With spring finally here, I'd like to talk about a green topic that anyone can participate in — growing a home garden. Cultivating a garden is environmentally friendly as well as economical for several reasons.
Anytime a plant grows, it gives off oxygen and absorbs carbon dioxide. Growing your own vegetables and herbs means that when you need something, you can walk to your own yard, porch, patio or deck rather than using gas to drive to the store. It also means your food hasn't been sent across the country, which, regardless of the mode of transportation, requires fuel.
It's also a cost-saver. You pay top dollar when you buy organic vegetables at the store. Growing a garden is typically an organic process, or you can easily choose it to be since you have the option of forgoing pesticides.
Plus, knowing how to be self-sufficient and teaching your children that lesson, especially in the current economy, is always beneficial.
If you have a yard with dirt and sunlight, you can dig up a small area, add some additional soil and begin planting. But even if you have just a small patio, it's now possible to have a garden. Kits for building a 4-by-4-foot wooden frame are available for $40. Add good loam and then your plants, and you've got a garden. Want a bigger garden? Buy two or three kits.
The easiest vegetables to begin your garden with are tomatoes (I know, really a fruit) and peppers. You can buy seeds if you prefer, but for about the same cost, you can buy a small plant that has already been started and you will see results much sooner. If you're not sure where the best light in your yard will be as spring and summer progress, both tomatoes and peppers can be planted in large pots or containers that can be moved to different areas as needed.
The merchants at the many local garden shops are a wealth of ideas and assistance. A helpful website is www.kraftbrands.com/homefarming/Pages/default.aspx, which is sponsored by Triscuit. Many Triscuit boxes are being sold with seeds to grow herbs.
Tendercrop Farm in Newbury is another great resource for beginning your own garden and supporting sustainable farming practices. The farm sells vegetables and herbs ready to be planted in your own garden. According to its website, "By supporting local farms, you are receiving the freshest possible produce, meats and poultry products, and you are reducing the use of fossil fuels, which protects the environment while helping to preserve open spaces and supporting your local economy. Purchasing products from local farmers also protects farmland from becoming developed."
You may be wondering how much food you can actually yield from a home garden. This will obviously vary depending on how much you plant, how well you care for your plants and how much sunlight your garden gets. The weather will also play a factor in the growth of the plants and their yield.
When growing tomatoes, for example, you can put two plants in a 4-by-4-foot patch, three in a 4-by-8-foot patch and so on. Be sure they are "standing," using a rounded metal cage. Generally, you can grow tomatoes from the end of July until September and as long as you keep up with the "pinching" (removing any growth on the stem below the plant so it doesn't take energy away from the development of the fruit), you will continue to get a yield. Depending on the type of tomatoes you plant, you may have 12 to 14 ripe tomatoes on every plant at any particular time.
Depending on the size of your yard, the time you have to commit and how "green" your thumb is, there are obviously many more options for growing food at home. I encourage everyone to commit to growing at least one plant this summer — just to see how possible it is to gradually become self-sufficient.
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Bill Goss is the owner of Quality Systems Consulting Group in Amesbury. His website is www.merrimackvalleygreen.com. If you have any questions regarding Going Green, send them to merrimackvalleygreen@comcast.net, and he will answer them in upcoming columns.
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