Imagine the fun and feeling of independence you would get from growing your own food at home.  Well, it is possible irrespective of the amount of space you have available.  Read on for more information on how to do this.

Why would you grow your own food when you can easily go down to the supermarket?  Firstly, it is fresher.  You know exactly where it is come from, you can pick it straightaway, and you can control what chemicals were used.  You can grow varieties that are not commonly available, such as heritage strawberries or tomatoes.

Secondly, it makes you a producer rather than just a consumer.  It means that you are not just another wage slave who does a dull job and has to buy every single thing he or she needs.  Even if you just grow a few carrots, it is a small but important break from being a mouse on a treadmill.

One other benefit is that you can share what you produce with others.  Imagine the feeling of being able to offer a friend a watermelon that you grew yourself, or a few cherry tomatoes.

Obviously, it is difficult to grown everything you need, but you can grow a fair bit.  You can grow your own food even if you live in a small apartment.  Plants need three things: sunlight (or grow lights), water and nutrients.  If you have a backyard with suitable soil, you can use this, or you can use a pot.  I’ll assume that you don’t have space, so will talk about using a pot.

You need a large plastic pot (I prefer large rectangular ones about 80 cm long, and 40 cm tall and wide) and some soil, and also a liquid form of nutrients, like Thrive or a similar product (or an organic seaweed based fertiliser).  You can buy soil in bags.  So find a sunny place, put the pot there, fill it with soil and water it.  Plant some seeds.  You’ll need to keep the soil moist but well drained (so make sure the drain holes at the bottom of the pot are clear).  Water the seeds periodically with liquid nutrients to make sure that the soil has everything they need.

Since you are growing in a pot, plants may compete with each other for nutrients and water.  You need to make sure that they have what they need to grow.

If you don’t have any sunlight, you could perhaps consider an LCD grow light.  One other thing to look at is hydroponics.  This allows you to grow plants without soil.  The benefit is that you can plant the seeds closely together and increase your crop yield.  The Aerogarden is one example of a soilless technology.

Don’t just ignore your plants, keep an eye on them and make sure that you remove any pests and keep them well watered.  Good luck with growing your own food.

Tags: independence, subversive

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Daily subversive tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.