Grow Your Own: It's so easy

In our home we compost... well, we don't have any fancy equipment or special mixture of greens, blood and poop like some. OK, so basically we have an area in our backyard that we throw our food scraps in.

Throughout the year, we throw fruit, veggies, egg shells, bones and shells from our seafood in the backyard pile. During the winter months we add the ashes from our backyard bonfires to it and occasionally turn the soil. By the Spring, we have beautiful black soil full of nutrients. I will dig up a good amount and use it in my flower beds and for my potted herbs and veggies.

We continue to throw our scraps in the pile and by the end of the summer something magical happens.... Things grow! I don't have to buy special seed pots, cover them with greenhouse tops, water or care for them in any way.  This year we had many varieties of tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes and a papaya tree.

Don't live in South Carolina? Well, I can tell you this worked for me in Florida and Arizona too. Of course the "surprises" were different. In Florida, we had a lot of cucumber, papaya, melon, and citrus trees... While in Arizona we had peas, scallions, squash, watermelon and sunflowers.

Another thing I will do is take herbs like basil or mint and propagate them in old glass jars of water. This year I also have carrots, ginger, scallions and a mystery sprout  in the kitchen window. Brandon transplanted the Papaya tree into an old water cooler pot so the winter frost won't kill it. We are going to collect some seeds and let the rest of the plants outside run their course. The potatoes usually come back in the spring easily.. and we'll see about the rest next year.

Here is a printable for labeling  your collected seeds: Download

Want to make your own packets? Try this Download