Recent scares about what is in the food our supermarkets sell has led to a surge in the home grown vegetable. Not only does growing your own food ensure healthier mealtimes, it’s also an enjoyable pastime that gets you outdoors and exercising.
The primary concern people have when it comes to consuming supermarket fruit and vegetables are pesticides. Pesticides are used to kill insects, weeds and fungal diseases that can disrupt the growth of food.
But what a lot of people fail to realize is how important the right tools are to growing food at home. The quality of the topsoil for instance, is vital to ensuring seeds are able to flourish and produce high quality, nutritious produce. The topsoil usually consists of the first two to six inches of the soil and is where the highest amount of nutrients required by plants to grow lie.
The quality of the topsoil can be significantly affected by the use of pesticides. While it should be obvious to most that a product that is a killer to insects would not be ideal for human consumption, pesticides also affect wildlife and their habitats, as well as the future quality of our earths topsoil.
In Oregon in the 70’s a seed grain that had been sprayed with mercury and aldrin was responsible for the death of thousands of wild geese and other wildlife. And more recently in South Dakota in ‘89, phorate led to the death of hundreds of waterfowl and a small number of bald and golden eagles. At the beginning of this year, many thousands of birds perished an inconclusive death in various regions. It is possible these deaths were related to chemicals involved in the mass production growth of fruits and vegetables.
Thankfully, food grown at home does not have to be subjected to the interference of these killer chemicals. Quality, organic topsoil can be purchased from a number of agricultural outlets, and is formed from a mixture of compost and soil to create an environmentally healthier product.
So how can you start growing your own fruits and vegetables?
As well as considering the quality of your garden’s existing topsoil, you will need space to grow them in. How much space depends on the amount of people you need to feed, and whether your home grown food will constitute all the fruit and vegetables you eat, or simply stand as a way to supplement the weekly shopping.
Even if you don’t have a garden, or one that is too small for the purpose of growing food, you can apply for an allotment.
Finally, you need to be clear on what will grow and when. Due to the vast climate changes some areas experience between summer and winter, few foods will thrive all year round and you don’t want to waste time, money and effort nurturing a plant that is ill suited to cold temperatures.
Just remember that the time and effort of harvesting your own food is worth it, as you won’t have to rely on shaky reports citing the ‘safety’ of modern pesticides and will instead always know what you’re putting into your, and your families bodies.
James Harper has opinions and writes on many subjects including recycling and sustainable living. He is a vegetarian and evangelical cyclist.
