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Economic factors, contamination fears and the Locavore movement feed a boom in backyard vegetable growing: Economic factors, contamination fears and...(Chicago Tribune Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 18--"I can't wait until spring," says author Bill Alexander. "I miss lettuce. I haven't had any decent lettuce for months." He's not the only one waiting eagerly for the growing season to begin. All signs are that 2009 will be a banner year for vegetable growing, following a spurt last summer. "We've seen almost double demand," says Tracy Lee, director of horticulture at the seed company W. Atlee Burpee Co. in Warminster, Pa. (burpee.com). "It's amazing." When the Garden Writers Association in Manassas, Va., surveyed gardeners in spring 2007, they rated vegetables in second place (after lawns) among types of growing they intended to do, after it had wallowed in fourth or fifth place after perennials for years. Polling hasn't started yet this year, says executive director Robert LaGasse, but he expects the trend to continue. Why the growth in enthusiasm for growing food? The economy surely has a role. An increase in seed sales is "typical when we see an economic downturn," according to Stephanie Turner, director of seed product at Park Seed Co., another venerable catalog house in Greenwood, S.C. (parkseed.com). "People are trying to stay home and beautify what they have and grow their own food." But there are other factors at work: When tomatoes were pulled from store shelves last summer for fear of salmonella, it was only the latest of a succession of scares that revealed how long the supply chain is for supermarket produce -- and how vulnerable to contamination. Sales of organically grown produce have been on the rise for years, and it's natural to go from buying expensive organic heirloom tomatoes at the farmer's market to wondering if you could grow them yourself cheaper. If you grow your own food, you don't need to wonder what pesticide was sprayed on it or what was in the soil where it was planted or whether the people who picked it washed their hands. You control all that. There also is a growing awareness that trucking fruits and vegetables long distances from farm to distribution center to supermarket to home uses a lot of gas and emits a lot of greenhouse gases. The "Locavore" movement -- which contends it is most environmentally responsible to eat food grown close to home -- leads to a logical conclusion: There's no place more local than your own backyard. "Your produce is fresher and it hasn't traveled a long distance so you haven't contributed to the carbon footprint," Turner says. Some activists are encouraging President-elect Barack Obama to plant a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House. Eleanor Roosevelt planted one during World War II, when Victory Gardens sprouted across America and produced millions of pounds of food. A vegetable garden provides "the comfort and security of being able to see food right outside your window and the anticipation of the growing fruit," says garden designer Vicki Nowicki of Downers Grove. And it is an eye-opening activity for children. "It's tremendous how much they enjoy seeing it grow and how much they will eat it when they see it grow," says Turner, a mother of two. The increase in interest is a warning to all gardeners to get their seed and transplant orders in early. Last year, in catalogs and garden centers, "There was a run on seeds, and vegetable plants were the first to go off of garden center shelves," LaGasse says. It's not clear how much the increase in vegetable sales comes from new gardeners and how much is due to experienced gardeners deciding to grow a little more of their food and buy a little less in hard times. For new gardeners, it's wise not to get overambitious. "There's a learning curve when it comes to gardening," says Randy Schultz, who does public relations for the Mailorder Gardening Association in Albuquerque, N.M. (mailordergardening.com). Many a vegetable garden begun hopefully in May has been a neglected, weed-ridden mess by mid-July. "So many people I've met have grown a garden, and it hasn't been a successful experience," Nowicki says. Or two-career families don't have time for the upkeep. That's why, last summer, Nowicki started a new business called Let's Grow Vegetables (letsgrowvegetables.com). At 10 homes in the western suburbs, she and a crew installed vegetable gardens with rich organic soil in raised beds, and then came back weekly to plant, weed and harvest. Her ultimate goal, she says, was to teach them how to do it and encourage them to try it themselves, though only a few became very involved. Still, despite the cost (which varied with the size of the garden, but was well over $2,000 for a 15-by-20-foot plot), all the families re-upped for this year. She's also teaching a series of classes on organic vegetable growing at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle this winter. Even experienced vegetable gardeners can get in too deep and discover that vegetable gardening is not necessarily thrifty. Alexander did fine with a few tomato and pepper plants in a small urban patch in Yonkers, N.Y. But when he and his wife moved to a small town in the Hudson Valley with lots of space, they got carried away into spending several thousand dollars for 22 professionally designed raised beds and a small orchard, a saga humorously recounted in his book "The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden" (Algonquin Books, 288 pages, $24.95). A new vegetable garden need not be perfect, and the chances of satisfaction are best when a novice doesn't set expectations too high. The cost goes down in future years, once tools have been purchased and experience gained. If new gardeners start small, invest in quality tools, plan carefully, improve the soil before planting, water and weed assiduously and roll with a few punches, home-grown food is well within reach -- even in pots or containers on rooftops. "They are going to get home-grown vegetables," says Schultz. "They may not save as much money as they think, but they also are going to get freshness and taste and nutrition and the satisfaction of knowing what you're putting in your body. You can't put a dollar value on that." [email protected] To see more of the Chicago Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Chicago Tribune Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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