Growing your own food can save you money and help you eat better.
Do you want to save money and eat healthier?? Then you should consider growing your own food. Follow these five tips to get you started on your path to the satisfaction that comes from harvesting your first crop of organic fruits and vegetables:
1. Prepare Your Garden: Choosing the Right Location
When selecting a location for your vegetable garden, choose an area (either indoors or outdoors) that gets direct sunlight for at least six hours a day.? Build or purchase raised beds and place them here; this will make it easier to weed and tend to your garden.
2. Preparing Your Garden: Choosing the Right Soil
Buy potted soil and mix this in with soil from your yard.? For extra benefits, start composting and create a 50/50 mix of compost to soil.? Dry fertilizer will help with the long-term growth of your plants.
3. Choosing the Right Fruits and Vegetables
Given the space constraints of the average vegetable garden, you should avoid plants that require too much space.? Instead, to get more ?bang for your buck,? aim for bush varieties of plants and ?grafted? plants; this will allow you to increase the size of your harvest.
4. Choosing the Right Time to Plant
The time of the year will dictate what fruits and vegetables you want to plant.? In spring, when the nights are still cold, it?s ok to plant your ?greens.?? You should wait, however, until night-time temperatures rise before planting cold-sensitive foods such as tomatoes and squash.
5. End-of-Season Wrap-Up
At the end of the gardening season, once you have successfully harvested your organic fruits and vegetables, you should remove dead foliage to avoid attracting pests.? Cover your garden with a layer of compost to keep the soil healthy for the next spring.
