How to grow your own food

Today, I ate the first serving of vegetables from my newly planted garden: Swiss chard.

It was tasty and thrilling. It’s the first time I’ve planted seeds in the ground in about 20 years.

I’ve had container gardens every year since the mid-1990s, but I only planted seedlings.

My garden is doing well. In addition to Swiss chard, my beans, crookneck squash, and tomatoes look good.

I'm making a concerted effort to grow food this year to save money and cut down on the energy it takes to ship food. Little did I know that it would be such a big challenge.

After spading the hard, clay-type soil in my garden, I decided it would be good to make a raised bed garden. However, I didn’t research the topic carefully. I went to the local organic gardening store, and the owner told me to use cinder blocks.

After having 40 heavy cinder blocks and six bags of sand to make them level delivered, I was discouraged. I wrote “How Not to Make a Raised Bed Garden.”

I wish I’d used composite lumber for the sides instead.

Then I got lucky. A fellow blogger, Deane Rimerman, who is editor of Forestry Policy Research, helped me build the raised bed. I wrote “How to Build a Raised Bed Garden – With a Lot of Help From a Friend.”

I had so much fun planting the garden. It’s been exciting to watch the seeds come up and the seedlings grow huge.

As I walked around my neighborhood and drove through other neighborhoods, I took photos of other raised bed gardens. I wrote “Raised Bed Garden Successes.”

Although I struggled with my food-growing project, it’s turning out well.

As Colleen Vanderlinden commented about my dilemma:

What a pain! You definitely have some work ahead of you. On the upside, your concrete block raised bed will be completely indestructible once it’s finished.

How are your efforts going this year to grow food? Is this a new project for you? Have you been gardening for years? Have you run into problems? What are your successes?

Copyright 2009, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

Comments

[Term Papers]

people have managed to feed themselves, either by fishing, hunting, gathering and/or subsistence farming. Now, with large-scale food production, gardening is often only a hobby. But growing one's own food could mean increased security, health, and enjoyment.

[Rita]

Thanks for your comment on the importance of growing your own food.

Rita

[recepti]

How many of you will growing your own food to help keep your food costs down?

[Dom]

I rarely leave comments on articles, but your article encouraged me to compliment your writings. Thanks for the read, I will tweet your post and come back occasionally.