Food Chain Radio Show #1229

Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist

Covid19

Pandemic Panic Gardening

Guest: Missy Gable, Director University of California Master Gardener Program

When the coronavirus came into our world, the best virus experts in the land told us that millions of people could die right here in the USA. And so we dutifully panicked and locked ourselves away in social isolation.

Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Should gardening be certified an essential pandemic panic activity?

It did not take long for this splendid isolation to wear on us, forcing many to turn to their gardens for relief. I was one. But when I went looking for some hope to plant at my favorite local garden shop, I found that its gates had been locked because the garden shop was certified a “non-essential” pandemic panic activity.

Those locked gates reminded me of a Food Chain Radio episode I hosted some time ago featuring the horticulture program at California’s Soledad State Prison. As I walked the yard with the program’s instructor, I could easily identify two types of prisoners: those who worked with the prison’s ornamental plants, and those who did not. The prisoners who did not work with plants were the ones whose looks frightened.

And so the “closed” sign on my favorite garden shop got me to wondering why something so elemental as gardening would be classified by the authorities as being non-essential. The mere act of gardening provides one with sunshine and fresh air, grounds one to the earth, and above all, allows one to plant some hope that there will be a future. What better way to survive the great 2020 made-in-China coronavirus pandemic panic than to garden? And so I ask:

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Tune in here, for the syndicated the Michael Olson Food Chain Radio Show #1229 May 9, 2020 Saturday 9AM Pacific

Nationally syndicated Food Chain Radio airs live Saturday mornings 9-10AM Pacific.