22 Tips on Growing Your Own Food

Photo by mckaysavage.

1. Write your own garden calender on when to do what and print it out and put it on the wall to be more effective at growing food
2. Write a garden journal to learn more effectively from your experiences
3. Purchase an extra 5 kg kitchen scale and a notebook to find out how much food you are actually able to grow per square meter
4. Make friends with local horse breeders or horse riding schools to get a stable supply of horse manure for your beds
5. Collect organic scraps in a small box in the kitchen and throw it on the compost heap to have something to feed back to your soil. It’s free nutrients for the soil.
6. Turn your compost regularly to speed up composting
7. Collect leaves in the fall and add them to your compost
8. Get an axe and a chopping block for chopping up branches in 5 cm (2 inch) pieces for your compost. Longer pieces than that will sabotage your compost production.
9. Build composting boxes with three compartments with front and top access to make it easy to produce compost
10. Hedge clippings goes into the compost. It’s free nutrients for the soil.
11. Seedlings need 17 hours of light each day to stay healthy
12. Plant fruit trees in your garden to provide shade in the middle of the day
13. Use wood chips on the lanes between your beds instead of spending time on cutting grass
14. Seed saving takes up a lot of area and many spare plants
15. Water the soil not the plants to avoid fungus
16. Grow winter vegetables for a higher yield per square meter
17. Increase diversity in your garden and be rewarded with healthy plants and more food
18. Take good care of the birds in your garden and they will help you debug your garden
19. Some butterflies are devils in disguises as their larvae will eat up your vegetables
20. It takes time to re-establish the small ecosystem in an area coming out of monoculture
21. Growing food is not a new idea. There are many helpful people out there who will help you if you dare to ask.
22. You’ll never be entirely self-sufficient. You’ll always be dependent on the sun. The goal is to have fun and be happy.

Add your best tip in the comments section below.