The Urban Permaculture Farm Magazine

Victory gardens, freedom gardens, recession gardens, sustainable gardens, or kitchen gardens. A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. What you call it isn't as important as having one and growing home grown delights in it! That's what Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International believes. Instead of recession gardeners growing food to take a bite out of their strapped budgets, Kitchen Gardeners are self-described "foodies" that grow their own food to insure the finest quality and freshness. In that way, people everywhere can relocalize their food supply. What a great way to think about what we all do!

I for one can relate well to Mr. Doiron's goals and methods. Even though I started my garden as a stress relieving hobby, I soon was thanking my good fortune in hindsight when I heard about tainted spinach and the like, resulting in proposed laws requiring produce be irradiated before it gets to market! My garden is less than 10 feet from my back door and during the harvesting seasons, dinner can be planned around what I bring in fresh from five minutes in my organic kitchen garden.

Another admirable goal of Kitchen Gardeners International is to unite people of common ideas for the betterment of the world. Personally, I have met dozens of like-minded garden buddies out there from all over the United States and the world. Sharing ideas, research, trials and successes, we have each grown as people and as gardeners.

It's staggering to think that through World War II, as much as 25% of the food production in the United States was home-based, falling to almost 0% today. One thing that kept the home food production so high in the early 1900s was the government's Victory Garden programs designed to make American families self-sufficient to allow for more food to be shipped to soldiers overseas. It is clear that we need something similar again to get back to some meaningful number, if not 25%.

Sure, there have been many grass roots groups working diligently to build support for growing even a portion of your family's food at home, getting government support and backing is crucial to the efforts. Roger Doiron and KGI have done more than most to work to get the Obamas to turn the South Lawn of the White House into an 1,100 SF kitchen garden to raise 55 organic vegetables for use by the First Family and even for state dinners! Maybe, just maybe, this will help give folks the motivation to turn a small southern facing section of their yard into their very own kitchen garden.

If you haven't checked out what Roger Doiron and his group of like-minded gardeners helping gardeners are doing, you really should. In fact, I plan on spending August 23rd this year, otherwise known as Kitchen Garden Day, enjoying gardens in my area and sharing what we grow.

Be sure to click on the links and thank Roger for all his hard work!