why don't you grow your own food?

Question

apartment dwellers:
do remember you can grow plants in pots near or outside a window

sunshine_today:
50 year old toxics can be removed quickly and easily so you can begin growing today!!!!
see: http://www.emamerica.com

terri:
see this link, no need to replace soils!!

www.emamerica.com

Answer 1

I am fortunate enough to have a little space in my house and outside of it to grow tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplants, garlic and lots of berries and herbs. I have enough "harvest" to go through winter with no problems. I only buy potatoes and onions at the store.

Answer 2

Because I live in an Apartment and don't have a backyard to grow a garden and produce my own food.If I did,Then I would grow my food and some for relatives as well.

Answer 3

I do. I have goats for meat, milk and fiber. I grow most of the fruits and veggies that my family uses for the year.

I think most people don't grow their own food because it's a lost art in this country. Most people can do container gardens they look neat and you can produce a surprising amount with them.

If you don't have good soil or a large yard you can do square foot gardening and produce more then you can imagine.

There needs to be a bigger effort in educating people in how to grow fruits and veggies. Also, most people don't realize how good it would be for the environment if people would just have a small garden.

Answer 4

You can grow some of your own food. Even condos and apartments can grow some vegetables in pots. I grow my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in planters. This way I use much less water, am not dumping fertilizers into the storm drains. Even corn can be grown in small plots. There are some corn strains that can be grown in areas as small as 8' by 8'. I have tried these and while the ears are smaller they are tasty. Besides there is no other flavor in the world like a home grown tomato.

Answer 5

I do, some of the vegetables, but I'll tell you what's the best. I don't grow yellow squash because I have twenty neighbors that do. I don't grow butternut squash this year because last year I did and ate five of them through the winter, they store really well and I avoided getting that wintertime starving feeling. Plus I gave away five of the squash too, in trade for tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, and jalepeno peppers. The people I gave them to, never tried them before, and was thrilled that they do taste buttery enough that they don't have to add much of any seasonings, so this year they are raising them instead, to share with me and others. I also raised an heirloom corn, planted it right out front, it is called Hickory King, it grew very tall, and everyone wanted kernals to grow, so I gave out kernals and ears of dried corn to 7 different people, each are growing them this year. I planted catnip this year, to use in tea for stomach troubles if it ever needs to be used. And Cherokee purple tomatoes for trade items this year as well as own use. It is bringing the community of people together, friends making more friends, the sharing is real. Indoors you can grow many things in little pots, or even buy a mushroom kit that only takes water. Even if you don't like mushrooms, no one else is the same as you, you can use it as an item to trade with. Try it once, it really works, especially now that everone is getting into organic foods.

Answer 6

Some of what you say is true for certain areas. But as this society becomes more litigious societies, new laws and ordnance's coupled with new insurance policies make the expense astronomical. Even though it may be pretty and such it is a liability. why just think if one of your flower pots fell on a person. You would be paying for it the rest of your life, etc... So why take the risk? Especially when you can get what one wants or needs at the store. Farmers know what they are doing. And use things that are toxic in a manner that is not risky and well planed. Why? Chemicals are too expensive to wast. Besides, Now a days a farmer has to have a certificate stating that he/she know how to use a particular chemical they are trying to buy before the seed store can sell it to them.

Answer 7

I simply do not have the time. I'm a stepmother of two, a homemaker/writer, and we are financially struggling. There is only so much time per day, and most of mine is spent cooking, cleaning, trying to spent the right amount of time with the kids the right way and trying to finish my book. That alone means I don't have the opportunity to do many of the things I'd like to...but we have to make choices like that in life.

It would, however, help SO MUCH if we had people going door to door with trustworthy produce. My gosh, would I jump on that in a heartbeat! Fresh produce for THAT DAY'S dinner? I so desperately with produce carts still existed in that way. I would be a permanent customer.

Answer 8

My family lives in an apartment and we do grow some of own food.

We are luck enough to have a balcony on whic we currently have the following plants growing:

Eggplant - Just one - I'm the only one who likes it. I'll probably get three eggplants this year. I might get 5!

Snow peas - two window boxes full of plants that will give us enough pods during the summer to augment our stir-fry dinners.

Tomatoes - we have 5 plants - good for salads, spaghetti, drying for the winter, etc...

Stir Fry veggies - 3 pots full of a mixture of veggies that we clip, wash and throw right into the wok for stir-fry.

Strawberries - 10 plants that keep sending out runners that grow into more plants. Fresh strawberries for breakfast is great.

Usually I have a salad mixture in two pots, but it got too hot and they bolted.

I'll be picking up some Green pepper plants from my mom next month - she has too many.

Our balcony is about 5 feet wide and maybe 25 feet long. I use a couple of baker style racks that I got to put some of the plants on, others sit on the floor or on a table or two.

There is a community gardening site near our house that we have signed up for next year. For a yearly fee of $20.00, we will get to use a 20X35 foot plot of land to grow our own food. There is a total of 40 plots, I think.

If you want to garden, but have no opportunity in your dwelling, encourage your local city government to make community plots availabe in a local park or other city owned and unused plot. Tell them it's a great way to reclaim "Brown Lots" - those areas that sit empty and become an opportunity for illegal activities.

Answer 9

I do! We love it. My husband knew nothing about it and I've taught him everything I know.....how did I learn? Reading books! There are so many resources out there for organic gardening and I have to say once you go organic, you don't go back. The taste is remarkable and hey I don't care what everyone else is saying IT'S EASY!!!!

Apartments are easy, takes Nike's advice; "Just do it"

Tomato's are so easy to grow that last year we fed some of our left over veggies to our chickens who were freerange. Well the story goes that they can't digest seeds and they crapped them out all over our 1/4 acre and now we have tomato plants popping up everywhere and we live in the DESERT and they popped up all on their own WITHOUT WATERING! EASY! Just do it!

Answer 10

My place is close to the ocean and our soil is salty as is the well water. Death to green life. I've had a kitchen garden over time and it was destroyed by varmints. Now, I grow herbs, onions and leeks in my window, outdoor tomatoes in pots protected by screens. Its frustrating but rewarding. We have an organic farm nearby and get good produce...this year the spring peas were outstanding. Some people just can't grow their own, but organic farmers need your business.

Answer 11

I do grow a portion of my own food, from herbs, to vegatables, to wild fruits, and berries available in local forests. About the only thing I don't grow is meat or wheat.