Now is the best time to plant a vegetable garden [View all]

[NeoGreen]

https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-agriculture/now-best-time-plant-vegetable-garden.html

Now is the best time to plant a vegetable garden
Katherine Martinko, April 3, 2020

It will help you to spend time outdoors, supplement your food supply, and teach kids about the life cycle of plants.

Stuck at home with nowhere to go, and feeling increasingly concerned about the security of one's food supply, there is no better time than now to start a backyard vegetable garden. It's a lower-risk endeavor than 'panic buying' chicks (Melissa advised against that last week) and can provide you with both fresh vegetables and a pleasant outdoor hobby throughout the coming months.

The Huffington Post reported that sales of seeds and seedlings have skyrocketed. One hardware store owner in North Carolina said, "People are buying plants and seeds a month ahead [of the regular planting season]. It’s thrown greenhouse growers and bulk seed suppliers into overdrive." Some online heirloom seed companies have had to pause orders because they're so busy filling the ones already made. Renee Shepherd of Renee's Garden Seeds in California told the Post, "We pack seeds based on our projected demand and no one predicted this. A lot of seed companies are running out of packets."
Growing one's own food in a time of crisis is not uncommon. It happened during the two World Wars, when Americans were urged by their government to plant "victory gardens". By 1944, 20 million families had planted gardens and were growing 40 percent of the country's produce. (You can see a wonderful collection of old Library of Congress photos of victory gardens here.) A similar surge in gardening happened during the recession years of 2008 and 2009, with the number of households growing their own food increasing by 11 percent and most doing it for the first time.