Written on 4/30/2008 by Shelly DeVous.
Listen to Al Gore and you believe our earth in is a perilous position and we all must work to reduce our carbon footprint. But is there anything one person can do to really have an effect on climate conditions?
Michael Pollen’s recent New York Times article asks, “Why bother?” Pollen doesn’t just pose the question, he also provides an answer; plant a garden:
“The idea is to find one thing to do in your life that doesn’t involve spending or voting, that may or may not virally rock the world but is real and particular (as well as symbolic) and that, come what may, will offer its own rewards.”
It’s an admirable suggestion and a timely one, but his answer assumes two prerequisites:
- A commitment to ecology
- An ability to garden
Gardening does not require a commitment to ecology. However, when viewed as an answer to declining climate conditions, a heightened commitment to saving the earth may provide the necessary motivation to fulfill the second requirement; how to garden.
Pollen suggests gardening fulfills both prerequisites:
“But there are sweeter reasons to plant that garden, to bother. At least in this one corner of your yard and life, you will have begun to heal the split between what you think and what you do, to commingle your identities as consumer and producer and citizen.”
We don’t have to march in “Save The Earth” rallies, or install sun panels on our roof to show we are committed to the environment. Gardening will coalesce our own thoughts and actions; what we believe and what we do will be in harmony.
Pollen suggests other benefits as well:
- Grow the proverbial “free lunch.” (Cheap food)
- CO2-free endeavor
- Great exercise
- Engages mind and body
- Reason to be outdoors, away from the computer (as soon as you finish reading this)
- Reengage with neighbors (if only to borrow tools!)
Reap fresh air and sunlight, exercise my mind and body, save the earth and have free food? OK, I’m a gardener. Now what?
Gardening is a worthy pursuit, but to progress from seedling to harvest requires knowledge. If you have never grown a vegetable garden, you will have to learn how.
My father-in-law, an avid and prolific gardener, always advised planting vegetables on Mother’s Day. By the first week of May, serious concern of frost has passed, the earth is warm, daylight growing, and nights still relatively cool; Mother’s Day is the ideal time to begin planting.
Mother’s Day is fast approaching. Now is the time to seriously consider Pollen’s suggestion. Are you ready to start planting and do your part to save the earth?
Vegetable gardening is not difficult, but it does require knowledge. Planning will increase the rewards of harvest. The internet provides a wealth of information on vegetable gardening. Begin with these:
Vegetable gardening is its own reward, if nothing more than you gain the satisfaction of growing your own food. Pollen offers one more reason to pursue this worthwhile effort and this may be the best reason:
“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.”
That’s a good reason to bother.
-Michele
