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The vegetable patch goes luxe
Ellen Gamerman, Wall Street Journal
Homeowners Hire Experts to Install Lavish Gardens; Why the Help Gets the Bounty
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Home vegetable gardening is surging thanks to rising food prices and health scares with commercial supplies. But at the rarified end of this horticultural renaissance is a world of backyard produce that has more in common with designer boutiques than the local farm stand.
Some people are paying tens of thousands of dollars to have landscape architects design and install elaborate vegetable gardens. These homeowners regard their plots as edible showplaces, where they take guests on tours of manicured beds of baby bok choy and Japonica maize the way others show off their koi ponds and rose bushes.
But since many homeowners have these gardens installed at second homes they rarely visit, or are away from their garden for weeks while on vacation, the owners may not even be around to enjoy the bounty.
Rick Norling spent $10,000 to have a vegetable garden created on his property in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., earlier this year.
(25 July 2008)
BA:
One thing to keep in mind is that food trends seem to start at the top. The US/European elite until recently went in for white bread, meat and fatty foods. So, when industrial agriculture made it possible, all the other classes followed them.
The move to organics and local food came first from the idealistic-hippie movements. The elite have picked it up, and gradually the ideas are spreading throughout society.
Fortunately, healthy organic food is within the reach of most people. You just have to be willing to shop around for inexpensive healthy food, or have a garden (or know someone who does). And you’ve got to be willing to put the effort into preparing the food (get some good knives).
Example. Instead of buying processed breakfast cereal, buy bulk organic rolled oats. Cook or eat raw. I prefer rolled oats soaked in water/milk with yogurt on top. Add raisins, fruit or nuts. Heavenly.
Vegetable gardening is cool. Who knew?
John Hershey, San Francisco Chronicle
On Earth Day this year, Julia Roberts demonstrated composting on Oprah’s TV show. Also recently, centenarian-tracking “Today Show” weather forecaster Willard Scott called on Americans to revive the victory gardens of the World War II era to enhance their food security. Finally, NASA has announced that astronauts on a future mission to Mars will grow their own vegetables in hydroponic gardens on board the spacecraft.
These seemingly unrelated events point to a trend that could have a tremendous impact on those of us in the gardening community: We have to prepare ourselves for the fact that we are about to become cool.
Because obviously, no one epitomizes cool like Willard Scott.
The new popularity of gardening may seem like a sudden development. But in fact, anyone who has been conscientious enough to monitor Google news alerts for funny gardening stories over the past few years, as I have, could see this trend coming…
(26 July 2008)
Farmers ready to cash in on soaring land prices
Valerie Elliott, The Times
Farmland prices have risen by 50 per cent over the past year to reach a record high, according to the latest market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Some farmers are taking the opportunity to sell up and retire, particularly those feeling the squeeze from the rising cost of fuel, fertilisers and energy. Cashing in is a serious option for those who are unable to operate at a profit.
The fastest rise in prices since the survey began 13 years ago was in the first six months of this year, when the average price per hectare rose from £10,439 to £12,965. Arable land rose from £10,439 to £14,453 and grazing land from £9,929 £11,477.
Richard Macdonald, director-general of the National Farmers’ Union, said that there had been no rush from the land so far, but there was a steady flow. “The current high values certainly make it more attractive for some farmers to decide to sell up and retire. The impact of new regulations and extra costs on farming with no chance of higher returns may also persuade many farmers to seek early retirement,” he said…
(28 July 2008)
This is important. Who owns this land will be key to whether the UK can feed itself in the future and who will have the power to lobby to effect how that is achieved.-SO
