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Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Trump's catastrophic tariff plans prompt a boom in gardening [1]

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Date: 2025-01-25

With the looming probability of extraordinarily high prices for agricultural goods such as meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables thanks to Trump’s senseless and self-destructive tariffs, we can expect to see a resurgence in private gardening this Spring by all of those who may possess some degree of arable land on their property (and even those among those with no land to spare).

As reported earlier this month by CNN’s Elisabeth Buchwald, that phenomenon is already taking shape.

That’s because President-elect Donald Trump has promised to deport immigrants who have crossed the border illegally, many of whom play a crucial role in helping get food from farms onto store shelves. He has also threatened to institute blanket tariffs, with some of the steepest floated rates on Mexico, a top source of produce for the US. That means Americans could be forced to pay a lot more for fruits and vegetables.

As Buchwald explains, the application rate for membership in community gardens has shot up since Trump’s unfortunate re-ascendance to power.

Capital Roots, a nonprofit organization that runs 55 community gardens around the Albany, New York, region, received 31 new membership applications from Election Day through the start of this year. That’s nearly triple the number of applications they received for the same period last year and in 2022, according to Capital Roots data shared with CNN.

Notably, the exact same reaction has been observed in other metropolitan areas such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And while here in the Northeast, for example, it’s difficult to contemplate gardening when the ground is still occasionally encrusted in snow and ice, it seems clear that this trend will accelerate throughout the nation once the reality of impossibly high prices begins to manifest itself with the general public. In fact, assuming these tariffs go forward, the real question for many will be whether a growing season will arrive soon enough.

As for myself, I’ve been gardening for the last twenty-five years, with varying degrees of success. My most common crops are those which naturally are easiest to grow: lettuce, cucumbers, green onions, cilantro, parsley, green peppers and tomatoes. In small pots I’ve grown dill, basil, and rosemary (one of the great things about rosemary is that it just keeps growing and growing, all year round). Due to lack of water from drought and untoward heat in recent years (again, thanks in large part to the efforts of fossil fuel donors in paying the Republican party to deny the reality of climate change) I’ve had only sporadic success with the tomatoes, as birds lacking enough water tend to swoop down and consume vegetables with liquid in them. This has prompted efforts on my part to shield the often pecked-at tomato crop with netting from both birds and rodents, which also tend to raid the tomatoes exclusively (We also placed a fake but convincing owl which may actually have had an even greater deterrent effect than the enthusiastic efforts of our exuberant dog).

For me at least, gardening has never been vehicle for total sustenance, but more of a hobby. Mostly I’ve found that homegrown produce is uniformly tastier and healthier than that purchased in the store. However, thanks to Trump’s election I’ll be doubling down this year and adding carrots, collards (which take up a lot of space), more tomatoes, and pursuing attempts to freeze or otherwise preserve whatever vegetables I do succeed at growing, and generally doubling my pepper plants (For some reason I’ve had blight attack every spinach crop I’ve attempted, and I’ve had little luck with string or green beans).

I think it may be a good idea to purchase topsoil, manure, peat moss and any other gardening necessities as soon as possible as the demand for these things is probably going to shoot up exponentially as more and more people come to terms with the financial reality of their horrific electoral choices.

In fact, for her report Buchwald interviewed one devoted gardener named Robert Hunter (not that Robert Hunter), evidently of the same mind:

To get ahead of potential new tariffs Trump may enact, he preemptively purchased a $2,700 commercial-grade wood chip shredder from Home Depot to make mulch. “I didn’t need it in November; I could have waited until spring, when the weather is a lot nicer. However, the motor is made in China, and it’s also made of a lot of metal,” he said. That prompted him to consider that it could get a lot more expensive if Trump follows through on the tariff threats he’s floated.

In the past I’ve shared quite a bit of my crop “yield” with the neighbors and friends but in the future will continue to do so only with those who I know to be Democrats. For the Trump-supporting idiots down the street, I’ll simply suggest that they send their college-age son into the fields to see how he likes harvesting crops in the scorching heat at subminimum wages for a living. Or perhaps he can take one of those enormously appealing, sought-after jobs in the poultry-packing industry. Failing that, there are at least five large grocery chains within a five mile radius. They’re welcome to take their chances there as the next “hottest summer on record” unfolds.

I’m under no illusions that my simple (and rather limited ) garden will compensate for the food and other cost increases will largely be seen across the board as the result of these tariffs. But the other aspect of gardening which I have not mentioned is that -- in addition to getting you outdoors -- it provides a peculiar sense of tangible achievement. I like being able to say that a sauce, salad or other meal incorporates my own onions, jalapenos, lettuce, or tomatoes, for example. It’s good to be able to provide the fruits of your planting and labor to friends and neighbors. And it's just good to grow food. So if there’s anything remotely positive to the coming pointless Trump economic calamity, that’s probably going to be about it.

I’m out tonight probably past the post time for this, but will be back later.

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