Yes, it is possible.
by Michael Smith
As we have discussed in previous articles it is possible to grow vegetables for the table, from salad veggies to potatoes and other crops in a small space and even in containers on a patio or a balcony even.
With the prices of food, for one, increasing by the day, so at least at this present time it would seem, and food miles, that is the amount of miles and energy it takes from pitchfork to dinner fork, being more and more important for those of us that want to have a smaller environmental footprint (as I have said before, I do not use the term “carbon footprint”), growing our own food is something we can do to less the impact; to some degree at least.
That is one of the reasons that I grow my own vegetables and want to increase the amount that I grow per year now and also the space in which I grow them.
While I am no vegetarian and also know that the human body is not actually meant to just live of vegetables I do want to have a more vegetable-based diet, and that not only because of the fact that meat prices have, recently, gone through the roof. However, wood pigeons and squirrels are quite abundant in my location and many of them will find themselves into the freezer from now on, and this not only because of the price rises. They have had a field day in my garden, in the crops this year, and so, hence they have eaten my vegetables I am going to eat them.
And before any of the love the furry critter brigade now come screaming at me I would like to say one that gray squirrels are under the status of vermin in Britain and that there is an official cull order out on them and two I ask all the vegetarians, as I did with regards to those at the Carshalton Green Fair, namely think what would happen to the animals that you think you would protect if every person in the world would change to become a vegetarian tomorrow. With the exception of chickens for eggs and cows for milk and sheep for wool all others would be killed and destroyed for no farmer, and no one else either for that matter, will spend money feeding those animals for no reason. In addition to that, if we really would have to all live of vegetables deer and others animals that “attack” food crops also would soon no longer be amongst us, for if we would not eradicate them to protect our food then we humans would soon all face starvation. It is all fine and good to think of how cute all those animals are and I too like them all as well but, and here comes the big but, they owe their general existence and life, however short it may be, only to the fact that humans like to eat them. But I digressed.
When you turn your patio into a backyard veggie garden you can bring your food miles down to almost zero, at least as regards to those veggies that you can grow there. It goes some way towards reducing your impact on the environment.
By just eating 20% less meat a week, it is reckoned that one could save as as much gas as driving a hybrid car. Obviously, if you grow your own vegetables at home or at an allotment then, by cutting down those food miles you are reducing that impact even further, as the transportation costs for the vegetables that you eat but did not buy in a store are zero in that case.
The Royal Horticultural Society in the United Kingdom has shown that even in a 3x3m square raised bed set up a family can grow – in a rather intensive way, which is to say to plant new stuff as soon as the other stuff comes to an end – fresh vegetables for the table all year round. It will still take me a while before I am even anywhere near that. But, as it can be done, I shall endeavor to do so and I hope that others will do the same.
I have this year, for a trial, grown potatoes in cardboard boxes , and without doing much to them, got quite a good crop for no real input at all, as the potatoes used as seed were just simply supermarket potatoes that had grown some sprouts. So, another proof that it can be done with little material input. It would have been a lot better had the boxes been deeper and had I continued to add soil and such. However, the trial worked and more of this next year.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Harvest Lunch From Your Patio
