Very near Kirkwood and Irving Park, right beside this busy segment of Battleground Avenue, someone is growing vegetables on a little plot of land. The sign is such a cute way to drive home the point that if you watch what food you put into your body and make good food choices, you will likely decrease the amount of medicine that you will have to take. 

Home gardening has been on the rise in the USA over the last several years. According to the National Garden Association, in 2009, 43 million households planned to grow some of their own food and that number has been increasing by 15-30% annually.*  Some of these urban gardens are owned privately and others are shared by community members. Another option is for church and civic groups to grow gardens and donate the produce to people in need.

Yet another trend is to have edible landscaping. With this option, plants are chosen, not only for the fact that the yield something edible, but also for their attractiveness. What a healthy, economical option! If you are local and really interested in edible landscaping, you can drive to the Edible Landscaping nursery, about three and a half hours north of Greensboro. The ride through the mountains of Virginia (between Staunton and Charlottesville) is beautiful and when you get there you can visit their orchard and see what the plants would look like in your yard.

Let’s all make an effort to plant something edible. Maybe we can all find one of these signs to alert passers-by to the farm-acy in our yard-en of eat-ing! A virtual “honk” if you support the above gardener’s efforts!

*reference.