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Growing your own food

June 10, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Martina Rowley

As COVID restrictions continue, backyard or front yard vegetable growing is again looking like one of the go-to hobbies this year.

Growing your own food is not a new phenomenon, whatever it is called; backyard gardening, a vegetable plot or sometimes doggedly called a victory garden. Victory gardens or “war gardens” were vegetable plots planted across Canada, the UK and beyond during World War II, partly inspired by patriotic mobilization efforts. A largely urban phenomenon, their purpose during the war was to increase the acreage of land devoted to food production, turning urban land into agricultural spaces. The premise — or at least the government propaganda — was for cities to rely more on their own locally grown foods so that more of the farm-grown food could be allocated to soldiers and allies overseas. As this was a government promoted campaign as a patriotic thing to do, it was rather more symbolic than truly productive, though of course it helped.

Hamilton and Vancouver have large food garden initiatives named Victory Gardens, though most efforts today are simply called community or vegetable gardens. They stem from a desire of families and community groups to grow some of their own fresh produce either to reduce food cost, to ensure one’s own organic produce, and as a healthy, fun outdoor activity that families and communities can participate in together. School food gardens are also a wonderful way to teach useful life skills to children. In Orangeville and other towns, some Food Banks also manage a garden plot to add fresh produce to offer their clients. 

Another movement is “Grow Food Not Lawns”, which encourages homeowners to turn non-productive front or back lawns into attractive food gardens. While a ‘bare’ lawn provides worm-food for birds, it does not do much else, other than look green. A vegetable garden or intentionally planted yard with pretty AND edible flowers has rather more use. In fact, a good number of flowering plants and ‘weeds’ are edible, either just the petals or in some cases more than that. For example, you can eat almost every part of a Day Lily! Dandelions that are currently turning lawns and parks into fields of bright yellow (much to the delight of bees, who need their nectar desperately in spring, while nothing else delicious is blooming yet) can be used in salads. Some edible flowers have a tart, bitter or spicy flavour that adds a kick to salads and savory dishes, e.g. nasturtiums, chive, echinacea, while others are sweet, like rose, lavender and dandelion. All allium (onion family) blossoms are edible, as are the blossoms of squashes. Whatever you do eat, ONLY eat flowers that you are positive are edible, so please do ask around or look up details online to be certain. 

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started keeping millions of people in their homes and local neighbourhood, home food growing saw a resurgence in popularity. Not only did flowers and plants sell out fast at nurseries and garden centres, so did vegetable seeds. This year again, it is one of few activities we can do safely outdoors, on our own property, while for many people it also addresses the need to reduce household food cost. It is not at all necessary to have fancy and expensive raised beds in beautiful wood frames: you can use hanging baskets, patio containers, large yoghurt pots or other creative items that can serve as a container. Just make sure you do not use treated wood or car tyres that could leach toxins into your food. If you already have a flowerbed or two, you could add some produce in between your plants. Anything that grows tall, like beans or pea plants, can be ‘staked’ to support its upward growth that will not hinder your beautiful flowers from growing closer to the ground. 

Mayor Sandy Brown and Sustainable Orangeville have this spring introduced a pilot called “Urban Gardening Project – Grow your own food”. The project is sponsored by Home Hardware and Sustainable Orangeville and for a low cost of $50, participants receive a 4 foot by 8 foot raised bed kit, the required soil, $10 worth of seeds and support via a private Facebook Group from expert urban food grower, Gary Skinn, of Gary’s Urban Farm. Gary Skinn is a local urban gardener, entrepreneur and organiser of the Orangeville Farmers’ Market and grows an extensive food garden at his own home. 

Registrations were limited to 100 participants and the interest was so good that all spots filled and there is even a waitlist. This initiative is meant to help individuals learn about food security through the economic benefits of growing your own food, the health and flavour benefits of produce that goes directly from field to table, as well as the social, physical and mental health benefits that gardening and good growing provide.

Being in nature and spending many quiet or active hours in my garden or on my patio truly is my happy-place, so I encourage you to grow something—anything—in your garden, outside your front door or on an indoor windowsill. It is a wonderous thing to watch tiny plants sprout from seeds and grow leaves, pods or fruits that you can eat. The flavour of home-grown tomatoes and vegetables far exceeds the often-flat taste you get from supermarket produce that is all too often grown out of season and made to grow fast and large for profit’s sake, with less emphasis on flavour. 

To get you started, you can get free seeds from the Orangeville Seed Library, a sharing initiative by Sustainable Orangeville. During lockdown library closures a porch pick-up is available at 38 McCarthy Street (behind Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre), Mondays to Sundays, 8am to 8pm. Please respect these hours, as it is a private home. If you have seeds to share, you can donate them at the library in a small envelope and labelled with the type of seeds inside. Do grow some of your own produce or simply herbs — your taste buds will thank you! 

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