Victory in a Garden

Jennifer Polanz

People joke that I grew up on a farm. I always say I grew up in the country, but not on a farm. However, looking back, our 1-acre garden filled with every veggie imaginable, as well as the grape arbor, cornrows, apple orchard and chicken coop, probably told a different story.

I was surrounded by gardening (organic gardening, no less). I know the delight of crunching into a freshly picked sugar snap pea. I remember the hot August sun beating down as I picked row after row of green beans (it builds character, they told me. I’m up to my eyeballs in character now).

But my experience is not the norm for my generation. Most kids my age were playing Atari 2600s or riding their bikes on actual sidewalks to the pool or their friends’ houses. My generation (Gen X) grew up mostly in the suburbs and were latchkey kids. Both parents worked and no one had time to grow food themselves.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Food gardens became less important as highways emerged, food could be trucked all over the country and grocery chains expanded. We relied less on our backyard garden and filled that time with jobs and hobbies and whatnot.

To me, that’s what makes this resurgence in food gardening so cool. It seems to have infected people of all ages.

However, times have changed and this isn’t your (great?) grandparent’s victory garden. The average food garden is 600 sq. ft., so about 24-ft. by 24-ft. We’re not talking huge. But the breeders and growers in our industry are responding in kind with more compact veggie plants, and even patio berries and smaller fruit trees.

There’s lots of education at the early grade levels, too, to kindle that burning desire to stick your hands in the dirt. Schools are incorporating it into their curriculum. My son’s preschool has a garden as the play area, so the kiddos play freeze tag around the strawberry plants. Public gardens are seeing resurgence, thanks in part to fun programming directed at kids and families.

We’re trying to help retailers figure out ways to do more at the garden center, too. Ellen Wells tapped our dear friend Jonathan Bardzik (formerly of the American Nursery and Landscape Association) for advice, since he’s now writing his second cookbook and working with a nursery on a branded line of edible plants.

Meanwhile, Ellen and I looked into the possibility of extending edibles even further into fall and winter. I also asked garden writer Denise Schreiber for some help on what retailers need to know about canning and freezing.

And you might have noticed our cover story on The Tulip Company & More. Their business isn’t edibles, it’s tulips (and more), but we were mighty impressed with them and how they were able to help turn the business around. We think you will be, too.