Central Ohio Real Estate Market News

One thing I’ve been noticing recently are the number of suggestions the media is providing to help people save money, not only on gas but on groceries. Of course, the food/grocery issue also concerns avoiding the more frequent problem we’re having with “bad’ food.

The Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers that are being interviewed sometimes mention that they’ve decided to shop at local farm markets or start their own garden … as if this were a revolutionary new concept!

I hate to break this to them, but NOT having a garden is a more recent concept than HAVING one!

I grew up in a tiny town in Knox County. My parents always had humongous gardens, in two different locations on their 10 acres. They grew every sort of vegetable that could be grown. Going through the Burpee catalogs in January was a major project for them.

The large garden nearest the home was planted with those items that either required more constant care or could be harvested daily like lettuce, radishes, peppers, corn, tomatoes, spinach, beans, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, and yes, brussel sprouts! (they aren’t so bad fresh out of the garden!)

The even bigger garden was planted further away in a field close to a small stream where the soil was extra nice. This garden was planted with things that needed lots of space to spread out, like melons, pumpkins, squash, pickles, cucumbers and potatos.

Mom made me help with the garden. Like going to Sunday School, I had to be REALLY, REALLY sick to avoid either one. There was just no getting out of it! Once the food was harvested, it was prepared to either be canned or put into the big chest freezer that were common then.

With today’s subdivisions, it might be harder to have a garden of any size, except for a few tomato or lettuce plants. Most subdivision’s deed restrictions forbid planting “crops”. If you want to switch to growing a portion of your own food supply, you might consider buying a home located in a township.

One of my listings has taken gardening to the nth degree by having a landscape architect design a special enclosure around their organic garden that provides not only visual art but also is deer-proof. My parents had plenty of land to plant “extra” for these animals. If you don’t have that much space, you’ll need to plan on some type of fencing otherwise there won’t be food left for you!

OR you could just buy this home and be all set.

Need some professional advice on gardening? Read these articles from a Scotts® expert:

• Thinning plants and what happens when you don’t
• Seeing the yummy results of growing your own blueberries

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