The Trendy Petersons

I just read an article that said what I was doing was right on with a current trend.  I often feel that I am going against the trends so this caught my attention.  According to the National Gardening Association at garden.org, food gardening in the U.S. is at its highest level in more than a decade and it so happens that I am one of the people to whom they are referring.  Here are some of their stats with my pictures.

• 35% of all households in America, or 42 million households, are growing food at home or in a community garden, up 17% in five years.

Mike tilling a row for the green beans and Emily covering the corn.  

• Largest increases in participation seen among younger households - up 63% to 13 million since 2008

Here's where I include the picture we took of Emily channelling Suzanne gardening.
If Suzanne had been at the pond the day we did our planting she would have been cuddling the dog
while Mike tilled, Emily planted, I cut up the seed potatoes and Laura was on the phone.  See her photo below. 

Apparently not all of the younger generation are into food gardening.  

• 1 in 3 households are now growing food - the highest overall participation and spending levels seen in a decade.

Mike created rows to plant our seed red potatoes. 

• Americans spent $3.5 billion on food gardening in 2013 - up from $2.5 billion in 2008 - a 40% increase in five years.

Emily covering the seed potatoes with dirt.
Notice the new tiller in the picture.  I wonder how many years we would have to grow
our own vegetables to recoup the cost of that piece of equipment.  

• 76% of all households with a food garden grew vegetables, a 19% increase since 2008.

The girls gave me an apple tree for my birthday the first year I moved to the farm.
That was two years ago.  This spring it had its first blooms.  Maybe this means we will actually get some apples.  

• From 2008 to 2013 the number of home gardens increased by 4 million to 37 million households, while community gardens tripled from 1 million to 3 million, a 200% increase.

Mike and I finished planting the rest of our vegetables in raised beds.
Our farmer and I had the same thought because he showed up the
same day to start preparing our fields for planting.