Grow Food

Join us in adding a few Food growing activities to your life this year.
How many of these will you do in 2018? Let us know…..

Start a Garden!…
Expand your garden…
Convert your lawn, patio or balcony to grow food…
Plant a fruit tree or two, or fruit bushes or a strawberry groundcover…
Create a culinary or medicinal herb garden
Start a worm bin or compost
Get chickens or ducks to turn food scraps into eggs or meat
Grow the staples — beans, squash, potatoes, corn, eggs
Learn to cook fresh, local, in-season meals — they taste better!
Plant in containers if you’re renting or have limited space—take advantage of windowsills
Plant a row for a local food bank
Plant to attract bees, butterflies, birds, other beneficial insects and wildlife
Plant fruit-bearing summer-time shade
Plant native varieties such as Evergreen Huckleberry…
Grow hops for home-brew or apples for hard cider
Plant a tea garden
Plant all the ingredients to make salsa or spaghetti sauce
Push your limits—grow a new crop or try a new gardening technique

Going Deeper (Food)

Challenge yourself — how might you do what you’re doing, better? Set a personal goal to grow more or use less and see if you can meet it!
Stretch your harvest by preserving — can, dry, ferment, pickle
Grow the foundation of your diet by focusing on staples—beans, squash, potatoes, corn, eggs
Make your own — yogurt, bread, sauerkraut, juice, kombucha, beer or mead
Grow or make enough to share or trade
Think food forest — mimic the dynamics of a forest ecology by stacking additional layers into your food production systems
Companion plant for higher, tastier, more diverse yields
Go vertical — fill unused space and create shade with vining plants like beans, peas, cucumbers, grapes, hardy kiwi, maypop or hops
Start a beehive for honey and increased pollination
Commit to eating local — join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program
Buy organic, open-pollinated, and non-hybrid plants and SAVE SEEDS
Increase your garden’s food-bearing perennials — they don’t have to be re-planted each year!
Propagate perennial plants and share them with others
Integrate pest management — add plants and garden features that attract beneficial insects, lizards, frogs, owls
Enrich your soil — plant nitrogen fixers and dynamic accumulators for nutrient dense compost or chop-n-drop material
Create a backyard oasis with all the ingredients — shade, water, beauty, food, wildlife and tranquility