Plant An Extra Row of Herbs
April/May 2002
By JIM LONG
Jim Long welcomes readers’ questions or comments; you may e-mail
him directly at lcherbs@tri-lakes.net, or tour his gardens at
www.longcreekherbs.com.
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For more information contact Plant a Row for the Hungry, 10210
Leatherleaf Ct., Manassas, VA 20111; (877) 492-2727;
www.gwaa.org.
Do you remember the Victory Gardens of World
War II? Well, I don’t because I’m not old enough, but I’ve been
told about them countless times by my parents and grandparents.
Gardeners pulled together and planted extra food to help out the
needy, fostering pride in planting an extra row or two of whatever
crops they grew, to be passed along to others. That Victory Garden
idea was the inspiration for another program. The Plant a Row for
the Hungry (PAR) program was started by the Garden Writers
Association of America with the sole purpose of getting gardeners
to grow something extra and pass it along.
Garden clubs, Master Gardener’s groups, 4-H clubs, and Boy
Scouts and Girl Scouts groups have all eagerly found ways to be
involved. There are inner-city gardeners who use the program to
teach young kids how to garden while providing extra produce for
local soup kitchens. I visited several such garden programs in San
Antonio, Texas, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, recently and was
very impressed, not just with the ability of city dwellers to turn
vacant and abandoned lots into productive gardens, but with their
determination to instill excitement and enthusiasm in local
neighborhood kids for gardening.
But the nice thing is that PAR isn’t a big organization to join;
there are no rules (other than grow something and share it), and no
dues to pay. Anyone can contribute, simply by growing an extra row
of something, then finding a place where it’s needed.
PAR encourages gardeners, young or old, to grow some extra
produce. If it’s a group or club effort, then someone designates a
location to deliver the produce on a regular basis and each week
the gardeners bring in whatever they have grown that week. A
volunteer takes the fresh produce to a soup kitchen, food pantry,
rest home, or similar neighborhood facility that has agreed to
accept it.