Following on the heels of a similar article in the June 14 Gazette, yesterday’s Republican reports on surging interest in home gardens:
Victory gardens fight price wars
… “Vegetable plant sales have been phenomenal. Our sales are up maybe 30 percent this year,” said Leo L. Lapinski, who owns Gooseberry Farms in West Springfield…
According to the National Garden Writers Association Foundation, 32 percent of nearly 1,000 households surveyed in April planned to add a vegetable or fruit garden to their properties this year or increase the size of their existing garden…
In Northampton, which has a community garden of more than 400, 20-foot square plots on the grounds of the former Northampton State Hospital, competition for the few spots that come open each March is intense. The waiting list is currently 30 to 40 names long and growing, said Christine Kostek, who maintains it for the city’s Recreation Department…
See also:
Gazette: “As food, other costs rise, more stake hopes on home gardens” (6/14/08)
Urban home gardens require space to grow. We are concerned that these spaces could be infilled away if the Sustainable Northampton Plan does not respect their value.
Bozeman Daily Chronicle: “Bozeman’s Growing Pains” (9/7/05)
Open
space for recreation [in Portland] is at risk after 10,000 acres of
parks, fields, and golf courses were rezoned for infill development.