Backyard farming

Think of it as a modern-day Victory Garden. With gasoline prices soaring and food costs not far behind, the number of Americans planning to grow their own backyard vegetables this year is up sharply.

Gardening organizations, seed wholesalers and nurseries all are reporting increases in the number of people buying vegetable seeds and starter plants.

The trend started slowly several years ago, spurred by concerns about food safety, food quality and global warming, garden mavens say. This year’s gasoline and food price spikes have had what could be called a “Miracle-Gro” effect on the backyard garden movement.

This year, 39 percent of people with back yards told the Garden Writers Association they planned to grow vegetables this year. That’s up 5 percent from last year, after remaining relatively stable with just small increases for much of the past decade.

“This is evolving into a perfect storm for vegetable gardening,” says Charlie Nardozzi, senior horticulturist at the National Gardening Association in Burlington, Vt. “A lot of the economic things happening, and concerns are rising about global warming and carbon footprints, and so are worries about the quality of food, its price, and freshness - it’s all come to a head.”

At Running Brook Farms, a nursery in Killingworth, Conn., sales of plant seeds are up, according to manager Louann Papoosha.

Sales of starter plants have jumped as much as 20 percent this year, according to Ms. Papoosha, even though Connecticut’s planting season has just begun. In fact, it’s still a little bit early on the coast for some of the more tender vegetables.

“But we are selling lots of lettuce, peas and broccoli - the plants you can put out early,” Ms. Papoosha says.

Early spring is also when many people plant trees. Last year, Running Brook sold maybe a half-dozen fruit trees, according to the staff. This year, the nursery has seen a “real heavy” run on apple, pear and other fruit-bearing plants.

“Rather than just buying a decorative or ornamental, people are looking at fruit trees so they can have sustainable agriculture in their own back yard,” says John Neely, busily pruning azaleas at Running Brook. “People are more inclined to get their hands dirty and have the profit of their work as opposed to just an ornamental type of planting.”

Farther south, at the Oakhurst Community Gardens in urban Decatur, Ga., the gardening season is already “going gangbusters,” says director Stephanie Van Parys.

The summer gardening class - usually reserved for about four or five people - filled the front room of the gardens’ center last month. People even had to be turned away. Chicks in the City, a class on raising chickens, also was packed. The crowd, which usually is made up of the retirement set, included lots of twenty- and thirtysomethings.

Indeed, the rush to plant was so great this year at the 2-acre urban garden spread that management put in four more plots for newcomers.

To be sure, food security (especially with the 2006 spinach scares), a rising demand for locally grown organic food and taste are big factors in the garden movement. It was, however, the $4 bowls of edamame, or soybeans, that caused Ms.Van Parys to reconsider the kind of impact even a small vegetable garden can have on a household budget.

“You get more bang for your buck out of a seed packet,” she says.

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