Growing vegetables is something many people like to do and which many wish they could do. Apart from having a piece of land, you need the time, water and a bit of equipment. But the pleasure in eating a carrot, beetroot, tomato or lettuce that you’ve grown yourself makes it all worthwhile.
Why do we do it? Besides the taste, which is a big plus, most people get pleasure from the time spent tending and nurturing their crops. A little physical effort and some knowhow is needed, so learning what works and what doesn’t is part of the process. Season to season you plan your crops, some people meticulously, others with a box of seedlings bought on impulse at Aldi. Each season you watch the progress and final results, deciding what to try next year.
This year my courgettes were a failure, whereas normally they’re fine. Was it the squash grown next to them that distracted the bees? Such questions are private and distinct from our day to day life, but they can also be a source of conversation with more experienced vegetable-growing neighbours.
For others, it is the knowledge that you are eating something ‘natural’, that has not had pesticides used in the growing process. Most home grown veg is grown pesticide-free, perhaps aside from slug pellets and a bit of carrot fly spray when annihilation of your crop is the alternative. Usually we don’t mind losing a bit of the crop in order to maintain organic methods, but then again, what does organic mean? There is plenty of industrially grown organic food in the shops these days, some of it now affordable. Organic means just use of ‘acceptable’ pesticides we have to remember, not pesticide-free.
From time to time we might think about living ‘The Good Life’, living off our garden, or maybe getting a smallholding with enough space to have a pig or chickens. But that is a big step, well away from casual weekend tinkering in the veg patch, to trying to grow enough food to live on. From growing my own veg on a casual basis it is quite clear that the yield gained from the garden and average quality acheived could never feed the world. Without industrialised farming we’d all starve.
But growing your own vegetables isn’t about changing the world. It simply makes us feel better. Espeically if we can pop round to Aldi to get anything we might need or want! Vegetable growing is a pastime and a pleasure, made easier, but all the more enjoyable by the modern world.