Amid city streets, a growing trend

High produce prices send urbanites in search of a spade and handful of seeds

City dwellers such as Diane McKenney, watering her strawberries and onions in the Bremen Street garden, have started to grow their food. (Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff)

Can't stomach $4 a pound for organic tomatoes at the supermarket? Maybe it's time to grow your own.

Escalating food prices are prompting more people to return to the soil this spring, according to community garden coordinators, garden centers, and merchants. Seed sales are up across the region, and organizers of community gardens report that waiting lists are expanding.

Several factors are inflating grocery prices: higher fuel costs for trucking food, a strong export market for US-grown food, weather disasters around the world, and the increasing use of products such as corn to make biofuel. As a result, growing produce has become an attractive option for some consumers, even if they have doubts about the greenness of their thumbs.

"The cost of vegetables is very expensive and the cost of everything is getting expensive," said Andrea Robichaud, who took up gardening this spring to reduce her food bills. Robichaud, 32, was awarded one of three spaces that became available at the 44-plot Bremen Street Community Garden in East Boston. She is growing such staples as tomatoes, lettuce, and carrots, along with basil, cilantro, and other herbs.

Diane McKenney, another gardener, grows strawberries and red onions in her plot.

Joe Raffaele, owner of American Seed Co. in Norton, said fewer people think they can afford fresh produce at supermarkets. "If they don't grow their own, they won't have any," he said.

American Seed - which sells 35 million seed packets annually - said it is shipping out about 18 percent more vegetable seeds to dealers than last year.

The story is similar at New England Seed Co. in Hartford. Sales of vegetable seeds are up about 20 percent from last year, said Warren Shepard of Brockton, the company's New England sales representative. Racks in some retail outlets are continually in need of refilling, he said.

Some of those seeds probably end up in Boston's 3,000 plots in community gardens. Hundreds of people are on waiting lists to get their own patch of fertile dirt, according to Valerie Burns, director of Boston Natural Areas Network, the clearinghouse for the city gardens. And the number of calls and e-mails about obtaining plots is up from last year, said Burns, which she partially attributes to high food prices.

At the Bremen Street garden, the waiting list is 41 names deep, said Jack Boyce, garden coordinator. Some gardeners are so stretched financially that they ask for a discount on the $30 plot fee, he said.

Jim Clark, a longtime gardener and president of the Clark Cooper Community Gardens in Mattapan, said he has seen people turn to gardening during previous economic slowdowns. Since they tend to spend more time at home, Raffaele said, "They think they might as well make some money." Or at least save.

The 285 families who participate in the Clark Cooper gardens, run by the Massachusetts Audubon Society, grow tomatoes, cucumbers, collard greens, cabbage, squash, and beans. Many of the gardeners are at least partly motivated by the prospect of saving money, Clark said.

In sections of the city, access to fresh produce has long been limited. Price increases are making fruits and vegetables even more precious.

Karen Young said that to reduce grocery shopping, she grows everything from tomatoes to peanuts to sweet potatoes at the Mission Hill Community Garden. Young said she also helps others by giving away food she can't use. Neighborhood interest in the garden is high this year, she said. "People stop me on the street and ask if they can join," Young said.

Others grow produce to store for winter - when the lack of locally grown produce in markets causes additional price increases.

"If I can save money from what I plant, I don't have to stress so much from spending on other things," said Rosalind Kabrhel, who has a garden in her Belmont yard. For winter, she blanches and freezes vegetables such as winter squash, and herbs such as bay leaves, lemon grass, and sage.

Nationwide, food costs are increasing at the fastest rate since 1990, according to the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index. In the past year, prices have risen more than 5 percent as grocers pass costs on to consumers.

Cost is also a concern for consumers who have developed a taste for organically grown fruits and vegetables. For instance, 15 healthy tomato plants will produce about 100 pounds of tomatoes in a season. At $3.99 a pound for certified organic tomatoes - the recent price at a large chain supermarket - they would be worth nearly $400.

The investment required to reap such savings is relatively modest. It costs about $55 to grow 15 tomato plants, said Mark Cutler, greenhouse manager for Mahoney's Garden Center in Brighton. That includes a 40-pound bag of composted cow manure for $3.98, single tomato plants in 4-inch pots at $2.98 apiece, and a 5-pound bag of organic fertilizer priced at $5.98.

A novice gardener might also need to buy a garden spade for about $20, along with other tools. And then there is investment of sweat equity - the time and effort it takes to prepare soil, plant, water, and fend off pests.

When Mahoney's Garden Center in Winchester recently offered a beginner's class on growing vegetables in response to the increased interest, it drew 35 people, a larger turnout than normal, said Suzanne Crooker, the greenhouse manager.

Boyce, who tended a garden in East Boston last year for the first time, enjoys more than the savings.

"When I tasted the first tomato out of my garden, I said, 'This is what a tomato used to taste like,' " Boyce said.

Mark Pothier of the Globe staff contributed to this report.