Four Ways A Vegetable Garden Can Help You Deal With Coronavirus
What if one of the lessons from all this is that we were social distancing all along, before the pandemic?
It really does feel like Mother Nature has put us all on a timeout for us to look at what we've been doing and where we were heading.
Look at where we've been going with climate change.
And we've been polluting the planet with plastic for decades because plastic recycling has always been a lie. Do an internet search for "PBS plastic wars".
The Truth About Social Distancing
We're supposedly social distancing now, but really we're just physical distancing.
We've been social distancing ourselves for years and at an ever-increasing pace with all these electronic devices we put between each other to avoid interacting.
How often do you encounter someone who would rather die than actually talk to someone on the phone?
How is that not social distancing?
Where Do We Go From Here?
This timeout we're on is giving us all an opportunity to look at things so we can create a better status quo for ourselves.
In this interview from 2019, farmer Linda Borghi will show you how growing our own vegetables is something we can do to be proactive in creating a new normal that we want, instead of just waiting to see what happens.
So set aside a little time to check out my interview with Linda. She is quite a character and will keep you entertained and learning the entire time.
Four Ways A Vegetable Garden Can Help
Things will be different going forward and we all have an opportunity to influence what that will look look like.
Making a change for the better can start in your back yard or in your window sill, as farmer Linda Borghi describes in this clip.
Growing your own vegetables provides a number of solutions specifically relevant to the situation we find ourselves in right now.
1) Growing your own vegetables is a tool for self-sufficiency
Fresh veggies are one of the things that necessitate a trip to the grocery store that none of us wants to make.
Having your own vegetable garden won't eliminate the need to go to the grocery store, but it's a step towards being less dependent.
2) Community building
Growing your own vegetables and creating a gardening cooperative like Linda describes can also be a way to reduce the social distancing within our neighborhoods that we've been practicing for long before COVID-19.
Do you even know the names of your neighbors?
I did when I was growing up. Now, I don't. And I know I'm not the only one.
3) Stress reduction
Gardening is also a meditative practice for some. Lots of people go out and work their garden to de-stress.
4) Home schooling
And for you parents-turned-teachers out there, a home garden is something you can incorporate into your home-schooling.
Reduced reliance on the grocery store, community-building, de-stressing, and teaching your kids where food comes from.
That's four benefits of growing your own vegetables that are directly relevant to the situation we are all in right now.
What Is SPIN Farming?
From the SPINfarming.com website:
"SPIN stands for s-mall p-lot in-tensive, and the SPIN-Farming learning series teaches you how to take a backyard, front lawn or neighborhood lot to new levels of productivity and profitability that go far beyond traditional home gardening practices."
Resources Mentioned In The Interview
Logan Labs (get your soil tested here)
Be Agriculture (send them your soil test results and get a custom mineral prescription for your land)
Seed Voyage (here’s where you and your neighbors can set up your community farmer’s market)
Contact Linda
Text: (845) 545-0952
Email: Linda@GrowSoil.org
Website: Farm-A-Yard.com
