Grow Your Own Food

My dad building the raised bed.

I finally got to start my garden this year. I real, true, raised-bed-in-the-backyard kind of garden. Let the salsa making commence!

The garden at the beginning!

Well, not yet exactly, but soon. In just a few weeks, my garden has grown incredibly and so far, everything is doing well. I've already harvested some lettuce and one banana pepper, but more peppers are peaking through and should be ready soon. Some jalapenos will be ready for picking by next week. I have a couple of little tomato buds coming out, and the rest of the plants are filled with flowers ready to start pounding out produce. I also have some beans that are filled with little flowers and plenty of herbs. I have so much basil right now! Pesto, please.

The garden after a few weeks.

Basil!

I went into this not really knowing much. I've tried to grow peppers and tomatoes before and failed, but I think with the help of my parents and my friend who is already awesome but also knows everything about agriculture, Katie, I'm doing okay. She actually helped me plant everything and told me what to do along the way.

Hello, little tomato.

The tiniest jalapeno!

The only snag I had in the whole process was from something I used to like. Birds. You used to fly around me and make nests and sing to me like Snow White, and then you turned on me and bit off every single leaf of my tomato plants right after I planted my starts. I don't know what I did to make you so hateful toward me, but we are done. I had to replant six of my tomato plants, and then bought bird netting (seen above) to keep them out. That worked like a charm and now my garden is thriving.

Loo at all that growth!

If you have the space, I highly suggest making a raised bed for your yard. It doesn't even have to be that big, but it will make all the difference if you want to grow your own produce. If you don't have a yard or the room for a raised bed, you can always grow in containers. There are thousands of ideas on Pinterest and elsewhere for growing food in tiny apartments or wherever you may be. There is nothing more exciting than going outside in the morning and seeing new growth on my plants. It will make you happy, it will get you outside and it will help the environment.

I'm no pro, but I'd be happy to give any tips or help I can for your own backyard gardens!