PRODUCE: Stretch out your grocery runs by creating a Backyard Garden, which is also known as a Kitchen Garden
Growing Vegetables at Home
(eat healthier, spend less money)
Growing Food: it sounds simple and our ancestors have done it for eons, but how hard is it really to grow your own food? Take the Total Escape CHALLENGE and find out!
(hint – this may take a while to perfect)
INDOOR STARTS & TRAYS
Start planning your garden in winter months; grow seedling indoors (months in advance) and be ready to plant as soon as the warm weather hits. Certain crops, like peppers and tomatoes, take longer to produce fruit, so starting them early is key to harvesting peppers in summer, rather than autumn. Lettuce is an excellent winter time food to grow indoors, under lights or in a sunny window ledge.
Seed Starter Kits
BAGGED SOIL
Sure, you can use the dirt in your yard (if it hasn’t been poisoned with chemical sprays). A soil test kit will let you know what condition your earth is in.
Began the ‘garden journey’ by building a compost pile and adding to it weekly. Save this home-made compost fertilizer for summer – when plants are in the ground and needing a boost.
Use clean, bagged soil for starting seeds – in order to get the best results on your starter plants. Coco core (coconut) may be added to potted plants to increase the volume of soil needed in the container.
NUTRIENTS
Soil may need extra help for getting the harvest results you want. Do research online to find out what your food crop requires. Overall, these items below can help condition and add extra nutrition to the dirt, which can increase your yield on produce.
Worm Castings
Organic Bone Meal Fertilizer
Alaska Fish Emulsion
PLANT PROTECTION
Fruit trees may need protection from the frost; cabbages may need protection from the white cabbage moth; leafy greens could need shade from the hot sun. Seeds planted outdoors will always be food for hungry birds. There are nets of various sizes, sheer frost cloths of different thickness and shade cloths of darkest degrees.
NOTE: These lightweight fabrics have a short life-span and will disintegrate after full sun exposure for a year. Store them indoors, inside a box, when not in use in the garden and they may last longer,