4 Tips For Growing Your Own Organic Food

by Janelle Sorensen

The benefits of growing your own food are so gratifying: cheap, healthy food; eating the fruits of your own labor; the look of awe in your friends' eyes when you bring homegrown culinary delights to the next potluck. 

Here are four tips for getting started. 

1. Pick a pot and a place. You don't need green acres or even a yard to have a healthy harvest. You can grow a variety of herbs, vegetables, and even fruits in containers (on your roof, fire escape, patio, or windowsill). R.J. Ruppenthal, author of Fresh Food from Small Spaces, even has tips for using closets and unused bathtubs. Your only limitation is your imagination. 

2. Start simple. Begin with surefire winners like herbs, sprouts and lettuce. You can also find a list of specific cultivars of vegetables and fruits that do best in containers at Garden Guides. 

3. Enjoy the experiment. Gardening is all about experimentation and even the most adept grower sometimes has a failed crop. Keep a journal of your successes and failures (including details like type of container, type of soil, lighting conditions, watering schedule, etc), so you won't make the same mistake twice. 

4. Get some help. Pick up some books from your library. Join the growing community of home gardeners online. Call your local extension services with questions.

Janelle Sorensen is the Chief Communications Officer at Healthy Child, Healthy World. She is a seasoned environmental health advocate with extensive experience in public education, communications, policy analysis, program management, e-advocacy and strategic development. She has worked with a diverse array of stakeholder groups from across the country ranging from nonprofit organizations and community groups to school districts and government offices. Janelle also takes care of her sweet little girls, cooks, cleans, gardens, reads, bikes, hikes, crafts, laughs, speaks using silly voices and accents, drafts environmental policies, works on a Master's Degree, and tries to keep up with social media. Well, typically not all at the same time. 

Comments

[Stephen Lewis]

Organic Farming is one of the best methods which we can opt for as this method is quite cheap, healthy, nutritious, and we can have our own food at any time. But we should be highly careful about the exact steps and requirement of the organic farming so that we can start our farming properly. First of all we should always begin with the simple foods which could be grown easily then we should further continue with the other stuffs. The above information is extremely helpful and informative.