Why Grow Your Own?
We believe growing your own organic food solves a great many issues in our lives and lifestyles today:
- Growing your own food reduces your overall carbon output, taking a bite out of your impact on climate change.
- It also reduces the distance it takes to go from the farm to you (10 feet, say, versus 250-2,500 miles). That means again you’re reducing your overall planet impact by decreasing the gas, packaging, fertilizers and pesticides used, and the CO2 output.
- When you grow your own food, you also know where your food is coming from (no weird salmonella strains in your tomatoes and spinach, for instance).
- It tastes many times better and has more vitamins and minerals than vegetables raised in a monocultural setting.
- You can choose to grow various heirloom crops that you just can’t buy in a grocery store.
- You can choose to grow crops that aren’t genetically modified.
- You can save seed and create different varieties that are best suited for your little backyard microclimate.
- And lastly, knowing how to grow your own food makes you much more adaptable to whatever economic or environmental hardship that comes your way in the future.
Plus, and it’s fun and it nourishes your soul!!
How To Grow?
- First thing is first: join The Growing Challenge or it’s companion The Growing Challenge: From Seed To Seed! We’ve built a great community of food growers, all at different stages of our growing knowledge, all finding new and unique ways of growing food in our various locations around the world. Urban, suburban, rural, and everything in between – there is a grower pretty much everywhere! Please join the fun!!
- Second, if you are a new gardener, don’t despair. There are loads of great resources to get you started. I’ve compiled a lot of tips, tricks, and resources in the Gardening 101 Series.
- Third, for inspiration check out our urban fire escape garden and our other garden, which I like to call our family allotment. If you’re in a rural setting, you may also want to check out our old garden, a 2,000 square foot garden in California wine country (updated: link to old blog is no longer active – but there are loads of great gardening posts here!).
Have fun growing!
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[...] Growing Food [...]
[...] Growing Food [...]
People should learn about and advocate for gardening education programs in their communities. CitySprouts, (www.citysprouts.org) based in Cambridge, MA started 8 years ago and now has teaching gardens in most of the city’s public schools and a summer intern program. it is unique in that the goal is to teach all teachers and community members how to integrate it into classroom learning and does not require “buying” a particular curriculum.
Only when students learn about growing food will they truly understand sustainable living. CitySprouts hopes to expand into other communities. The gardens are not very expensive, but towns and cities will someday fund environmental and health education the same way they fund other subjects, and for that continued advocacy is important.
Josie, thank you for your comment. I agree completely and what a great point! Alice waters started a program like this in the Bay Area – The Edible Schoolyard. And I know several other cities are starting to do this. I don’t know if you saw my post a couple of weeks ago about gardening with children, but there are pictures there of my cousins’ school garden in Gainesville – quite inspiring. Here in Seattle, Seattle Tilth has an outreach program for kids, but more programs are definitely needed. Thanks for the reminder!
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What a great post. That is what they were talking about at the capitol .. LOL
Shane Cauley from Cheyenne, Wyoming Wy.
cauley.shane@gmail.com or on FaceBook
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I just discovered your site! Would love to “join up!” Thanks!!!