Ready To Eat Local? How About Slow Gardening?

Go Slow

Slow Food and Slow Gardening are related.

What is slow food you ask? Sourcing your ingredients locally and using high quality is the gist of it. Growing your own would be a part of it, but patronizing the farmer’s markets and encouraging your grocer’s to supply locally produced products would be part of it, too.

How about slow gardening? I suppose there is something of an official definition, but I think of it as the way I garden plus a few additional considerations thrown in.

My Own Slow Gardening

I don’t sweat the small stuff, but I sure do sweat. (I betray my Midwestern roots, since I am given to understand that Southern ladies do not sweat under any circumstances)
That means weeds are taken care of by hand, usually with hand tools. And as I age, that means weeds have a place, albeit a controlled one, in my gardens.
My gardens are not just for working. They are for gazing at an impossibly perfect summer sky, getting my hands dirty, taking time to smell the roses, …and the honeysuckle,… and the lilacs…. and, well, you get the drift.
While I plant more vegetables and herbs than I eat… because I have become a lazy cook, I like to grow them every year with good intentions.
I buy as many plants and seeds locally as is feasible.

Now, on that last one, the fact is that we don’t have the many full service nurseries and garden centers that I remember from the heyday of garden years past. Economics means we must source our supplies through the internet and by mail order, oftentimes. But I do like to find nice, thrifty plants ready to haul away immediately, preferably grown locally.

This last point may find us needing to buy seed and grow our own.

A little plug here for American Meadows. They sent me wildflower seeds to trial, and if you go to their site you can see that they bag it up with your territory in mind. It was also was such a generous amount for economical prices. And the seeds looked exceptional when I put them into the ground.

I expect great pictures, come this summer.

Inspiration For This Post?

Actually I was researching something totally different and came across a few resource for those interested in slow gardening and slow food ideals and lifestyle. Thoughts of passing on to my readers gave rise to talking a little about the concepts for those who want to join in on whatever level to encourage local growers and gardeners.

First:
In Columbus, Ohio the Slow Food Columbus site has a nice map where you can identify many local growers and the list of what they are known for.
Map of Locally Grown Produce in Ohio

Second:
From the LocalHarvest site is a way to locate your own nearby Farmer’s Markets- how cool is that?

Find Farmer’s Markets

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© 2014 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal by Ilona E. An excellent blog.