If you’re interested in local food (or greener eats) there’s no better place to look than your own backyard. Nothing is fresher or tastier than food you’ve grown yourself!

If you don’t have the room (or the sun) to grow your own, check out our local community gardens list.

In our yard, alongside our edible landscaping and compost, we have several raised beds, and several containers. We built our raised beds out of 2×10’s and bolts, and filled them with our own mixture of peat moss, potting soil, and our own black topsoil. The peat moss is an important addition in a raised bed or pot because it helps to retain water, which isn’t as readily available in containers. Our raised beds, at 10 inches high, have helped deter animals from eating our plants, help keep weeds out of the garden, and help keep them from being trampled by small feet or paws. They also look good!

We generally choose our seeds based on personal preference. We’ve gardened for several years now, so we have a general idea of how much of something we will be able to eat and store and therefore how much we want to grow for our family of 5, plus extras we can share with friends and family.

This year, (2015) with the help of our youngsters, our garden consists of:

tomatoes (roma and amish heirloom) – 6 plants
spinach (spring and fall crop) – 1 row
lettuce (spring and fall crop) – 1 row
watermelon (we haven’t had luck with this in the past, but it is a family favorite treat!) – 1 plant
zucchini – 2 plants
summer squash (jackpot) – 1 plant
spaghetti squash (this is our first year trying spaghetti squash) – 1 plant
green bell peppers – 3 plants
jalepenos – 2 plants
sugar snap peas – 3 rows (these are my favorite!)

My sugar snap peas in our raised bed.

green beans – 2 rows
carrots (tendersweet) – 2 rows
beets (merlin) – 2 rows
radishes (french breakfast) – 2 rows
popcorn (japanese white hull-less – I have a LOT to say about growing your own popcorn) – 2 rows
asparagus – 2 rows
grapes (pink reliance) – 2 plants
sweet corn – 2 rows
eggplant – 2 plants

We also grow several herbs for cooking: oregano, chives, basil, and cilantro.

In our edible landscaping we also grow: apples, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, rhubarb, and raspberries.

We’ve already been enjoying our lettuce, spinach and radishes this season. There are several veggies that we decided not to grow this season, cucumbers and potatoes included, but plan to put them back in next year. We supplement our home grown fruits and veggies with picks from the farmer’s market – often the vegetable farmer’s have earlier/later crops than ours.

Growing your own food can be as simple as a tomato plant in a pot. And once you’ve tasted a home-grown tomato (or sugar snap pea!) you’ll keep coming back for more.

Check out our blog on other greener home ideas and your local businesses to help you along the way!

6/2/15