Threshold Gardens, Food for Your Future > April '22

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Threshold Gardens, Food for Your Future

Cheryl J. Shenkle

April 2022

 

When you graduated from High School, it was a Threshold to a new future made possible.  When you married, it was “over the Threshold” to build a new family for the future. So, what is a Threshold Garden?

If you have never gardened before with the intention of learning exactly how to make plants grow then this is your opportunity to cross the Threshold to a new era of successful gardening.

Penn State Extension Master Gardeners exist to teach people how to grow their own healthy and inexpensive food as easily as possible.  There are no chemicals, no fad driven name brand fertilizers or soils, no huge list of beautiful foods everyone expects to see in a garden, just what you know for certain you will eat.

Today we see stainless steel trays of chilled food, the origins and quality of which we have no idea, at a cost which can sky rocket at every crisis.  In worst case scenarios, the product may not even make it to market, or not enough of it is available.  What does arrive is almost guaranteed to have been sprayed from the time it emerged in a greenhouse or a miles long field with diesel machinery, petroleum solutions, and speculators buying and selling lots and cases for financial gain, from countries all over the world where farming may be totally unregulated.

Yes, it usually looks right, smells OK, tastes about how we expect it to, but at what cost to our health?  There is no way to know exactly what is in that food.  Fungicides, fumigants, pesticides, preservatives, colorants and anti-dessicants, in approximately 1000 different available formulations can be on your food.  Organics are almost always sprayed also, but with safer, less toxic sprays.  Does it affect humans?  You decide.

However, for our streams, beneficial insects, beneficial micro-organisms, farm workers, wild pollinator plants and insects, forests and wild ecosystems, there is very little safe space left. Chemicals spread.

So, what can you do if you choose?

There is a Threshold into a safer food future right in your own backyard.  I know, it can be downright perplexing, not to mention heart breaking when an entire crop fails, succumbs to insects or pests, or simply won’t grow to a harvestable size.

If you have tried in the past and given it up as a bad idea, then let us help you with a Threshold Garden project.  This year we will be providing three Threshold Square Foot Gardens with all seeds provided and personal assistance from beginning to end.  It is 4 x 8 feet and is designed as a learning project to take 1-2 persons into the future of successful gardening.  This is our Experimental Year in which we will sort out the bugs (ahem) and teach individuals how to grow successfully what they want to eat in small portions.  Once this year is complete, the grower will know how to raise specific vegetables that they choose to have in greater amounts.  From the approximately 20 veggies that will be grown, possibly only 5-10 of them might be preferred in larger amounts.  Those will be among the crops that will be grown in smaller amounts this year.  The rest, like spinach, kale, okra, can be left for others to grow.  Actually they may end up being your healthiest favorites!  You may be excited by the flavors when they are as perfect as nature and good culture can grow them.  No off tastes, no weird varieties, no excess that you don’t know how to deal with, just meal sized experiments this year to expand on next year.

Perhaps you love radishes.  How about a small crop of them every week or so, all summer?  Would you like a small crop of beets or fresh carrots from time to time?  How about a meal or so of green beans picked at the peak of freshness, and what about peas in your favorite variety?  What about fresh Okra for breakfast once a week in season?  The list goes on and on.  Even asparagus can be grown in smaller amounts.  If you decide you want bushels of anything next year, then you will know exactly how to do it in a larger planting bed.  Didn’t like beets before but love them fresh from the garden and roasted, then you can do that!

With the question of food safety, quality and taste in current times, you can create more of your own food supply and learn to love doing it in the process.  Gardening is good for the body, mind and soul.  Stressed?  Well, take a daily walk to your garden with the intention of concentrating on its health and welfare, and you’ll walk away with a better outlook on life.  Gardeners become addicted to gardening for a reason, and it’s not always food.  Sometimes it’s how we cope with the world around us and learn true peace in ourselves.

If you are interested in our experiment this year and you have never gardened before, we would love to introduce you to a good gardening experience with a mentor.  We will all learn in the process.  Hopefully we will be able to expand the program next year to a larger group.  Just contact the Master Gardeners at 814-849-7361 Extension 508 and leave a message.  One of us will get back to you with an application.  There is no cost, but this first year is directed to the needs of 1-2 people at each garden, both of whom can work on the garden.  There will be readily available assistance for questions and direction.  At the end of the season there will be an evaluation for the benefit of our program.

If you have a gardening question, please forward it to the main office using the Master Gardener Extension.  We will also do presentations for any group making a request.  We look forward to suggestions for articles also.

Certified Master Gardeners are local volunteers trained by Penn State to answer Horticulture questions with properly researched information. For a “best practices” answer to your question, call Penn State Jefferson County Extension to leave a message at 849-7361, Ext 508, e-mail cjs5618@psu.edu, or mail your question to 186 Main Street, Suite 3, Brookville, PA 15825. 

Penn State is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.