the substantial home garden at any Amish farm. With peak oil either past or soon to come their methods should be reconsidered by mainstream agribusiness. The Amish are independent and self-sufficient not backward. Their farms do not have to depend on oil for fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides or fungicides. Their home food processing and preservation techniques do not rely heavily on oil either. Their methods are highly efficient and obviously effective.

For information on urban or suburban gardening and homesteading I have found the following to be a good source of information for my personal use.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/

 

[gsgs]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

you cannot disconsider the work.
Count in with your avarage payment if you would work
something else in that time.
Also count in the rent for the garden, what you might get if
a house or garage or such were built at that place.

 

[Amish Country]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

you cannot disconsider the work.
Count in with your avarage payment if you would work
something else in that time.
Also count in the rent for the garden, what you might get if
a house or garage or such were built at that place.

I am not discounting my time invested in the garden. My time is valuable and is carefully allocated given the demands of modern life. As to the rent of the garden space? Considering the cost, effort, bureaucracy and potential return on investment (ROI) for building, maintaining a garage or house and hoping to find and retain a tenant vs. the cost and effort of turning a monoculture grass lawn (that requires mowing and fertilizing) into a food producing garden? I think I'll stick to gardening.

I've never had to take a mortgage out to plant a garden.

 

[Sunshine123]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

I have wrestled with this very concept for prepping. In theory a home garden is the answer to a long siege of trouble for the average person. The exception with bird flu is that the outside will be a source of contaminate. The garden is visited by birds and is moist. This provides a medium for the virus to grow in. In order for a person to grow a garden outside and risk not becoming contaminated with the avian virus requires more skill than I, an average person, have. Therefore, I believe the correct answer for bird flu prepping is an indoor garden where the environment is more controlled and sprouts.

 

[Farmer]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

I have wrestled with this very concept for prepping. In theory a home garden is the answer to a long siege of trouble for the average person. The exception with bird flu is that the outside will be a source of contaminate. The garden is visited by birds and is moist. This provides a medium for the virus to grow in. In order for a person to grow a garden outside and risk not becoming contaminated with the avian virus requires more skill than I, an average person, have. Therefore, I believe the correct answer for bird flu prepping is an indoor garden where the environment is more controlled and sprouts.

Interesting point. I think that we don't know how much a pandemic strain will be distributed among wildlife, insects and in the natural world. Once a strain has adapted to and is amplified by people, does it significantly spill over into other species (other than companion animals...)? Any lessons to be learned from 1918?

However, given that raw produce, (even store-bought) can always be a source of pathogens (think about the numerous sprout, lettuce, green onion, spinach, tomato, melon-associated disease outbreaks) cooking is a tried and true way to reduce disease risk associated with eating raw foods from any source.

 

[Sunshine123]

Re: Home Gardening During the Pandemic by Gratton Woodson

?

However, given that raw produce, (even store-bought) can always be a source of pathogens (think about the numerous sprout, lettuce, green onion, spinach, tomato, melon-associated disease outbreaks) cooking is a tried and true way to reduce disease risk associated with eating raw foods from any source.

I agree that cooking raw vegetables from outside gardens reduces risk of ingesting contaminated items. Be mindful of the time from garden to cooked. The outside produce has to be handled as if already contaminated during periods of epidemic/pandemic. I am the first to eat anything when I am just hungry and I don't really know how it feels to starve so this discipline is difficult for me to wrap my brain around. The inside grown produce I'll take the risk with..