Getting started with growing

[Dan Pollus]

I had for a long time wanted to get involved and start growing some of my own foods, if nothing more it was something that was interesting and being able to create a piece of food from scratch as it were. Of course, there a few things you will need to get started and a few extras as well that I am using myself.

Weather

It may sound stupid but if you are living in Alaska growing your own foods and plants outside simply isn’t going to work to well. My point with this statement is that you should consider what you are wanting to grow before hand and do your research if you have the right climate for it before you go planting something that may struggle to grow well if at all. Of course, if you are living somewhere cold you could always consider a greenhouse or somewhere you can grow indoors.

Feeding your Plants

Some people feed their plants with special minerals and whatever else. To be honest I haven’t looked into it myself. All I do is to make sure that I water them every day. That so far seems to be working well for me, so I don’t see much point in buying stuff like that but maybe I will learn something new along the way, we will see!

Protecting your Garden

Sometimes in certain places you may need to protect your plants from rodents or birds or whatever else is in your area. Sometimes creating a boundary or netting over everything can be a decent solution though it will depend on what animals maybe nearby for your area. For me I have a boundary set up, so my dogs don’t go in and start digging or whatever else.

Tools

To be honest I keep it as simple as I can, I use my hose for watering and have a shovel and what not for digging, I also have a pair of heavy duty gloves and a pair of sturdy boots as well.  As you can tell I keep it simple as possible, because that is what really works for me and it isn’t a big expense for me either.

Overall, I am happy with how things are progressing and I am looking forward to getting some actual crops from it. I find it somewhat therapeutic to water my plants every day, it’s a nice habit I have developed from maintaining the plants. Also finally just for reference I am currently growing some berries and ginger get me started.