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Interest in gardening is sprouting this spring

April 18, 2009 12:35 am

By CATHY DYSON

Ray Pollock hadn't gardened in 25 years, so when he decided to bring back broccoli and beets, he gave them prime real estate.

"People will see this and say, 'Oh, I'm gonna put a garden in my front yard, too,'" joked the Stafford County resident. "I'm setting the standard here."

There's a practical reason Pollock put his 10-by 12-foot plot in front of his Clearview Heights home. There's too much shade in the back to grow onions, radishes, lettuce and beans.

Folks with the Stafford Victory Gardens project love what the 72-year-old has done with his yard.

They're encouraging people to grow what they eat, just as Americans planted Victory Gardens during World Wars I and II to offset food shortages.

"People are feeling the pinch and they're responding to that," said Art Hart, a Stafford man who came up with the idea with fellow resident Bobby Crisp. "They just want to grow their own food. They like it, it's fresher and they know what's in it."

The Stafford group offers a special incentive for seniors. For $10, volunteers will survey an older resident's yard, till the soil and add up to 40 pounds of fertilizer.

More than 20 Stafford seniors have gotten gardens growing with Hart's help.

"I think this reunites us with the past and brings back, maybe, what we did growing up," said Shirley Hardisty of Falmouth. "It's a feeling of satisfaction."

She hopes to preserve enough tomatoes to be able to make homemade spaghetti sauce and chili all year.

Across the Fredericksburg region and the nation, interest in gardening is sprouting this spring. An estimated 43 million households in America are expected to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs this season, according to the National Gardening Association in Vermont.

The number is up almost 20 percent from last year. Local officials believe the increase is not just because of rising prices or the threat of contaminated food.

"People need to do something so they feel like they're in control again," said Diane Beyer, director of the Tri-County/City Soil and Water Conservation District.

The agency sells plants every year, but has labeled this year's April 25 event its "Liberty Garden" plant sale. It's not offering garden-variety items, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, but native shrubs and bushes that yield fruits and berries for people and wildlife.

The sale was so named because Beyer hopes gardening will help liberate people from their total reliance on others for food. She believes the recession is a wake-up call for a society that doesn't know how to do much for itself anymore.

"We've gotten too big for our britches," Beyer said. "We need to come back to earth, to say, 'Here's your plot of land and what you can do with it.'"

Those who attended a Virginia Cooperative Extension program in Stafford in February clearly had garden plots on their minds. Sponsors expected 40 or 50 people to attend, and ended up with about 90, said Regina Prunty, an agent in King George County.

"Even residents who don't have a good location in their yard are interested in growing vegetables in containers," she said.

As a result, the King George office is offering a program on container gardening later this month. (See box.)

Andrea Vella has been growing vegetables on her apartment balcony in Fredericksburg for several years. She uses 10-quart buckets filled with potting soil and adds fertilizer as needed. (She prefers manure, but carrying it through an apartment building is tricky.)

The tomatoes and cucumbers she shares with co-workers taste fresher than anything she can buy.

"Plus, you go to the store and they want $1.50 a pound for an orange tomato that doesn't even taste good," she said.

Anna Reich of Widewater also grows vegetables in containers and is part of the Master Gardener program. She started noticing an increased interest in gardening last year after reports about contaminated spinach and tomatoes.

When she talks to people about getting back to their roots--in the soil--she tells them how relaxing and beneficial the hobby is.

"Some people are gardening because they're scared, but to me, it's less expensive, it's fun and something comes from it," Reich said. "You get a reward."

Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com