I was poking around the Internet this evening when I happened upon this little gem.
For those of you who didn’t actually click the link (heaven knows I rarely do when something I’m looking at tries to direct me somewhere else), it’s an article about how President Obama’s going to have an organic garden set up on the white house lawn. I don’t want to get into politics too much as, if what I overhear around the nursery is any indication, our customers have a wide variety of opinions about the new president, but this is one example that we should all be following.
Since I’m usually on the register, I know that a lot of you are all ready growing your own vegetables but I’m sure there are just as many of you who aren’t and it’s really something to look into. The first thing to think about is that if you’re all ready planting flowers, then the transition isn’t that difficult. The basic steps of sunlight, watering, and feeding are all essentially the same. The only difference is that now, instead of just getting a series of pretty flowers (which are great of course, and while we’re talking did I mention that we’ve been receiving new varieties of annuals all week with more coming in?), you’re rewarded for your efforts with an actual physical crop that you’d be spending money to buy at the supermarket anyway. And while the start up costs may make you doubt it, it actually makes economic sense as well. A tray of assorted vegetable plants comes to $17.99. Add another $13.99 for bumper crop and another $8.99 for garden food and you’ve got everything you need for entire summer’s worth of great tasting, fresh produce for less than fifty dollars. And if there are any of you out there that go three months without spending that much on veggies, especially those of you shopping for whole families… well, then tune in next week for a special blog post about eating right.
Growing your own vegetable garden doesn’t have to be a giant undertaking either. Just think about what you’re going to be getting at the supermarket anyway. If all you really get is tomatoes, lettuce, and zucchini, then just buy a cell pack of each, stake out a sunny section of the yard, and go to town. Even if you all ready buy organic at the supermarket, you stand to benefit by growing your own. The disadvantage of organics is that they tend to have a much shorter shelf life than their non-organic counterparts (I worked at a farm market before coming to Cips and organic tomatoes were the bane of my restocking existence) but when you're growing your own vegetables this ceases to be an issue. There’s an old slogan that says “Produce that travels across the country is never as fresh as produce that travels across the street.” Well, produce that travels across the street and then sits on a shelf for a day or two is never as fresh as produce that was still attached to the vine a few minutes before you threw it into the salad.
Of course, if you’re not all ready buying organic than we’ve got a whole other bag of issues to deal with. The merits of organic over non-organic have all ready been discussed at length all over the internet and plenty of print magazines so there’s no need to get into it here but suffice it to say, they’re right. And if you’ve all ready got the crops sitting in your yard than it’s going to be that much easier for you to make the switch and taste the difference.
And there you have it, in the space of two pages both the President of the United States and the 21-year-old who works at the plant nursery, have done their very best to encourage you to grow your own organic garden and if the two of us can’t sway you then I honestly don’t know who can. But even then, I have one last incentive. Those of you who are new homeowners have probably all ready received your coupon for two free cell packs. If you have, then why not use it to get two packs of vegetable plants and see how they turn out? If you haven’t, then keep your eyes peeled on Newsday and the Merrick Herald because we’ve always got new coupons coming out and I’m sure that at least one or two will do something to encourage you try your hand at your own vegetable garden.
