See Jane Explore Gardening

See Jane Explore Gardening

GARDENING NEVER GOES OUT OF STYLE….

April was National Garden Month. The National Gardening Association (NGA) encourages everyone to garden wherever they live. “Gardeners know, and research confirms, that nurturing plants is good for us: attitudes toward health and nutrition improve, kids perform better at school, and community spirit grows.”

Historians tell us that the first enclosure of an outdoor space to possibly be called a “garden” began in 10,000 BC, and they imagine that it became a barrier to exclude animals and pillagers. (Hmmm, I thought perhaps the Garden of Eden was the first garden!)

NGA has noted that farms have declined from 922 million acres to 915 acres in 2012. However, home gardening, in any size, is on the rise. With so many reports of pesticides used to spray growing crops, the public has learned the negative consequences of these pesticides and have taken to home gardening. Gardens today can be started in very tiny spaces such as a raised planter on the patio, on a trellis against a wall, a tower garden. Even roof top gardening is getting off the ground!

Saving money on food bills and benefiting from being outdoors are more reasons to home garden. Gardens today can be started in very small spaces such as:

  • in a raised planter on the patio
  • on a trellis against a wall
  • on a tower garden
  • in community gardens
  • in a straw/hale bale
  • on a window sill in your kitchen

Your imagination and creativity will serve as your best guide for figuring out where to start your small garden. A great resource is Slow Food USA whose tag line is “Good, clean, fair food for all.” Perhaps you’ll find some nuggets of wisdom about planting a garden in any size space.

Current technology (YouTube, Social Media platforms and more) provide learning experiences on how to start a garden and maintain it in any kind of weather. Hands-on classes at brick and mortar gardening stores are plentiful, and are a fun exploration that can turn into an activity for families, individuals and anyone in between.

Garden beyond April because Gardening will never go out of style!