I grow my own vegetables. I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket.

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I grow my own vegetables.  I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket.

Two sentences that really don’t belong together if you are a typical consumer in the big city. For many people the very idea of planting a seed in some soil and waiting for your dinner to grow seems ridiculous, especially when it is so much easier to just take it out of the freezer and pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes. Why waste so much time, space and even money to grow a vegetable that you can buy quicker and cheaper in your local supermarket? Does it even make a difference if that carrot came from your garden or the fifth aisle on your right, next to the potatoes, opposite the cabbage?

To me it does make a difference and I find that growing your own fruits and vegetables is a great thing to do regardless of the fact that it may not be the most convenient. According to various professionals, surveys and studies it is definitely the healthiest, most eco-friendly thing to do. But, I’m not going to bore my readers with facts and statistics. Instead here are my non-scientific, not necessarily correct but none the less important reasons for growing your own fruits and vegetables:

1) It’s cool/wicked/sick…(whatever the kids are calling it these days)

I’m not an expert on the latest trends as they move too fast for me to follow but I’m sure that if I were to chase them they would lead me all the way to the vegetable plot in my garden. Growing your own food is cool. It’s not just something that loopy tree-hugging hippies do as a pastime. According to who? Well, that’s not important. According to me, our polluted planet and maybe even God, it’s cool. And if that’s not enough then I certainly wouldn’t mind being a tree-hugging hippie anyway.

2) Your celery stick doesn’t need a VISA

Our fridges are full of immigrants. The tomatoes are Spaniards, the green beans come from Egypt and the cucumber has lost its passport. It may sound like a kid’s nursery rhyme but it’s true.  When we go shopping, my sister and I like to play this game called “guess the origin”  and it’s really interesting to see just how few products were actually grown locally. Most of the fruits and vegetables that we put in our trolley have travelled hundreds of miles, using up lots of the Earth’s resources and emitting plenty of Carbon Dioxide.

3) They taste better (to you)

All men were created equal. All tomatoes on the other hand, weren’t. Freshly picked tomatoes, straight off the plant, taste a million times better than anything you can get off the shelves. They may not look as perfect or be all the same size but when it comes to taste, they win hands down. Some people may argue that it is not true; that there is no difference in taste but they are wrong. The difference between the shop tomatoes and your tomatoes is that you grew them yourself. It is the taste of satisfaction and pride that makes your tomatoes juicier and sweeter than anyone elses.

4) Something you can boast about

Yes, that’s one thing we all love to do; show off. When guests come over for dinner you can tell them of all the lovely fresh ingredients that are in their delicious soup before asking them smugly  “do you grow your own?” . When their reply is negative you can then go on and on about the benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables, annoying them with your holier-than-thou attitude. However, if they answer affirmative then “GAME ON!”.  There’s nothing like a healthy bit of competition to bring people together. Who’s got the biggest turnips? Who’s got the tallest sweet corn? Have your strawberries ripened yet?

Of course I can appreciate that not everybody may be able to grow their own fruits and vegetables but if you can why not give it a go? It’s easy and requires very little skill. My mum started my family off last year with absolutely no clue of what she was doing  and apart from maybe one or two mutant carrots it proved to be a success. Here are a few pictures of this year’s  home-made vegetable garden if anyone needs a little inspiration.

My Personal Favourite- Sweetcorn!

Strawberries in a hanging basket

peppers and sweetcorn in bright and cheerful home-made pots

 At the moment they are all looking a little green, with not much variation but I can not wait until the coming Summer months when they will all be bright with colour and fresh with taste. Just the feeling of joy when you see the very first tomato gleaming in the sunlight or the very first strawberry peeking out from under the soil is enough reason to grow your own fruits and vegetables.

215 thoughts on “I grow my own vegetables. I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket.”

  3. What a great post. Guess the origin can be played with supermarket-bought seeds, too. I even bought some flower seeds in a health-food store, looked up the Latin name when I got home and they were from **Africa. Way to go local, everyone.

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  4. Keeping a vegetable garden can be quite relaxing when you don’t forget to give them water ^^’ I used to eat homegrown carrots and peas at home! 1 reason was that it was cheaper than to buy vegetables and 2 some vegetables can be kept in the freezer for a certain amount of time (all year long gardenvegetables ^^) I still plant things every spring but most don’t survive TT-TT

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  6. I totally agree. I so wish I could grow my own veggies and herbs. I tried growing window-sill herbs once but failed miserably (there just wasn’t enough sunlight and outdoorsy air). My parents grow tomatoes of all kinds, zucchini and snap-peas. I love going home in the summer months and sneaking out these delicious veggies for my own kitchen 🙂

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  9. Oh lady, good read. I dream about a vegetable garden. I had a tiny herb windowsill garden in my old apartment but sadly it did not survive transport. You’re right everything tastes so much better fresh fresh fresh. Good luck with the garden this season! It sounds yummy.

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  10. This is absolutely awesome. I’ve admired peeps (and therefore, you!) who grew their own stuff before, and have always wanted too, but never had the guts to start just yet. Just read a newspaper article about difficulty and the for different stuff and stuff…But perhaps I will this year!

    HAHA! A visa. Good point. I feel a big urge to speak Spanish that I’ve learned from Dora the Exploreer to my tomatoes now.

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  13. I want a garden! Every time I’ve tried to start one the rabbits eat them. Even when I fence it, elevate it, etc., something gets to it. Good luck with yours! I know it’s going to be beautiful.

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  15. Amazing post. If I didn’t have only a balcony I would do this. I did try last year,i wont go into the details but a tomato SAGA followed. Great post. Great blog.

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  18. Totally agree. I grow my own herbs, and it fascinates me just to know I can cook with ingredients that are growing in my balcony. They exist because of me! It all makes me just wanna cook more often. And, really, that’s probably the only thing in the world that could make me wanna cook more often.

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  19. I’ve started planting my own tomatoes! Started with herbs, then a few fruit trees… But tomatoes are my new thing! I totally agree with all you said! I must add though, that for me, it’s the garden geek in me that’s fascinated by plants, flowers and fruits coming from such tiny seeds! Amazing isn’t it?! 🙂
    One question though… How do you keep the pests away? I haven’t figured this out and have just manually picking off the pests from my plants. I have just a few but can’t imagine how I’d manage with more edibles in my garden.

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    • They’re doing great except for the strawberries that were pretty rubbish, too much rain. But still no harvest to speak of yet although the sweetcorn is massive. The tomatoes now have tiny green fruits but it’s a bit of an overgown jungle because they were planted too close together.

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  24. What a wonderful post–not to mention brilliant observation that most of the veggies in our fridge are immigrants! We just harvested and enjoyed our first tomato of the season this week. It was amazing!

    And congrats on Freshly Pressed!

    Kathy

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  25. Fantastic! It’s so refreshing to know that so many people are making an effort to grow their own food. Gardening, while it can be relaxing and very rewarding, takes quite a bit of work and planning, so great job and keep it up!

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  27. My sister and I started a garden in May. Minus time and effort, it cost around $20. A cucumber at the grocery store costs $1. (Expensive right?) In 20 cucumbers, we will break even in accounting terms, not to mention that ours taste better and we also have tomatoes and squash. Not a bad deal.

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  28. Growing your own food is so much cheaper than relying on the supermarket! A $1.50 cucumber sprout can yield about $40.00 in produce, and it tastes much better than the travel-weary stuff you buy at the store. Considering the ecconomics involved, I really don’t understand why everyone who has a backyard doesn’t grow veggies.

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  29. Fun post! I was recently in a garden and saw (!) squash, green pepper and tomatoes growing…Had never see the first two on the vine before. I snuck a tiny yellow tomato and it was sublime! Sun-warmed. Free. Super sweet.

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  30. I love your homemade pots because they’re so happy looking. I grow my own herbs, hot peppers and swiss chard on my balcony. Depending on what you grow, it can end up being cheaper this way (NO WAY could I afford to make homemade basil pesto with storebought basil). I’ve got to admit I am jealous of that patch of dirt you have there. I have to make do with containers. 😀

    PS: How did you make those pots?

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  31. Fantastic post – my favorite part? “Our fridges are full of immigrants. The tomatoes are Spaniards, the green beans come from Egypt and the cucumber has lost its passport.” HA HA HA yet so true. I don’t grown my own veggies but I do routinely visit the Farmer’s Market and I so agree, fresh tomatoes are a Trillion times better! Cheers, MJ

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  33. I agree with you 100% that not all Tomatoes tasting the same.. There is a huge difference in the flavor of tomatoes grown in different regions. its all about the dirt!

    Being a traveling Jersey girl that now reside in Baton Rouge, I find that tomatoes grown in others areas, particularly Louisiana and most of the West, are not as tasty as those grown in my home state. They can be good, but don’t give that WOW factor. 😛

    Good luck with your garden!

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  34. now I want my own garden! 🙂 amazing. Its so much better and healthier to grow your own food. we never know what stuff is in the food you find at the grocery

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  36. I agree! I’ll be interested in the corn. My husband and I tried growing it one year. The plants came up, but they were “duds.” Someone said we didn’t have enough plants for them to cross-polinate. Not sure if that’s true or not.

    This is my first year growing beansprouts. They’re fun. 🙂

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  37. Great post! Reminds me when I started growing things a fews years back…. I used every spare pot and space in the garden my mum had!
    Drove her nuts but there was nothing like a meal with our fresh vegetables!

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  42. Love this. Three cheers for eating local! I live about a block away from the grocery store, but we plant a small garden every year, anyway. Watching the kids pick snap peas all by themselves is awesome! As is the taste of tomatoes that didn’t have to be waxed and shipped in from overseas. (Yum!) Great post!

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  43. Love is an energy! I’m convinced that the amount of attention and caring you put in the work, which is love by the way, creates a certain energy or higher frequency. That makes it tastes so good and has a super effect on your body!
    Read Anastasia of James Redfield and you know what i mean.

    Our food is filled with poisons, no wonder we get kinda slow in the brain.

    And i’m no tree-hugging hippie either ; )

    Manu
    Rancilio Silvia

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  44. You can grow so many things in containers, so not having a “garden plot” doesn’t need to stop you growing many things. I think that a good place for seeds is Johnny’s Select Seeds; I’d think that most of them would be grown there.

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  45. Love this post! There is no way I could ever explain to anyone why I’m nearly fanatical about composting and veggie gardening. One either is or you’re not! But no one who has tasted our produce ever wonders why we do it! Nor can they hide their jealousy when I’m eating fresh garden veggies or eating preserved local fruits, in the middle of winter. And the money I save from having to drive to the Farmer’s markets . . .!! Garden on!!

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  46. It amazing to see people in a city grow their own produce. My wife and I live in a small, country town in Alabama and still don’t have the patience or drive to do this. I admire your dedication to fresh, delicious food.

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  49. I was in no mood to read any posts, had just visited WordPress to check my blog stats…But this title enticed me literally to read this one. And the best part it, I just loved it. I can’t agree more on anything. I also have a small garden in my backyard and I can totally understand that satisfaction thing. It’s heavenly…those mint leaves taste so better. And those flowers, howsoever wild they might be, they look so beautiful to me…And I am happy you expressed that unusual feeling through this post…

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  51. There are five supermarkets in a ten-minutes-by-bike radius of my home. I don’t even have a garden. And I still grow my own veggies!

    It’s not really a choice – it’s something that’s so much part of me that I just can’t NOT do it. And nothing compares to freshly-picked, sun-warmed tomatoes of “weird” heirloom varieties.

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  53. Oh that is great. I am one of the lucky ones and have huge vege gardens and it is great to see you growing in a little plot. never give up. It is all about Rotation! And you can TRUST that lovely juicy tomato you grew yourself. Now i am going to go back and mooch about the rest of your blog pages. i like your style! cecilia

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  55. I’ve reclessly attempted to grow all sorts of exotic stuff – but usually have more success with the old tried
    and true. Tomatoes I grow usually by accident, I’ve a habbit of throwing rotten fruits and vegitables under
    the hedges. Mom often over buys and stuff gets ignored. I feel sorry for it, but I like watching it turn to dirt again, I like how even the nastiest garbage can become something useful if givien the chance. There
    is nothing like seeing seedlings sprouting right out of the rotten tomato they rode in on like a fluffy green phonix, and the fruit it yeilds? A hundred times better then the generation before. As if all you need to do
    is squeeze it over spaggetti for the ultimate sauce.

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  57. I love the enthusiasm! You make some really great points; “Your celery stick doesn’t need a VISA” HA…it is so true! Growing your food is something to boast about and it is impressive. I have a environmental business creating costume design aquaponic gardens (growing veggies and fish together.) We have articles and pictures of some ideas I think you might like, for instance, wall aquaponic gardens. These gardens use a very small amount of floor space with high yield potential for veggies and edible fish. Check it out! http://endlesssustainability.wordpress.com/

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  58. I tried growing fruits and veggies myself before but they all died on me (the only thing that I can successfully keep alive are cacti :P) so I made my dad grow them for me instead hehe. It seems like he’s quite in love with it though. By trading with the neighbors we have quite a variety of homegrown produces to eat from. We try to avoid buying from the supermarket whenever possible because once you taste the homegrown stuff you’d never want to go back ^_^. You’ve made an excellent point about our fridge being full of immigrants. Bad for the environment!!

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  59. Congrats on being freshly pressed! This is a fabulous post by the way. It’s inspired me to grow vegetables myself despite my black thumb (everything I touch dies, plants at least). I think it’s interesting to see the opposite view too. I live about 35 minutes from the grocery store (Michigan farm 😉 and I still don’t grow any of my own food except rosemary and basil. That’s pretty pathetic.

    http://howficklemyheart.wordpress.com

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  60. You are awesome! Your veggies are for sure better than what we can purchase in the market right now. I just got my first tomato plant, I hope mine go as well as yours. Great job!

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  61. I enjoyed seeing the berries in the hanging basket. This summer was the first I decided to try berries. We’ll say that first, a bunny and it’s bunnykins fed off the berries and the plant itself. Then, after the plant rebounded, a squirrel dined on all the green berries. I guess next year we’ll try to grow them up in the air, too. 🙂

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  62. My partner and I also grow our own vegetables and herbs. And we live walking distance to two supermarkets and biking distance to two more. I have to agree with you that the veggies we grow taste much better than those we could buy. And, since even the initial investment of seeds costs far less than a full summer’s supply of veggies, I’d have to say it’s worth the amount of work it takes.

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  66. This has inspired me to get at the plot in my yard that I’ve been meaning to make into a vegetable garden. At the moment it is covered in ice plant, and I’m having a hard time getting the motivation to pull it all up, especially with summer so far along. But I will prevail!

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  72. I also grow vegetable just not very well – my green thumb only works on flowers. My tomatoes are tiny – even though they are beefsteak and my green peppers look like miniatures. Any good advice on how to get them to grow their normal size? Ha ha

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  74. Rock on! As a twenty-something indulging in glorified vagrancy, I’ll have to wait til I have some form of permanent residence before I can get my green thumb on. But I wholeheartedly agree, and am particularly scared of passportless vegetables. Thanks for the inspiration. In the meantime, there’s farmers’ markets!

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  75. I’ve tried to garden, but I need some serious help. The first time, rabbits ate most of what grew. Since then, we’ve moved to the city, so no worries about the rabbits and this year I tried tomatoes and bell peppers in pots, but we’ve had temperatures in the triple digits for more than a month, and I can’t seem to water them enough. They’re alive, but they’re not alive enough to produce anything. I don’t know what to do!

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  77. As someone who was raised in an old-school Italian household, I must reply to this post with an “Amen!” Homegrown tomatoes are DA BOMB! Although now I’m gonna be stuck with a craving for homemade Marinara sauce all week, and my mom is 900 miles away. FedEx?

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  79. Oh you are so lucky! I’m so jealous of your beautiful garden! The only garden I have is pot of basil that’s slowly dying lol. Thanks for sharing! I’m still trying to get the hang of blogging here and I just love how supportive and creative everyone is! If you have time, could you please check out my blog? http://shecooksandheeats.wordpress.com/ I would love some advice and feedback 🙂

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  82. Thank you everyone for all your supportive comments. Can you imagine my surprise when I open up my inbox to find it overloaded because I’ve been freshly pressed!? Well done to all those who grow their own and to those who are wondering what happened to my garden keep tuned and hopefully I’ll give everyone an update.

    Yasmine

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  84. I can say from experience nothing tastes better than home grown, no pesticides love and care you know what you are eating – only disappointment so far far this year is are my Black tomatoes (inspired by Jamie Oliver) they are not yet black and the first one which kinda look darker than a red one tasted bitter – but hey shall wait and see not many of the yellow or red ones ripened yet!
    Keep it up homegrown has gotta be better han that stuff that has been grown miles aways, kept cold, travelled and been wrapped in plastic – good work

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  85. Your post remind me of my younger years…I used to watch and help my grandma planting veggies such as tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes etc. in our backyard. I miss those days! I hope i can start my own vegetation like yours. Thanks for your post it’s very inspiring.

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  88. Yay! This sounds like an awesome thing to do – I’ve always been stopped because of time, worrying that there’s not enough space to grow enough food to actually eat for more than a day or two after the weeks/months the plants take to grow and ripen – but seeing others do it is making me consider trying it again! Guess I’ll look for more information on how home gardens in the city have been done successfully! Thanks so much for posting!

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  89. Yay to you for being freshly pressed! Look at all the traffic! They picked a great post to share. I agree that growing your own is the bees knees and we finally just started a few plants of our own – after many years of going on about how we’d like to, but that moving all the time makes it hard to plant a garden. I finally said let’s just do some stuff in pots! So we’ve got some pepper plants and some herbs and we’re excited to see them growing each day. (LOVE your homemade pots btw.) 🙂

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  90. This is a terrific message for everyone. More than eating something titled “organic” or “pesticide free” we need to focus on local. The building community has made progress with LEED certification….we need to focus on locally grown, and in season foods. I grew up on a produce farm in Pennsylvania which is still in operation.

    Jeff
    http://www.erbology.com

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  91. I can only hope to grow my own vegetables. I love this post. Its not that I don’t feel that I am capable, I just want to do it right. My daughter and I go to our local farmer’s market weekly for the exact reasons that you stated. For exampl,e tomatoes taste sooooo much better when they are grown locally. You can always tell because the color is so deep, especially when they are grown in its correct season. I love love love your post!!!

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  92. Way to go! I couldn’t agree more, nor said it better. I sowed the first seeds of my own fruit and veg in the spring of 2010 and I can assure you, there is no turning back! I know people who think I’m nuts for doing all the work that I do in the garden and the amount of time spent, without “enjoying” it, but they don’t realise that the enjoyment is in the creation, nurturing, supporting, coaxing, yearning, sweating and ultimately, the eating! Congrats on being freshly pressed!

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  94. Wow! Fantastic post. Really cute pics, especially the sweetcorn. I wish I could grow my own veggies, but there’s no way doing it where I live now. The sun’s too hot over here. Everything’ll eventually die even if I took care of them. Unless of course, I tried growing them indoors. Any idea this would work? With veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers, for example?

    Thanks Yasmine for sharing the pics and info. Hope you have a good harvest this season. And congrats on making it to Freshly Pressed!

    Best wishes,
    Bouchra

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  95. I have 2 hanging tomatoes plants. One of them has the smallest green tomato I have ever seen. I am so proud of my babes… I also planted a potato with my neighbors kid, he was so excited when it started growing like crazy. I just wish I had more room to grow…

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  97. I’ve always been interested in growing my own foods, but it’s just never happened. I’ve had a taste of a home grown tomatoes before and it’s definitely far better than the grocery stores! That alone should be worth it.

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  99. I loved reading this post! You’re so right! Growing your own is always better! You just did such a great job of writing this! I laughed out loud when I read “It’s cool/wicked/sick…(whatever the kids are calling it these days).” 🙂

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  100. Good for you! Too many people these days are out of touch with where their food comes from. It’s hard to appreciate something you really don’t know that much about, and farmers are mighty underappreciated. (I’m not talking about corporate farmers – I mean small family farms and local growers.)

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  101. In the past I’ve grown tomatoes in pots and had good luck. Not this year. The plants grew so tall and top heavy I’ve had to tie them to the awning support post. Five of the tomatoes fell off before they turned red. I have some left, but it’s been so hot I wonder if they’ll ever turn red.
    Better luck next year.

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  105. Hi Yesmine,
    That’s great you are doing a great job. When i was living in my previous house i had a big lawn and a decent vegetable garden. I hardly needed to buy vegetables. But due to the smaller size of my current apartment its not possible. I agree with you that vegetables grown in your own garden are far better than the ones available in market.

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  107. Aloha Yasmine! I love your garden! I live in a small (I mean very small) apartment, but am trying to grow some herbs in my kitchen window! The home-made pots are really cute! I the big use yogurt pots (make some holes in the bottom and use the lid as a support)… Very nice, thanks for sharing it!!

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  111. Love your post! Everything you said is SO true! My tomatoes definitely taste better than the ones I could buy in the grocery store. I greatly enjoy gardening and wish I had the time/ambition/room to do more than 2 tomato plants and some strawberry plants. Not that I have been able to harvest any of my strawberries thanks to the local bunnies, but at least someone is enjoying them!

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  113. Great to see someone else giving it a go. I cooked a borlotti bean and green leafy stew form all my home produce this morning for breakfast. I’d never stop growing my own. It’s brilliant to go out your back yard and pick the freshest of food. Well done!

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  116. Fantastic! For the first time in a LONG time I have the available space to grow MASSIVE amounts of food.

    In a simple 10×12 plot in Urban San Diego I grow:
    Cherry tomatoes ( six plants yielding 2-3 lbs a day currently) Cucumbers ( 4), Green beans ( a ton) Egg plants, and basil knee high. We have kale, grapes, lettuce, watermelons, strawberries and a fantastic 33 yr old pomegranate tree.

    I have not bought any of the above vegetables for months. Box gardening is productive and works.

    My garden is 100 organic.
    I control the soil the nutrients, and even the red wigglers filling my garden with their black gold.

    In a world where the government wants to control more and more aspects of our lives, from the water we drink,to the foods we eat.

    A quiet healthy rebellion is growing your own food, its good for the soul, and the earth!

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  117. I bet that growing your own fruit/veggies tastes much better than the stuff you buy at the store. I can’t really grow anything though, I don’t have a green thumb, but rather a black thumb. And I just love sweet corn, and they look very cute!

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  118. Pingback: I grow my own vegetables. I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket. (via Y@smine in the World.Wide.Web) « Edieut

  119. Growing your own food really is fun and not really a lot of chore actually. I don’t own a big house with the luxury of a backyard for me to grow my own produce, I live in a flat, all I have is my corridor to plant greens. All I had as of now is just a miniature “garden” with potted chili plants, tea leaves, onions and ginger. But it really makes your day to see what you planted growing healthily.

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  123. I know exactly what you mean by the ‘smugness factor’ when growing and eating your own veges. I’m just about the harvest my second batch of Okra and can’t wait. I also make my own compost and it’s a great way to assess how much plastic you throw away into landfill and of course, it’s fantastic for the garden. The carrots are next to come out of the ground. As you can see, I’m bursting with pride.

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  126. You are so right about our fruits and vegetables coming from different origins. I actually would like to try to play that game in the produce aisle next time I’m at the grocery store! Thank you for convincing us to grow our own produce by using ordinary and relatable examples, and not the scientific proof!

    If you don’t mind, I just started my own blog recently and I would like to post the link along with my comment! It’s http://www.logicmeetsreason.wordpress.com, I invite you and your readers to take a look at it, comment, and subscribe!

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  128. Pingback: I grow my own vegetables. I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket. (via Y@smine in the World.Wide.Web) « edwinapribadi

  129. I haven’t grown any fruits and vegetables this year, but last year I had cherries, carrots and strawberries, all grown on a balcony on the fourth floor 🙂 Your post makes me want to do that again!! They did taste so much nicer…

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  130. Be careful with some of the comparisons you draw. To say that ‘the fridge is full of immigrants’ and then imply that it is much more preferable to have a ‘pure’ fridge of home-grown food could be quite offensive to some people.

    I agree with your point – food grown closer to home is much better for the environment – but just think that the language you use for the comparison is ill-judged.

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  137. Nice!!! I just attended a weekend workshop by a local ecorganisation on growing corriander (parsley??) in as little as egg shells, takeaway containers and plastic bottles…It is enlightening to begin to grow your own food!

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  138. We used to grow our own veggies. All around the house. But stopped now because it required more time and labor than we could give. We’ve planted flowers instead. And a few fruits like pomegranate, guava and mango.

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  139. We do the same here in Austria, and we wish that many more people will do so. A few weeks in summer we live on fruits and veggies of our garden. Best greetings!

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  140. This is so cool! I really admire people who grow their own veggies and fruits, including you! And yes, that’s sick! Totally! Good job Yasmine! 🙂

    And wait, you grow strawberries in your backyard? Whoa! I’m filled with so much jealousy right now! You think you can sell me some when I happen to pass by your garden?

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  142. Pingback: I grow my own vegetables. I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket. (via Y@smine in the World.Wide.Web) « Lobbs Farm Shop

  149. Whats recently bugged me most is that i never see wild flowers in meadows anymore,.if i was a cow i would love grazing dasies /clover/ cowslips etc,but i presume the widespread use of artificial fertilisers has ruined the natural wild life,.
    also i am kind of spoopked by all the REFRIGERATION that goes into supermarket vegetables,.cheers mike

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  150. Keep up the good work!
    Always worth recording what works and what does not. That way next year you should get even better results.
    If you want a giggle you can always look out for a local fete or show that has sections for vegetable exhibits. There will still be some in London near you – I dare you to have a go at displaying something you have grown. There is always a novice/beginners section for you to have a go at. You never know what you might win…..
    See how I got on!
    http://samthegas.wordpress.com/2011/07/16/am-i-going-to-get-red-carded/

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  152. Pingback: I grow my own vegetables. I live 5 minutes away from the nearest supermarket. | WPBlogger

  153. I must tell you this is awesome!!! I’d love to grow my own veggie but I can’t (live in condo). But I still try few since I don’t have much space. I feel great when I have the grow-my-own veggie. hahaha~~Also one of the points from you reminds me that the veggie we’ve got are from worldwide. It’s so true that we don’t need all those veggie (maybe some are ok) from other countries if we wanna protect our planet. Thanks for sharing!

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  156. What are your homemade pots made from? Are they just coffee cans? I have a plethora of oatmeal containers at my house because we feed it to my dogs and I have been wondering if I could use them as kind of a large starter pot that would just be put in the ground with the plant and then compost as it goes, what do you think?

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  158. i have an old house with an oddly shaped back porch, before the summer is over I hope to have enough money to make is a (sort of) Greenhouse. I’ve been doing a little research on what grows better in cooler weather. I hope it works. I actually am not that great at gardening, but I LOVE the idea of doing it 🙂

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  162. I currently cleaning my backyard (the soil) so that I can start my own corner of homegrown veggies and some fruit trees as well.
    Loved the way you wrote, the passion and personality you’ve imprinted in the topic.
    Congrats

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  165. wow! I am starting to grow plants. I am 4 growing bell pepper plants and 1 of them just died. Maybe got drown from rain. As soon as the rainy season ends, I will start my garden again.

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  170. Nice Post.

    By doing this we indirectly save a lot of fuel involved in transporting the veggies we buy from the super market. Improves your home too.

    I live in an apartment and 70% of veg we use is from our terrace garden.

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  171. We have a herb garden where we grow coriander, mint and sage. There’s also a strawberry pot and we have grown a lemon tree. They grow everywhere and quickly, at least in the environment of Melbourne. We also grow green and red chillies and baby tomatoes. They are pretty good basic garden material.

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  173. Pingback: Interesting people and their blogs « Lou & Liz

  174. Lately I’ve heard of a lot of people who are growing their own vegetables and fruits, so much they actually made an hour long report on tv one day. I was actually getting convinced to start my own little garden, unfortunately for me time is really a burden. In Nicaragua, most houses have at least two trees that give off fruits and this is extremely convenient. My aunt for example doesn’t have to go to the store when she wants mangoes or tomatoes and my other aunt grows her own herbs.
    Hopefully more people begin to do this (like I said, if I was home most of the time I would definitely go for it).
    Nice post & congrats on being Freshly Pressed.

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  176. Pingback: Growing your own vegatables versus buying them | My Lifestyle2

  179. I’ve been daydreaming about starting a vertical herb garden in our kitchen. We live in a painfully small studio apartment, but we get lots of good air and sunlight. I admire your dedication to your garden, especially since an easier option is practically at your doorstep. This makes me want to get off my ass, stop daydreaming, and start gathering the things I need – after a bit of research, of course. Great post!

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  185. I appreciate your tie-in to the carbon emissions burned to get “far away food” to the store. I too like to consider the broader energy consumption needed to create and grow things and whenever possible I make it a point to not participate in that culture.

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  186. I grow some of my own veg as well, I have grown peas, potatoes, apples, pears, red currents and some other fruit. I am a chemist who has made a living out of making new and exotic man made chemicals but so far I have not used any man made chemicals on my mini farm. Sadly the turnips have been eaten by bugs, I am not sure what sort of bugs damaged the turnips.

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  187. There is something VERY intrinsically satisfying about harvesting your own food, then watching the fruit grow back in eagerness.

    Self-satisfaction in a world of convenience is hard to come by without little projects like these.

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  191. This is a truly inspiring idea that so many people could easily work into their lifestyle if they simply tried. People just need to be made more aware of the benefits of growing your own food, and that it’s not as complicated as it seems. It may not be a easy as recycling but people have become so dependent on life’s conveniences. In our consumer-driven society, it seems people are always looking for a way to simplify life rather than turning to methods that worked for years before luxuries existed. I think that if people grew their own food, there wouldn’t be as many food-based illnesses. Can you imagine if everyone grew their own vegetables? The United States would be so different, with no need for transporting vegetables from place to place in order to stock supermarkets. I have a great deal of respect for you for taking on this challenge. Keep it up!

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