From a window box of herbs in a city apartment to a sprawling allotment of prize winning marrows, everyone can grow something edible. By doing so you'll cut out food miles, reduce pollution, you'll know exactly what you're feeding your family, how it has been treated and save money. Nothing tastes sweeter than the fruit of your own labours. Or the vegetables of your own labours. Or even the window box herbs of your own labours.
I love growing my own food organically. I have been doing this on an experimental basis for about a year to see what works and what doesn't and how I can improve. I'm really trying to get out of not buying things I can grow easily.
Anyone got any tips on getting rid of earwigs?
I don't know how i managed to say i had done this, but unfortunately i am not growing my own food. I wish. though i am helping to renovate a community garden in the Bronx on Sunday!
I'll post pics next week...
If anyone knows how to undo a fake completed goal, let me know. i don't want to get a reputation of being a fraud...
I've begun the process, now that I have a garden I own and can dig up. So far, I've planted: two apple trees, two pear trees, a plum tree, three raspberry canes, a blackberry bramble, three blackcurrant bushes, a cranberry bush, a blueberry, and a gooseberry bush, as well as over-wintering onions and lettuce. Peas will go in at the end of the month, and I have PLANS for next spring.
We're lucky enough to have lots of room for a few raised beds. It's taken about 3 years from not knowing anything about grow-your-own and just trying a few things out to now where we pretty much have our own grown veg for most of the year and rarely have to top up from the local shop.
There are some good books out there and out of the many i've read my faves are: Grow Your Own Veg by Carol Klein, The New Self-Sufficient Gardener by JOhn Seymour and Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom
I've a small suburban garden where I keep chickens, compost as much as I can and grow salads, veg, fruit trees (recently) and hope to really make a dent in next year's food cost with a raised bed or two. It isn't hard and a few pots can provide most of your salad, a few eggs will taste divine with homegrown herbs....
Finally, my kids understand that 'chicken' and chickens aren't two distinct things...one comes from the other, who knew???!
Start small. Its very easy to get overwhelmed by all the varieties and possibilities to do with gardening.
Start with a herbs in pots
Everytime you visit someone, get a cutting from their garden.
Build up your range of flowers to attract bees.
Leave a bit of your garden wild, to encourage biodiversity
Pots! That the best way to go, a friend of mine grows his own veg in pots and he is a city dweller. So large pots are the way to go.
If you have sunny windowsills, chillies don't take up too much space. If you have more space, then tomato plants might be a good idea.
I saw a thing on tv where they demonstrated growing potatoes in a plastic fertilizer sack. That wouldn't take too much space and would definitely work on a balcony. The guy said you could get up to 20lbs of spuds out of a single bag.
What about some herbs? They don't need much space!
Happy gardening=)
Hi Wannabee, I don't know what you can grow around or under pines, but have you considered keeping chickens. They love scratching about in forest floors. They could provide you with eggs and meat. Not traditional growing of plants, but they produce lots of food.
I don't think that's allowed within the city limits but I will check.
Well, you could have raised beds (like in squarefoot gardening or different) and mix in some different types of soil or compost if necessary.. (?)
Depends on how much light you have, yeah..
I'm not a garden expert - you might want to join a few gardening sites/forums and ask questions there...? or farmers in the market, &/or in shops with soil etc (?)
