Growing Your Own Vegetables and Fruit
66With the current economic climate, choosing to grow your own
food makes very good sense. As well as
saving money, there are health benefits to eating fresh, home grown, organic
produce.
If you’re not much of a gardener but want to start your own
vegetable patch, the first thing you need to do is come up with a list of what
you and your family want to eat.
Otherwise, it can feel quite confusing looking at the vast array of seeds
and types of vegetables available for you to grow.
You need to start at the beginning…don’t be tempted to just run out and buy loads of seeds. List all the fruit and vegetables that your family likes to eat, then eliminate the ones that you are not going to be able to grow. If you have very sandy soil, cauliflowers and cabbages don’t do well, but carrots and parsnips should. Some veg such as sweet peppers and aubergines need pampering and can be difficult to grow. They could be something to leave until later when you’ve got the hang of the basics.
Potatoes are Easy
On the other hand, potatoes are quite easy to grow and are
great for your soil, but you will need to have enough space to store your crops
over winter. Grow a couple of rows of
new potatoes for their wonderful flavor – and when you see the price of the
first new potatoes in the shops, you’ll find they taste even better!
Absolute beginners should try salad leaves, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, string beans, radishes, courgettes, peas, onions, tomatoes, sweetcorn, spinach and broad beans. Some fruit can be quite complex when it comes to pruning, so it’s best to try strawberries first. Pick five or six varieties you would like to start with and you can always try growing other sorts of fruit and vegetables in the future.
Growing Vegetables in Containers
Lots of new varieties of vegetables do well in containers, so no matter how limited your space, there are still vegetables that you can grow.
- In the cold garden
[From 24-Nov-2009] The star by far of the last planting of brassicas, that mostly didn’t size up in time for market or CSA, is without at doubt this unusual Nero Di Toscana strap kale. This Italian heirloom, apparently from Tuscany, is hardly better looking than the cold-beaten rest of the motley-looking crew: tiny cauliflower, mini [...] - 34 hours ago
- Last of the chokes
Digging up the very last of the Jerusalem artichoke, this is pretty much the final harvest of the year, besides a little kale and maybe a last few tiny cauliflower and cabbage. The few remaining feet of the original 50′ (15m) double row yielded about half a bushel. Not bad. Plenty for spring planting, and [...] - 2 days ago
- Bigger gear…
Thanks to the comments on yesterday’s blog post, this piece of old farm gear, lying abandoned in the field for who knows how long, has been ID-ed as a sickle bar mower. Yet another in a long line of bigger equipment I’ve seen but not used in my tiny farming career. I suppose the main [...] - 3 days ago
- Second snow, 2009
Around 8 am, just getting light, and it’s the second snow that’s sticking around for a while. Here, I’m standing in a weedy area right beside the barn, looking south-west over the south-facing slope, with the chickenhouse just out of sight to the right. (That’s a so-far unidentified piece of antique iron farm gear with [...] - 4 days ago
- Tiny fall cauliflower tastes good
Harvested a few tiny (tennis ball to softball-sized, like, orange to grapefruit…little ones!) cauliflower from the last-planted section of brassicas that also has kale and broccoli. It’s still producing in home-consumption quantities, but with the exception of some strap kale, they entirely missed sizing up in time for CSA or the farmers’ market at the [...] - 2 weeks ago
Growing Vegetables Books
|
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening
Price: $12.68
List Price: $21.95 |
|
Burpee : The Complete Vegetable & Herb Gardener : A Guide to Growing Your Garden Organically
Price: $21.83
List Price: $39.95 |
|
Growing Your Own Vegetables: An Encyclopedia of Country Living Guide
Price: $10.37
List Price: $17.95 |
|
Growing Chinese Vegetables in Your Own Backyard: A Complete Planting Guide for 40 Vegetables and Herbs, from Bok Choy and Chinese Parsley to Mung Beans and Water Chestnuts
Price: $8.82
List Price: $16.95 |
|
Saving Seeds: The Gardener's Guide to Growing and Storing Vegetable and Flower Seeds (A Down-to-Earth Gardening Book)
Price: $7.68
List Price: $14.95 |
|
Heirloom Vegetables: A Home Gardener's Guide to Finding and Growing Vegetables from the Past
Price: $10.98
List Price: $16.00 |
|
Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way (The Real Goods Independent Living Books)
Price: $26.08
List Price: $39.95 |
Containers for Growing Strawberries or Tomatoes
|
PLAYFUL BIRD STRAWBERRY OUTDOOR YARD PLANTER PLANT POT
Price: $13.96
List Price: $39.95 |
|
Playful Birds Atop a Strawberry Pot
Price: $13.96
List Price: $39.95 |
|
Stack and Grow Terracotta Planter with 20 Planting Pockets
Price: $44.95
List Price: $60.00 |
|
Planter: Strawberry Barrel
Price: $45.00
List Price: $52.95 |
|
Stack and Grow Self-Watering Strawberry Planter, Stone
Price: $34.95
List Price: $39.95 |
Growing Vegetables Links
- Organically Grown Food - Is Organic Really Good?
Is organically produced food better for you? You may have been hearing more about organic food recently. The fact is that people in general are becoming more concerned about the environment that they live... - Raising Chickens in Your Back Yard
Raising chickens is becoming increasingly popular not only in the farm but also in city and suburb back yards. It is seen as a great alternative to drastically decrease food costs and at the same time make... - Grow Potatos In A Garbage Can!
One of the most efficient vegetables the backyard gardener can produce is the potato. And by growing them in a garbage can, you can increase yield and space-efficiency even more! - Growing vegetables in small gardens
You don’t need a large area to have a vegetable garden. All you do need is good soil, plenty of sunshine, a water source and probably a fence.Limited gardening space doesn't necessary need to be an obstacle for growing vegetables. - Container Gardening Tomatoes
Container gardening tomatoes is an easy way to enjoy fresh, delicious tomatoes any time you want. You can just step out your door, you don't have to go to the store. You don't need a lot of space if you are...
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Growing Your Own Food - Your Comments
very nice and informative hub on growing your own vegetables and fruit
Nice hub moi friend and how dare you question my piracy ; )
I grew up on a farm....when Spring comes I just have to plant something.
Nice hub~~ this year our summer just arrived...until about a month ago, we had freezing temps during the night, many of us lost all our veggies we had planted in the ground or containers!! Last year at this time, I had tomato plants 6 feet tall...this year, I have three little scraggly plants, with a few on them...sad!!! No one has a good crop this year! Most people don't plant outside til after memorial day, but this year it was much later and we are all suffering for it :-(. OUr remedy in case this happens again: My husband and I are building a nice greenhouse (out of old paned windows :-)~~ I could not even plant my window boxes this year, as no one in town brought in flowers til late and did not reorder...sad!!!!
@ Montana Farm Girl
Having freezing nights during June is tough! Our main problem this year with a warm wet Spring has been slugs! Thousands of 'em. I won't put any poison down as I try to stay organic and also I worry about the birds.














Gypsy Willow says:
6 months ago
Excellent hub. Tha rewards are endless both mentally and physically. Thank you!