Gardening is a growing trend in tough times

A community garden in Palm Desert was featured on the local TV news last night, with gardeners and experts proclaiming the many benefits of producing one's own vegetables.

Reporter Eddie Quezada of KESQ-TV interviewed gardener Brian Desborough, who said his small plot yields about 100 pounds of heirloom tomatoes, vegetables that often go for $5 a pound at supermarkets.

UC Cooperative Extension vegetable crops advisor Jose Luis Aguiar noted in his interview the psychological benefits of gardening.

"It's nothing better than coming out and spending a couple hours moving the soil, moving the vegetables around, watering, trimming them, nothing better than that and the added benefit is you get to pick your own vegetables which are always the best because they are fresh," Aguiar said.

All of the Santa Rosa Community Garden's 200 plots are being cultivated by local gardeners, and a waiting list for space there has been maintained for three years, Quezada reported.

Jose Luis Aguiar

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