Homegrown is greener

I say started my eco journey about 2 years ago but realistically it’s always been something I’ve thought about and wanted to embrace the lifestyle, I guess I just started making more of a concerted effort about 2 years ago. That’s when I watched a movie on youtube about the Dervaes family in Pasedena, Southern California (about 50 miles from where I live), who grows 80% of their food in their own garden! All that on a regular sized lot? Well their garden didn’t happen overnight so I wasn’t expecting miracles, we already had a couple of citrus trees, but what else could I grow? Well that was the start of my food garden here at home, in our backyard food garden. Year one I simply dug in the earth and hoped for the best, well
turns out our soil wasn’t the best for growing. I got some crops and
got inspired for year two and we made raised beds, tried square foot
gardening and that’s when we were more successful, as you can see in
the photo below!

The raised bed is 3′x5′ and contains cauliflower,
lettuce, green onions, carrots, collard greens, mustard, and radish!
This was our winter crop last year and we ate richly from our own
garden for many days. Trust me, NOTHING tastes as good as a sun ripened tomato fresh right off the vine! Imagine it, you never really run out of baby lettuce, or if you feel like a radish or green onion simply walk outside into your garden, dig one up, wash and eat!

We have three raised beds and spending time in the vegetable garden is one of my small joys in life. Growing your own food is one of the best ways to lower your global footprint, especially if like us you opt to grow organic! And why wouldn’t you? Food free from pesticides, herbicides and preservatives and all within 20 feet of your kitchen! Another great reason to grow your own is that organic food is generally quite a bit more expensive than regular industrialized food growing so you’d save money also! You reduce the fuel and natural resources used because of no shipping required, you use your own energy to walk into the garden, harvest for your meal, no trucks needed here! The best thing though, is that the food is FRESH, super fresh. I remember the first time we had peas ready for harvest, I think we ate more fresh out in the garden raw than actually made it into the kitchen. So sweet and tender, something that gets missed when you open a tin!

So how about it? If you have the smallest little plot you can grow something! Even a small area set aside for fresh homegrown lettuce, or some other veggie that you love! Grow your own you won’t regret it!

dalgal | My Bio & Articles