Seed Money

"It is necessary to cultivate our garden." --Voltaire

Or if not actually necessary, at least desirable and economical in an era of violent food-price inflation. So think multitudes of Americans, who are growing vegetables in backyards, vacant lots, apartment-house window boxes and even swimming pools, with a zeal unmatched since the Victory Garden days of World War II. Some examples of the fervor:

In Oak Creek, Wis., the Forest Hill Memorial Park cemetery converted some unused land into 30-foot-square garden plots and then rented 88 of them in less than an hour.

In Oak Lawn, Ill., Joanne Sikora plans to double the size of the plot from which she and her boy friend harvested enough vegetables last year to feed five people for an entire summer.

The city of Chicago has set up 100 city-owned and an undetermined number of privately owned vacant lots as "neighborhood farms"; it plans to equip neighborhood farmers with seeds and seedlings, a farm guide, tools, fertilizer, insecticide, fencing and, when necessary, water from nearby fire hydrants.

Atop a Manhattan apartment building, General Motors Heir Stewart Mott tends some 200 varieties of vegetables and herbs on a twentieth-of-an-acre penthouse spread that houses six chickens and a working compost heap.

While saving money for themselves --sometimes--the gardeners are also enriching a variety of businessmen. Last year the packaged-seed industry recorded sales of $100 million to home gardeners. So far in 1974, Everett Seed Co. of Atlanta is reaping a 112% increase in sales of seeds--primarily tomatoes, bush beans, radishes, lettuce and field peas. W. Atlee Burpee Co. of Philadelphia, one of the largest mail-order seed houses in the world, has increased sales of vegetable seeds at least 20%, and is running short of certain varieties of beans and peas. Makers of garden tools and other equipment also are prospering. Ball Corp. of Muncie, Ind., maker of Mason jars and other home-canning equipment, raised its home-canning sales 46% last year to a total of $21 million, and expects to equal if not exceed that volume this year.

How do the home gardeners fare economically? Derek Fell, executive director of the National Garden Bureau, estimates that on an investment of $5 in seeds and another $25 in fertilizer, plants and tools, a 15- by 25-foot backyard plot can return a yield of vegetables worth $280 to $300 at present prices. But, he warns, "too many people overspend the first time"; fancy tools and equipment (such as a $200 compost maker) of course reduce the savings. And Fell's calculations do not include whatever value the home gardener might care to put on his or her unpaid labor.

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