My vegetable gardening journey started about 3 years ago has I continue to learn about vegetable gardening from planting seeds to keeping the chipmunks and squirrels from ravishing it They do like my beans There is more to it than meets the eye. After figuring out the proper mixture of compost soil and coco fibre and starting my seedlings. My next step is to learn about canning. Water Bath and Pressure Canning this will enable me to eat my harvest all year long. Nothing like chill’in out watching your vegetable garden grow reading books and listening to classic rock in the background in your retirement years when the weather is warm and your arthritis isn’t so cranky.
Peace
Thanks for this Stillness and Mavukh
by Mayukh Saha, April 17th, 2020
Seed companies have stopped taking orders of new seeds for a while, due to a sudden increase in demands for seeds. This demand was unprecedented, as per the chairman of Burpee Seeds, George Ball. The company requires some time to restock before they can start accepting new orders.
It can be understandable though. With people staying at home, many of them are getting bored and trying to put their energy in some home-based hobbies. Gardening seems to become a hobby too. With the increasing demand for gardening equipment, it seems like people are starting to create pandemic gardens for themselves.
Isn’t it a strange name? Well, it might fit since Emily Rosa Haga – the Executive director of a nonprofit heirloom seed organization in Iowa, Seed Savers Exchange, has pointed out that this might not be just because of a hobby. People might be gardening as they are worried about food security. After all, food supply is slow. People have to wait for many days before their grocery orders are delivered. The probable solution in their mind: pandemic gardens.
Book Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition
Many Americans are also facing problems with buying food. It’s becoming a struggle with the job losses occurring across the country. The largest food bank of the USA, Feeding America has reported about a 98% increase in demands. Rural America is facing critical problems. Many pantries in rural areas are shutting down as well. Plus, volunteers are worried about their health too.
During the middle of the March, there was a spike in the seed orders recorded by Seed Savers Exchange. Now, it has stopped orders until they stock up. Seed Savers Exchange mentioned how they received twice their normal-level order. They even hired around 16 workers to cope with the demand.
Ball mentions that there is no forced shortage of seeds as no one hoards seeds. Seeds are weighed, packaged, and then sent to the different stores. The problem is that the seed companies do not have adequate pre-packed packets to tackle the customer orders that has suddenly spiked. The pandemic hit during the spring season, and this just made the pent-up demands rise. So, it may not end up in pandemic gardens as such.
Gardeners are also trying to help each other to gain accessibility to seeds. A 47-year-old Texan, Molly Jones, had even offered seeds to many gardeners on Twitter. She noticed that many of her connections were asking for seeds on Twitter. They were not being able to get the seeds shipped. Molly had stocked up seeds as she planned to begin a garden with the children of her sister – who are just between 4-7 years of age. Molly thinks that Americans are stressed, and are probably turning to gardening to de-stress themselves. She wants to be a positive and generous soul during this period.
Book The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook
As per the seed companies, there is a demand for early-season crops like peas and lettuce. Similarly, staple crops like beans are being demanded too, as per Haga. It seems like the pandemic gardens theory might not be off the table yet.
Ball advises the gardeners to take it slow. It might take some time to restock the seeds. He also mentioned that gardeners need not panic and think that spring is going away. There is generally a 5-week window between the mid-April period and 1st June.
So, you don’t have to be anxious. You can wait.
Pandemic gardens may not be the right choice now.