Monday, May 19, 2008

New Old Fashioned Way?

I chuckled as I read an article yesterday about a brand new way to save money on grocery bills. It seems a community in Kentucky is renting space so apartment dwellers can grow their own vegetable gardens.

I thought such gardens were new in the seventies, but a friend’s mother put me straight on that with stories of Victory Gardens during World War II. When she claimed that was new her mother said renting a spot for a garden was common in Europe and had been for centuries.

The idea of renting or leasing a bit of ground in order to grow food is probably as old as the concept of humans living in cities. Any idea that has been around for that long is probably a good one.

Besides assuring a supply of food, gardening is healthy exercise. Instead of paying money and time for a gym experience you can use those resources to take care of part of your food supply, get exercise and save money. It’s hard to beat a deal like that. Better still you have a pretty good idea of what is in and on the veggies and fruits you are consuming.

Back in the seventies we really went all out for the organic lifestyle. We bought land and in addition to a garden and orchard had dairy goats, rabbits, chickens and ducks. Our freezer was full and we usually bought staples such as flour, salt, sugar, spices and various cleaning supplies.

Over the years we got away from all that keeping only a small herb and salad garden. It is amazing how rapidly the garden expanded as we got into the latest round of increasing costs of living. I am going to add here that it held off longer than I expected.

I began moving us away from gas guzzlers just before 2000 because I realized it had been quite awhile since we’d had fuel prices increasing exponentially. Each time we needed a vehicle I tried to make sure we got whatever had good mileage. I noticed friends who’d lived through the seventies or thirties were doing the same thing. I predict that all my friends going through this for the first time will recognize the signs next time and have survival modes in place.

Lazy Trainer’s Tip

During this cycle of increasing prices it is a good idea to learn how to make the best use of all resources, but especially that of time. Time is the one thing we have a finite amount of and need to be stingy with. Don’t spend it on things that are not important to you.

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