How to Grow Your Own Food
Good morning everyone! It has been a wonderful few days with awesome weather to work outside. Despite the terrible things going on in the world right now, I am thoroughly enjoying my time at home.
Many people are very concerned with food security right now, it is a very scary issue we are dealing with.
Before we started our farm, I didn’t give a second look to all of the new veggie plants at any store I walked into, and I sure didn’t pay any mind to the seed racks in early spring when I walked by. Let me tell you, my kids now groan when they see them because they know that I am going to be making a bee line for them. I always want to see if there is a new variety of tomato, pepper, or squash that I haven’t seen before.
Today I would like to give you a run down on how to start growing your own food. Even if it is a single tomato plant, you will find joy in growing something you know exactly where it came from!
How we got started
Our first year of gardening, we got a bit of a late start. We didn’t get moved in to our house until the third week of April, but we did what we could and got as much as we could planted.
If I could go back, I would probably do things much differently, but we learned a lot from that year. I would’ve probably started a little smaller so that I could get the hang of things.
We had about 36 tomato plants, which seemed like a ridiculous amount of tomatoes, and it was for beginners! We had maybe 12-18 various pepper plants, a whole bunch of cucumbers and squash. Although our soil was terrible the first year, everything grew! Despite not knowing what in the world we were doing, we had such an abundance of food. It was the most amazing feeling to sit down for dinner and see that we raised everything on our plate.
I wish we would’ve started growing our own food much sooner. We had a small porch and yard at the duplex we rented before we bought our house that would’ve given us a ton of room to grow things in containers. Back then, we relied on the grocery store for our food and didn’t have the slightest clue of where our food came from.
Looking back, I am thankful for the way we lived before so that I now have something to compare our lifestyle now to. I can’t imagine a life now without raising animals and gardening!
Where do i begin?
First things first, there are a few questions you must ask because everyone’s situation is different.
- How much room do you have to garden?
- What do you want to grow?
- How much time do I have to devote to gardening?
There are many more questions to ask, but these are the best to start with.
The most important question is how much room do you have? Although some of us dream of huge gardens with tons of plants, not everyone has enough room for that. So whether you plan on tilling up your back yard, or placing a few containers on your front porch, you have to keep this all in mind in the planning phase.
Once you determine how much you are able to plant, move on to what you would like to plant.
Plant the things you typically like to eat, and if you have extra room, plant things you would like to try. Home grown food tastes so much better than what you buy in the grocery store, so you may find tons of things you didn’t know you’d love!
It is easy to get in over your head when it comes to growing your own food. So, determining how much time you will get to spend in your garden will play a huge role in how much you should plant. If you only have a couple hours a week, I would start small and add in what you’re able to handle. Gardening involves more than just getting the plants into the soil. There is weeding, watering if it isn’t raining enough, checking the plants for pests, harvesting, and depending on how much you’re growing, you will need to preserve the excess.
Container gardening vs. in ground gardening
If you have a small space, are renting, or want to start small, container gardening is a great place to start! Last year I started some container gardening for herbs to help with weeds, and I love it!
You can use everything from five gallon food grade buckets, to beautiful ceramic pots. They will both give the same result! Whatever kind of container you decide to use, make sure that it has holes in the bottom for proper drainage.
I use fabric grow bags for most of my container plants, they’re very inexpensive, are eco-friendly, and provide great drainage for your soil.
The type of plant you plan to grow will determine the size of container you will need. Tomatoes and peppers need a minimum of a five gallon container. Cucumbers and squash need a minimum of a three gallon container. Most herbs can be planted in 1-2 gallon pots depending on the variety.
If you have the extra room and are able to have an in ground garden, your first step will be to till your garden space up. Depending on your area, you may have great soil, or it could be like ours and be predominately clay. Things will grow in clay soil, but it doesn’t have many nutrients and can be very dense and hard for things like potatoes and root vegetables to grow in.
Once you have your area tilled, you will want to fertilize and amend your soil as needed.
Most states, including North Carolina, offer soil testing. In our state, you just have to go by your local Cooperative Extension Office and pick up a kit, then send it off and they will send you the test results. Testing your soil is very important. You need to know how much nutrients are in your soil to make sure you aren’t fertilizing too little or too much.
It isn’t 100% necessary to have your soil tested, but it will definitely help to health of your soil to know exactly what is needed.
Once you have your area tilled and hopefully tested, you will need to figure out what you plan to do to manage weeds. I didn’t take much precaution our first gardening year and we spent so much time pulling weeds, I was so burnt out on gardening, I couldn’t wait for it to end.
Last year, we used weed barrier fabric for our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and melons. It is a total game changer! It was so much easier to manage than no ground cover. If you’re unable to use a weed barrier fabric, you can also use pine or straw mulch. It isn’t quite as effective, but it helps for sure.
Planting your vegetables
Some plants have to be started indoors before they can be planted outside. Things like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, and some herbs have to have a head start. I typically start my spring/summer plants around the middle of February. That is around 8 weeks from our last frost. You can find your last frost by googling “Last frost date for my area”. It will give you the option to type your zip code in and it will give you an estimated date when the chance of frost has passed. I keep a close check on the weather starting the first week of April and plant my frost tender plants accordingly.
BUYING plant starts
You can find many different varieties of plants at most big box stores this time of year. They are usually stocked by the same company, and they have nice healthy plants!
We have a few locally owned nurseries in our area. Any plants that I don’t start myself, I prefer to buy from nurseries. There is nothing wrong with buying plants from big box stores, but I try to support local businesses as much as possible.
Most plant starts will have a tag in the container letting you know the name of the plant, a short description of it, and it’s days to maturity.
If your family loves tomato sandwiches in the summer, you’re going to want to go for a beefsteak style tomato. Some varieties include Mortgage Lifter, Big Boy, and Better Boy. A good salad style tomato is Rutgers, and our favorite cherry tomato is Yellow Pear tomatoes. There are so many wonderful tomatoes, it makes it very hard to choose!
It is best to buy your starts once you can go ahead and plant them. Tomatoes can be planted once the last frost has passed, but with peppers it is best to wait a few more weeks until it is getting very warm or their growth can be stunted.
Planting from seed
There is quite a bit of what you can plant that you can direct sow the seeds into the soil outside. Things like corn, green beans, cucumbers, squash, and melons do well being direct sown. You can buy seeds at most any store this time of year, or you can order them online. I have ordered seeds from a few different places, but I prefer to order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. They offer free shipping, and you get free seeds with your order!
You will want to find plant varieties that will suite the climate you live in. When ordering online, you can find reviews from people in different regions that are similar to yours and see their experience.
Pay attention to the back of the seed packets for planting depth, it seems insignificant, but it is very important. Each seed variety will be different, so make sure you keep that in mind!
let's get gardening!
It is hard to sum up everything that needs to be said when beginning to garden in one page, and it is different for every person. If you have any questions about starting to grow your own food, please feel free to send me an email and I will help as much as I can!
Thank you for reading!
Much Love, Ashley