Is growing food a waste of time?

[grenfell]

I knew I'd read an article that gave at least one polititans view on the whole growing food thing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -says.html


Doesn't seem to be government policy and has probably been quietly swept under the carpet.

[vassili]

Personally I feel growing some of your produce is never a waist of time, ok we may be a bit biased because we try to be as self sufficient as possible, but it does not matter how little you produce, it's empowering you with confidence that you have learnt something from growning something from nothing other than seeds, it does not matter whether it's growing a tray of sproutings or single carrot, you have learnt the basics.
Even if we only had a balcony we would grow in pots, hanging baskets etc.

[terrytaylor84]

i dont think growing food as a pointless excercise, as even in the mean time pre teotwawki it can help reduce your weekly food bill and then there is also the health benefits of the activeness and not losing nutrients unlike those that come in a freezer bag or a tin. The money it saves could be put towards buying more preps, also try dehydrating them to keep long term you can get a dehydrator from amazon for about £40.

If you dont want people to steal what your growing its pretty simple really, dont go blabbing to locals that you grow your own food. if they dont know that you grow it, they aint gonna steal it.

[jennyred]

Growing your own food is a treat to eat, but if TSHTF, Bees and pollinating Insects would no doubt be suffering too? as they already are, without bees we would starve very quickly. and all food grown on polluted land would be absorbing the chemicals,Not sure where we could go from that.

[jansman]

As a few folks here know, I have a plot of land and polytunnels (2). My family has capitalised on this during this year. We have lived seasonally since March. Given our economic problems, it has helped. For instance, tonight we had a salad with our meal. Cost was my effort. Tomorrow, we have the family round,and there will be spuds , cabbage, marrow, runners. And a leg of goat,as I slaughtered two last week. (And before any comments, I am a licenced slaughterman )
Growing food is worth doing, be it vegetable or animal. But it takes a little bit of work. There is no free lunch.

[Lealee]

We grow bits and bobs in the garden. Im growing a blackberry along our fence to ward off people, stopping them getting too close. there are lots of nettles behind our garden so anyone who wants to pick them can I call it my community effort. our garden is never tidy and is a cross between the good life and steptoes yard i see this as a benifit because people cant see all the treasures growing.

we have a small garden and pond with chickens that eat some of our home grown goodies. Even the greens the cabbage whites enjoyed. nothing is wasted and although we dont do enough to totally sustain us its keeping things ticking over just in case we need to depend on it, then of coarse we would need to spend more time and a bit more effort.

Our veg is muddled in with other things and a bit of companion planting helps keeps some pests at bay. I read somewhere earlier that someone has a garden that hides wild food and herbs that others see as a wild garden i think thats a great idea and so much easier than having neat easy to spot rows of veg.

I like experimenting in the garden so i guess its a good idea to make mistakes and learn for the days when you really cant afford to make mistakes. We bought chickens to help deal with a huge slug and snail problem it worked and now the chooks eat everything
We are learning every year so i think that growing food is not a waste of time its something that should be tried no matter how small a window box of herbs or a large garden its one more thing to help. We didnt plant potatoes last year but i have had masses growing all over the place and am still harvesting them. I even still have tomatoes and grapes left along with my greens and beetroots. Idont give my garden as much love as i would like and my chickens rob my crops regularly so if i can do it any one can.

[PreppingPingu]

It also keeps you fit in body and mind too! I feel tons better when I have spent several hours outside working in the allotment or garden, even if it is cold and the wind's a blowin intermittent drizzle at you.

[tigs]

if you look back in history every big house had a kitchen garden but not just then middle class house and the poor ones also had them even in the cities, I don't know when it stopped being popular or a need ,but I remember it started to become popular again in the 70's due to the 3 day week and the good life on TV , my mum and dad dug our law up and started planting and still grow fruit and veg to this day.

[jansman]

I think it stopped in the early 80's. folks got richer and it was what "poor" people did. When we moved here to Chez Jansman in 1990 I relished digging the enormous garden and growing food. I kid you not, my neighbour asked me if I was a poor person!

Now they are all doing it!

[moocher]

Enjoy your roast jansman