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Project Grow Our Own Food: My Experience

The process of growing our own food has been a pretty amazing experience. Watching our little seedlings grow from 2 inch plants to massive food producing greenery in a little over a month has been startling. There is nothing more rewarding than knowing you are nourishing your body with something that has come from your own backyard – the freshest, healthiest plants possible. Every day around noon I head out to the garden to check if anything is ready to be harvested… and every night after work I watch “J” do some weeding, watering, and tending to the plants. We have a system – if he grows it, I will cook it. It works out pretty well.

Of course with this being my first gardening experience, I am finding I like some things more than others… I love how fresh everything tastes straight from the garden, but I could do without the ridiculous amount of earwigs, and the amount of time it takes to scrub every leaf of lettuce clean. I love the accessibility and how I can literally walk ten steps and have a vast array of fresh herbs at my fingertips, but I could do without the bird eating our strawberries, and the fact that some bug has destroyed most of our bok choy. It’s a give a take relationship.

The days go by, the plants get taller… and any day now I will be enjoying tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers… any day now

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8 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing! I've never had a garden before but I'm excited to try your diy! Do you have any tips for beginners? I bought a bunch of seeds, starter kits & a couple topsy turvy tomato hangers. Nervous but excited!

  2. Thanks for stopping by, I'm glad you are going to give gardening a try! In terms of tips, I suggest checking the package instructions on all of the seeds and following the estimated times for germination. Some you will need to start earlier in a season, others later. Another tip is always take the time to get rid of the weeds or they will suck the nutrients right out of the soil. It can be time consuming, but worth it! Happy gardening!

  3. Hi Glo, thanks for your question. The simple answer is yes, the wood will rot. Whenever soil or something that holds moisture is put directly against wood it will rot. If you don't want your wood to rot quickly I suggest lining your garden bed with a plastic liner. The reason we did not line the bed was because we couldn't source a large of enough piece of plastic that was "food safe," wasn't chocked full of chemicals, and was cost efficient.

    If you are worried about the wood rotting you could use alternative materials to build the bed such as concrete.

    Best of luck building your garden!

  4. This post is old but you can get rid of earwigs by planting a small container with equal parts soy, molasses and vegetable oil. Bury the container up to its rim and the earwigs will crawl into it. Earwigs almost destroyed my flowers and some herbs last year – I finally decided to do something about it.

  5. Put rolled up newspaper on the edges and in the morning throw them away they will be filled with earwigs. Also if you plant along the premiter rosemerry most bugs don't like it.