Gardens - How simple is it to grow your own?
When you think about all the hours of work that goes into food gardens, it probably doesn’t top the to-do list. The more information you gather on how to grow plants and vegetables, reservations begin to outweigh the good that gardens can bring. If you do decide to start gardening, view it also as exercise with fresh salad on the side.
I agree that gardens are not for everyone; although, please stop and think of the savings your garden could bring when you visit the grocery store. You can either find you’ve created an additional savings, similar to good sale items, or save a huge chunk of change from your food budget and suddenly it becomes available for something else. If you think of them this way, you may learn to have a new appreciation for gardens.
Start small, only plan on growing one or two things at first. One suggestion would be tomatoes and/or herbs. (Don’t forget to include some flower seeds for the backyard.) Even if you don’t have a yard, don’t let that discourage you from trying. Do you have windows? Then you have windowsills. How about a balcony? Maybe there are community gardens in your area. If not, I’m sure people in your town would be pleased if you started one.
You can also try some container gardens. There are so many ways of working with what you have available. No matter where you live or how much space you have, you can successfully grow fresh food. Check out your local library for great resources on all types of gardening. Many times there are special events held at local nurseries that you can learn hands on from an expert.
If you are still not convinced that gardens are not for you, it takes only a minimum amount of effort to have fresh greens year round. All you need is a wide-mouth one-quart jar, some rubber bands, and cheesecloth cut roughly to the same size as the mouth of the jar. There is a wide variety of greens that can be grown this way. The list includes lettuce, alfalfa, radish, onion, garlic, and buckwheat to name a few. If this sounds more like the kinds of gardens for you, check out www.sproutpeople.com. They provide information on everything you ever wanted to know about ‘sprouting’, seeds, and different ways of using your home grown greens.