Re: vegetable gardening

**Rose Marie McGee r*@comcast.net**

A few random thoughts and questions on edible gardening. First, I 
appreciate this discussion and thank Roger, 
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/ , his outstanding website for 
introducing it. I was surprised at the sharp falloff of home gardening 
in 2005. Here in Oregon's Willamette Valley we readily garden 9 out of 
12 months and there are devotees that  do better. In the seed industry 
people are saying there has been a slight increase this year. It's 
nowhere what it was in the 70's & 80's. But among my friends and 
neighbors almost all garden. When I give talks on kitchen gardening or 
edible gardening in containers, the rooms seem to fill and I think it 
is topic interest not my scintillating presence:).
So much of our interaction with food is social and this easily extends 
to our garden. Growing enough veggies and herbs to share, dining 
outdoors, going to the farmer's market and regularly interacting with 
vendors and friends. Part of the charm of CSA is developing friendly 
relationships with the folks who grow and deliver the produce.  What 
does concern me is all this activity on the local level needs to be 
nurtured and encouraged lest organic produce becomes something sold in 
Walmart and produced by big ag or imported from China while our local 
growers find it hard to compete. Remember the economic truism, bad 
money drives out good. Furthermore i think if more people gardened we 
would have a healthier and less cantankerous world. I keep wondering 
what is happening with actual vegetable consumption, is it increasing 
or does it parallel the decline in home gardening?
Rose Marie Nichols McGee
Nichols Garden Nursery

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