gardens

Article in Acres, a gardening magazine. According to this Russian guy who is working on a Phd in agroforestry at the Univ. of Missouri-Columbia, Russia produces more than 60 percent of all vegetables in small home gardens. For potatoes, fruits and berries, it's close to 80 percent. Russians have a tradition of growing their own food if possible because they have had hundreds of years of rottem governments that didn't adequately see to their food needs. The worst was Joseph Stalin, the communist dictator who did away with the private ownership of land , created collective farms, and starved the independent farmers who had crop growing skills. There was shortages of food, and at some point the government allowed workers on the collective farms to have small gardens and sell the produce. Fast forward to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of subsidies to the collective farms. People didn't notice it because people were used to producing their own food or buying it from people who had gardens. In 2003 russia passed the Private Garden Act which entitles Russians to small plots of land free. The gardens created are about a tenth of an acre.

I have long noticed that gardening, because of the attention paid to the crops, is more productive than most commercial agriculture. Corn is probably an exception because there is only so much corn that can be grown per foot of row whether its in a garden or in a field. Soybeans may be an exception also, but since few people grow soybeans in a garden there is no basis for comparison. However, corn grown in a garden can be grown without expensive machinery or chemical weed control. The big advantage to gardening, IME, is the savings on food bills, and the improvement in the quality of the food produced. The classic example of quality is to compare a grocery store tomato with a home grown ripe one.

KEH

There is no doubt that it can be highly beneficial, if you can do it. If we removed other options, there would be a lot more consideration given to growing vegetables and being more independent. I see a lot of small co-ops in the nearby city, that are flourishing with a lot of produce, its impressive to see old building lots converted, theres a big one near a friends house, been there for many years now, maybe 20, greenhouses, nice plots of soil, excellent results.

I don't find it all that difficult, planting is some work, I firmly believe in mulching with grass cuttings for mulch, from untreated lawns or areas. That keeps weeds almost non existent, I dry mine like hay, or close, and there seems to be nitrogen value to that, as the piles of it near my corn show the difference. So weeding and containing moisture can be relatively easy with this method, really not much more to it, then maintenance, trellis, caging or keeping vine types of plants up. Only drawback with this mulch, is I think it may be the cause of powder mold on cukes, not sure but could be.

There is for sure an advantage to growing your own veggies. My parents had a small side lot to their small city home. In this side lot was a large garden, my parents gave away bags of green beans, lots of tomatoes too. The garden was shrank down to 1/4 of its full size when they sold the home in 1976.

The Nazi siege around St. Petersburg in WW2 forced many to grown their own food the next year, The ruthlessness of the Germans, then the Socialist system wrecked farms too.

It's seasonal though. I know,there are ways to store most of it,but that doesn't help the restaurant industry that needs fresh stuff daily.
One of the ironies in it though,is the number of bananas produced in Iceland.

Our politicians laugh at Russia because GDP is only between 2.5 and 5 trillion. Things like gardens and living on canned goods and potatoes are normal there. People here scream when the cable tv goes out. Russian people for generations are used to getting by with bare essentials. Home brew is an essential even if made with potatoes.
Also, for rrlund home brew is gluten free.

This year my wife and i made a 80x 250 garden. Not only have we enjoyed working it. But have enjoyed giving so so much stuff away to family and friends and neighbors and still plenty we took to our local christian ministries now that really made me feel good. To get back at subject, We havent bought the first vegtable at the store yet and like you said everything taste so much better.Maybe thats what God ment by feeding folks with 1 loaf of bread and 1 fish. It only takes 1 tiny seed to produce an abundance of fruit. And now planting stuff for fall absolutly awesome.

Yep, any one seriously interested in "dooms day survival" best take note of this!

How long would it take the majority of American people to adapt to growing their own if suddenly the food supply were cut off?

A lot longer than their stockpile of emergency rations would hold out!

Scarey thought!

I lived in town till about ten. Everyone in our neighborhood had a garden . My grandmother on my dad's side had a double lot and they practically lived off of it . We raised rabbits , chickens , goats right in town . They canned, made wine , pasta, butchered animals . Self sufficiency was prized by them . Most of my family were Italian immigrants . I have a large garden , am nowhere near their level as far as canning and such.

Growing up we always had a big garden, and from age seven I had to contribute to the planting and weeding. These days there are three gardens that I drive by occasionally where people have plots that are about twenty feet square. In the spring there is a lot of activity, and the gardens look very well tended. I drove by two this week and out of about 35 plots probably only two were still weeded. I wonder how the veggies do when competing with weeds that are taller.

I always have a garden. This year is mixed. I have the best potatoes I've ever grown but also too many rabbits and weeds. My beans are producing well and my second planting remains unbrowsed for the time being. Took a while to get the garden started due to rain and cold weather.

Larry

I have two gardens and they amount to about 1/3 acre. That's a handful to maintain and weed, though. Raise or hunt for our own meat. Wife makes bread when she has time. Got a chicken coop in the works and if I ever get to cleaning out and repairing our pond, we'll have our own fish again, too. We have our own maple syrup, also. Don't buy a lot of cane sugar. I expect average Russian would feel right at home on my place.

You're right when someone does something for themsleves it never shows up in the GDP numbers and it most likely helps the person doing things for themselves more than any cash they make.Our garden supplies at least 85% of the produce we eat in a year.When I work on my own equipment I'm saving the $75-$100/hr the dealer charges to do the same job.Of course the Gov't hates people that are self sufficient and do things for themselves because they can't take a cut of the action by taxing at every step like when you buy everything from a store.

I have had a garden of varying sizes for almost 50 years. One now is about 40' x 120', just the two of us don't need as much. Still have plenty to give away. Can't imagine what it would be like to be totally dependent on someone else for basic food supply, goes against my grain.