Bring Local to Your Own Backyard

 Now is the time to begin planting all spring plants and within a week it will be time to begin planting summer plants. Harvesting your fruits and vegetables from your own backyard can be very easy and is very rewarding. Nothing is more local that something you've grown yourself. If you have never grown vegetables before it is easy and you can start small.

We have moved to planting most all of our vegetables in garden boxes verses rows because it seems easier to manage and it is easier to grow. I can use a soil blend that is more beneficial and nutritious  for the plants. The clay soil we have around here just isn't the most desirable medium for growing vegetables. By using a box or other container, you can control the make up of the soil and almost guarantee your results.

A container could be a flower pot, a plastic bucket or just anything that will hold dirt! Even the "Topsy-Turvy" hanging baskets that grow your plants upside down are a great alternative. Again, it's really about just doing a little more than you did before. If you have never grown vegetables, grow one or two types. If you alway grow tomatoes or peppers because you like them, considering adding one or two more vegetables to expand your harvest. I would suggest thinking about what you use or what are your favorite vegetables? If you like to make salsa, grow some tomatoes and peppers. If you like fried squash, grow some squash. Pickles? Grow cucumbers. Grow what you are going to use. If you care about it you'll put effort into it.

Most garden centers and outside stores have a wide variety of started plants NOW that are very reasonably priced. One or two packs of these will likely produce more than your family can eat.

I like to try different approaches and techniques and one I've been experimenting with this year is a concept called "Square Foot Gardening." It is based on a book by the same name and is very straight forward. You build a four-foot square box out of 2"x6" lumber, so one box would require two 2"X6"X8' boards. You fill the box with a combination of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 vermiculite (these should be available at your garden supply store in bags). Mark off the assembled box into 16 1-foot squares and you plant inside of these. How many plants go in each square depends on the size of the finished plant. Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cabbage, broccoli, etc, can only hold one per square, but others like carrots, onions, lettuce, peas, etc. can hold 4-9 per square. Water it regularly and you will be harvesting in no time. I have 5 or 6 boxes like this and they are all doing wonderfully.

Another area you shouldn't forget is herbs. Garden centers have all the popular herbs available in starter plants. These can work wonderfully in just regular flower pots. Who doesn't have a couple of flower pots sitting around? Pick the ones you like and will use in cooking. You can place them around your deck or yard. I'm telling you, cooking with fresh herbs is fantastic. Herbs are very hardy once established and you just pinch off what you need and leave it. Then when the season is over, you dry what is left and use it through the winter.

So my challenge to you is to grow SOMETHING. If you already are, add more. There is very little as rewarding (in my humble opinion) as being able to just go outside and pick something when you are in need of it, instead of stopping by the grocery store or even the farmers market.

Happy Gardening.
Mark