Grow Your Own Food
by Jo delAmor
Can you conjure up the taste of a fresh, sun warmed, home grown tomato in your mind? Do you know the delicate taste and the coolness of greens and herbs picked from a back yard garden? If you do, you know the true value of growing your own food and if not, you have a grand adventure to look forward to.
Almost everyone has the ability to at least experiment with growing a bit of food on their own, whether you have a window sill in New York City or a little patch of soil by your front door or a spot to put in a nice garden in your back yard. It can be an extremely enjoyable and educational experience to nurture a seed and help it turn into food. Through this process you have the opportunity to learn a lot about life and how it grows.
It is also a very cost effective way to get high quality produce while reducing your impact on the environment. Foods grown locally and in small scale settings will be more nutritious for the people that eat them and less taxing on the environment and soil health. Any food that you are able to grow on your own reduces your demand for foods grown far from home and the petroleum it takes to ship them.
Some helpful tips:
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Choose high quality organic seeds or starts
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Choose organic soil and fertilize with natural substances. Fish emulsion works the best.
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Start small. Just choose one or two things to grow if it’s your first time.
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Love the plants. Enjoy watching them grow, pay attention to them. You can even talk to them or sing to them while you water (they really like that).
Some simple choices for first time or small scale growers:
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Greens (lettuces, kale, collards, swiss chard, spinach)
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Herbs (basil, dill, thyme, oregano, parsley)
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Tomatoes (purchase plants to transplant rather than starting from seed)
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Zucchini (If you have room for them. The plants get very big and they grow very fast, but their super easy to grow and they produce lot!)