How many of you grow your own food?

1. 45

   thomasczechposted 10 years ago

   How many of you grow your own food?
   
   With the rising cost of groceries, it certainly is a good idea to grow your own. What are your personal experiences? How do you grow them? Please give ideas, hints etc

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2. 75

   CraftytotheCoreposted 10 years ago

   
   
   I'm a farm girl, growing up on a large scale home farm in the Northeast USA.  My grandfather had multiple gardens.  My grandmother canned and froze everything so even through bad weather we ate fresh produce all year.
   
   While I do not have a farm today, I have a pot-belly pig.  We compost all veggie scraps and use those to fertilize the garden every year.  We grow all kinds of veggies.  I have had much success with lettuce, bush grean beans, pinto beans, squash, pumpkin, tomatoes.  Not so much with corn.  My grandfather could grow fields of it, but not me.  Also sugar snap peas are easy to grow, but it takes a lot of room to grow an amount worth it. 
   
   I also grow blueberries.  We have 4 apple trees which are babies so no blossoms yet.  We have wild raspberries, blackberries, and wineberries.
   
   We've had a lot of luck with butternut squash and it stores well through winter months also.

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   1. 45

      thomasczechposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your comment as well

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3. 46

   DDEposted 10 years ago

   I now have a slight interest in growing our own vegetables, green peppers, aubergines, tomatoes,onions, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, are our best available at the moment and really enjoy having our own fresh vegetables  In the summer the ground is prepared for planting with some gardening products like some chicken manure  added to the soil  not too much a it would burn the plants for better produce we  buy seedlings and plant a few of each kind of vegetable, water daily and watch it grow.

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4. 0

   MysticMoonlightposted 10 years ago

   I grow some of my own food. I grow tomatoes, squash, zucchini, okra, cucumbers, strawberries, and an assortment of herbs yearly. I love the taste of fresh vegetables and fruit and there is nothing like the satisfaction of reaping what you sow. I have fruit trees planted but they are still young and not producing yet but I really look forward to the day I get to harvest from them! I also occasionally grow corn and potatoes as well. I've found that gardening produces not only food but a sense of pride. It also helps me relieve stress and anxiety, very therapeutic!

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5. 40

   ChristinSposted 10 years ago

   I grow several things yearly.  We do straw bale gardens and that is a very inexpensive and easy way to grow organically.  If you google the term you'll see a lot of info on it. They are quite simple.
   
   I won't use pesticides/herbicides and organic food in the stores is outrageous so we grow what we can.

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6. 85

   stricktlydatingposted 10 years ago

   Yes, I'm in Australia and I try to grow all of my own fruit. I have only a small yard, but grow over 10 different fruits. I buy the miniture version of fruit trees where possible and they still produce enough fruit so that I'm in abundance all year round. For example I have a miniture banana plant which produces several hundred bananas each year; a Toffy Apple tree which fruits from the main trunk and takes up little space in the yard at all. Miniture peach tree. Grapes growing in barrels and so many berry trees, bushes and citrus I keep well pruned. It's very achievable to grow a small orchard of plants in a small yard and I find it reasonably low maintence. I started by replacing flower plants with fruit producing plants with the desire to save money by having an edible garden!

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7. 81

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 10 years ago

   Do I grow my own food?  No.  I live on my family's property, and my mother does the most of that work.  I contribute by rounding up the compost, and putting it into the garden...by compost I do mean cow poop from our pasture, and lots and lots and lots more leaves from the oak trees, etc.
   
   What grows wherever it is you live is probably not what grows so well here where I live.  Where I live things like yellow squash, zucchini, jalapenos, and such grow wonderfully....tomatoes are often what we want, but birds are forever a problem.  Potatoes do well enough, but they grow rather small...small potatoes are, however, much easier to cook time wise.  Wherever it is you live and whatever it is which grows well there, you need to think about the compost you feed your soil with.  Make it natural, Sir, and make it diverse.

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8. 0

   RTalloniposted 10 years ago

   We grow something to eat every year, some years more, others less.  Maintaining the veggie garden spot by composting from our kitchen is a huge help to our soil.  Green beans is one veggie we try to grow every year. We prefer to store them in the freezer rather than can them.

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9. 83

   liesl5858posted 10 years ago

   I grow some of the vegetables that I like to eat like tomatoes, pak choi or pechay, potatoes, carrots, spring onions, runner beans and any type of beans, peas, cucumbers, and many more. You don't have to have a big garden to grow these vegetables, you can grow them in big pots or containers or through. If you are just beginning to grow your own vegetable garden, it is better to start with container gardening and experiment which vegetables grow in your area. I got some hubs about growing some vegetables that I like if you want to have a read. Making your own compost to use for your plants is also good by saving all your food scraps and garden weeds, leaves and leaves from your trees and hedges. Saving rain water to water your plants as well by investing in a rain barrel or water butt.

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      thomasczechposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your comment.

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10. 45

    thomasczechposted 10 years ago

    So many great comments, thank you all. I take all advice I can get. I also watched a film called "Back to Eden" I found on the internet. It was filled with good advice, but based in California I think. But I am sure I can use some of the info as well.

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