The Columbus Dispatch: Growing Interest

From May to October, Tim McDermott can feast on an all-he-can-eat buffet of vegetables grown in his garden.

The Grandview Heights gardener even froze 70 pounds of produce from last season's harvest, including more than 50 varieties of vegetables.

While McDermott's harvest was plentiful, his costs were low: $60 on seeds, soil and fertilizer and $70 to rent a community plot in Grandview's Wallace Gardens.

"It's amazingly cheaper than buying food at the store," said McDermott, 41, a veterinarian. "A packet of lettuce seeds will cost you $2 and grow all the lettuce you need for five years, honestly."

During this gardening season -- and recession -- that's what vegetable growers might be hoping to hear.

A National Gardening Association survey shows 43 million American households plan to grow fruits or vegetables this year -- up 19 percent from 2008. More than half the respondents named grocery bills as a motivation.

"Everyone wants to start (growing vegetables); you cannot believe the number of folks," said Bill Dawson, coordinator of the Growing to Green community-gardening program at the Franklin Park Conservatory.

"It's more than a trend; it's almost getting back to the victory gardens" of World War II.
To yield such a large crop, McDermott starts growing plants under lights in his basement and cultivates "aggressively" in his 30-by-40-foot plot.

But with a space even half that size, gardeners such as Greg Hostetler, 33, have cut their spending on food.

For about $30 in seeds, Hostetler grows about a dozen vegetables using a 16-by-18-foot garden in the University District.

"I've always loved to garden," he said of his reason to start a backyard plot last year, "but it was money. I saved at least $15 a week on grocery bills during the main season."

Before new gardeners start dreaming of savings, though, experts advise that they first focus on
the realities of their soil.

"Typically, our soil is very heavy clay -- and not many things grow well in heavy clay soil," said Gary Gao, horticulture educator at the Ohio State University Extension of Delaware County.

To improve soil structure, gardeners can purchase new topsoil or amend the existing dirt with compost, adding fertilizers as needed to replace missing elements.

"That goes a long way toward food production and making sure the plants have the nutrients they need," said Trisha Dehnbostel, programming manager for Local Matters, a nonprofit group that advocates access to fresh food in central Ohio.

Compost can be purchased -- or, for more cost savings, made out of kitchen scraps such as eggshells and leftover fruits and vegetables.

From there, gardeners should think about which vegetables to grow -- not only the ones they like to eat, but the ones they can maintain through possible problems with growth, diseases or pests.

Even after a decade of gardening, McDermott still won't attempt to grow certain vegetables -- describing corn as "rotten" and carrots as "a misery."

But that still leaves him with salads of just about everything else.
asaunders@dispatch.com