Bekuh Browning's Profile

My morning ritual usually involves hitting snooze a couple of times, taking my pup out for a quick potty break, and a large tumbler of coffee. Things usually feel so hectic that I didn't really think about it being a routine until I read this post. Makes me think that I need to change my morning approach this year.

@bekuhdoo I'm a Gen Y-er and like so many of us I don't own a home and have rented since graduating high school in 2004. I've always had herbs growing and an indoor plant or two but it wasn't until last year that I finally lived in a space with a yard. I can't plant a "real" garden like the ones I had growing up but my husband and I have about 8 containers we plant lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, radishes, turnips, and cucumbers in.

I think one of the biggest issues the gardening community faces when engaging generation Y-ers is that many of us don't own homes even in our mid 20s or 30s, which is very different from our grandparents' and parents' generations. People settled down earlier in the 1940s-1980s; today we don't have the luxury of buying property with mountains of student debt and insecure job options holding us back.

If they do want to engage us in the wonderful world of growing our own food they need to come up with better container garden options, resources on growing food in small spaces, internet accessible "farm knowledge," and less expensive plant options. We have gathered a lot of tips and tricks from our parents and grandparents about gardening but it is all knowledge for land based gardening, containers have a different set of challenges.

I love all of the progress going on in urban farming, CSAs, and community gardens and I see a lot of our peers starting to take an interest in the growing process but it's still far from what it was like when our grandparents were growing up. Planting a garden was part of a right of passage and about feeding your family not a recreational activity. It's like my 66 year old step dad says, " When I was growing up there was no such thing as living "green" it was just called surviving. I don't understand why everybody doesn't have to learn how to plant seeds."

I think he has a point. Education and inexpensive resources are a good place to start.