This article was written 50 years ago. Some info may be outdated Written by James M Lawrence 1976 – Issue #1
It is enough to make the supermarket establishment shudder. Here is a young professional couple he a chemical engineer with DuPont of Canada, she a registered nurse passing through the check-out counter with two small children and a nearly empty shopping cart.
Their meagre purchases for the week: a canister of Dutch Cleanser, a box of salt, four rolls of toilet paper, a packet of Summer Sausage, two dozen oranges and a bag of coffee beans. Judged by their income and family size, the couple’s buyer profile would have them in at least a $50-per-week grocery category and yet they have come away from this shopping trip with only the barest of essentials.
Like many other North Americans with access to a modest piece of garden land, this couple has moved beyond the stage of casual summer salad gardening and are gradually leaving the supermarket behind. A recent national poll shows that the sales of rotary tillers are up 42 per cent this year, a solid indication that North Americans are taking their vegetable gardens more seriously. A full 41 per cent of U.S. households are expected to do some canning this summer, despite generally better economic conditions.
For those who enjoy gardening, the economics of the grow-your-own rebellion appear constantly brighter: Less than $20 in seed and young plants can today produce more than $500 worth of vegetables. A single 45¢ packet of spinach seed, for example, will yield an average 12 pounds of vitamin rich-greens, an $8.00 value at current supermarket prices.
One newcomer to vegetable gardening recently told us his big- gest motive for planting more this year was a picture he had seen of a “modern agribusinessman” 1970s version vegetable producer in a grey flannel suit, Brooks Brothers shirt standing calf-hose deep in a field of spinach.
“Prices are never going to go down not with the corporate agriculture we’re starting to see today,” he said.
Others take an even dimmer view of the future of supermarket food. A Toronto accountant who is gradually shrinking the lawn of his backyard to accommodate more growing space says his vegetable gardening is an economic preparation for the impending crash.
The accountant cites the following passage from futurist Alvin Toffler’s scenario for a Depression, Seventies Style: “And in Newark, New Jersey, preparing for the food shortage, residents tear up several paved streets, cordon them off with barbed wire, and begin planting tomatoes, carrots and zucchini.”
For those ready to attempt vegetable self-sufficiency, the following three Canadian families and their successful garden plans should prove instructive. The keys to a really profitable garden, according to them, are: (1) Stick to the staples, (2) Have plenty of freezer space (freezing is pleasant, canning a chore), (3) Don’t be intimidated it doesn’t take that much work or space to grow a year’s worth of vegetables once you have mastered the basics of gardening.
How much seed to buy, now that you’ve decided to get a bit fanatic about it all? Surprisingly, it won’t take much, as these families have found.
The Reininks
Hank and Susi Reinink have been gardening for 15 years in Ontario and now take great pride in being able to set a table completely with their own meat, vegetables, butter, and cream. Their seed bill to feed a family of six, including two teenage boys? About $25.00.
The core of their garden measures about 100 feet by 35, and it regularly fills a 21 cubic foot freezer devoted to vegetables. Their garden shopping list looks something like this:
- Peas (American Wonder): 1/2 lb.
- Peas (Edible pod): 3/4 lb.
- Beans (Green): 1/4 lb.
- Spinach: 1 packet (for fresh summer use)
- Tomatoes: 12 plants
- Cherry Tomatoes: 4 plants
- Onions: 2 lbs. (Dutch Sets)
- Brussels Sprouts: 24 plants
- Pumpkins: 1 packet
- Cucumbers: 1 packet (dual purpose)
- Corn: 1 lb. (early)
- 1 lb. (late)
- Potatoes: 40 lbs.
Susi tends to plant sparsely within the rows, getting 250 row-feet of peas from 1/2 lbs. of seed nearly double the recommendation. The Reininks also work in packets of lettuce, endive, radishes, beets, kale, leeks. The perimeter of the garden is reserved for perennial crops — 50 asparagus plants, 6 red currant bushes, a 150-foot long row of raspberries (one yard wide along the north edge of the garden), and a block of 100 strawberry plants.
The Reininks, who raise chickens and swine, also have their own dairy cow, and have almost sworn off supermarkets. Their flour, sugar, rice and other dried staples are bought twice a year in bulk from a buying co-operative. Fertilizer costs for the garden are nil (“We use a melange of chicken and pig manure in the fall or early spring,” Hank laughs.) and insect control tends not to be a problem in the well cared for garden. Their biggest expense is a rototiller, which cost approximately $260 and which they hope will last five years. Even allowing for the cost the machinery and the freezer, the Reininks probably spend less
than $100 a year on the highly productive garden.
The Troyers
The Troyers are newcomers to the countryside, but have almost reached point of food self-sufficiency in five years. They have two grade school aged sons and spend about $18 a year on seed, enough to stock an 18 cubic foot freezer. Their garden plot (approximately 100 feet by 30 feet) is richly fertilized with straw and droppings from a small flock of laying hens, and the Troyers now buy “only the odd cauliflower, lettuce or cucumber” from the supermarket in winter.
Their seed list:
- Onions: 1/2 lbs. Dutch Sets
- Tomatoes: 18 “early” plants
- 18 Beefsteak
- Peas: 1 lb.
- Spinach: 3 packets
- Lettuce: 3 packets
- Potatoes: 25 lbs.
- Cabbage: 12 plants
- Bunching Onions: 3 packets
- Carrots: 3 packets
- Peppers: 12 plants
- Cucumbers: 1 packet
- Green Beans: 1 lb.
“The secret is not to plant all your beans and peas at the same time,” says Ann. “If I had them all ripen at one time I would have gone crazy long ago.
“There is a lot of satisfaction in being able to sit down at the table and say ‘We’ve raised everything on the farm except the bread, butter and milk.”
The Thompsons
With only a pre-school boy and a baby, the Thompsons have the smallest garden of the three, one which measures about 50 feet square and which would fit into many backyards. They are gradually expanding it with plantings of gooseberries, raspberries, asparagus, horseradish, comfrey and various herbs, including savory, dill, marjoram, rosemary and sage. Their seed bill is easily less than $20.
With two doe goats and a pair of donkeys, the Thompson garden is now deep with a mulch of strawy manure from the barn, and Ann says very few weeds ever make their way to the surface. They use Rowsin’s small farm tractor to disc the plot in the fall, and do their summer cultivating by hand.
When asked how they control insects, Ann said, “We have had some problems with Colorado Beetles. I just go around and squash them that is my insect control. We use some rotenone, but the garden is actually quite free of insects. We scatter marigolds and our onions throughout, and alternate the rows of potatoes and beans to keep the insects away.”
The common denominator in each of these three gardening families is a true enjoyment of working in the garden and growing enough food to cut their dependence on high-priced supermarket items. “The secret is to concentrate on the basics for the most part,” says Ann Troyer. “It’s all in your attitude you can make your garden pay, but you have to enjoy doing it.”
This article was written 50 years ago. Some info may be outdated
