5 Reasons To Grow Your Own Fruit And Vegetables

 Having your own vegetable patch or fruit garden was once commonplace,
but fell out of favour as the food industry become more commercial and
supermarkets began to take over.

In recent years however, more and more people have started explore
growing their own produce again. Here we give 5 reasons why you might
consider starting your own kitchen garden.

http://www.allgoodarticles.com/article3653.html

 

The ridiculous price of tomatoes alone is enough to make you grow your own.

All my south-facing windowsills will be full of them again and, if I can
keep the squirrels off, so will my balcony.

They've actually got the cheek to climb 80ft or so up the Cable TV cables to
eat my plants!

If anyone knows of a good squirrel deterrent I'd be interest to know.

Might try peppers as well this year.

Nemo

 
Shotgun is the best, blast them while they are still on the
cables so you dont end up with lead pellets in the tomatoes.


A shotgun works a hell of a lot better.

 

No I meant growing some peppers - capsicums.

Anyway - a shotgun? At the cables? I'd get lynched by my beighbours for
depriving them of their cable TV and phones.

I think a roll of steel mesh would be more humane anyway.

 
     Squirrels.  In a couple of months I went from "oh, look, aren't
squirrels".  We have a very small veg garden and also grow some
edibles, mostly tomatoes, in very big pots.  What we do with the
potted veggies that really works is protect the whole tomato plant and
its pot with wire mesh supported by any kind of sturdy framework (we
have used bamboo, wood, and rebar).  The framework posts are set down
into the pot, not to the ground.  If done well this is reasonably
acceptable to look at - not ultra-cute but not trashy either.  Choose
wire too small for the little vermin to squeeze thru, and include some
kind of door to reach inside to pick your tomatoes.
     More anti-squirrel stuff.  I also plant four or six 25-gallon
terra-cotta-looking pots with edible flowers and edible herbs every
spring, then set them on each side of the front walk where our best
sun exposure is.  To keep the squirrels from digging up the young
plants, we cut wire mesh into a circle and set on top of the soil,
either before or after planting.  It takes a little fussing to get the
wire to fit around some of the larger plants, but the effort is worth
it the first time you see a squirrel try and fail to dig up the newly
set plants.  After the plants grow up enough to cover the soil with
greenery, the squirrels leave them alone.
    There are six varieties of tomatoes up and growing, basil, edible
flowers, etc etc, but for the first time that I can remember, we're
going to have freezing and near-freezing overnight temps for the next
5 nights (at least), so I had to bring all 20 flats, pots and boxes of
young plants into the house last night.  Easter is forecast to be
*cold* (54F) and windy, also a first, so that means trying to amuse
the kids on Sunday when they're full of sugar...