Kitchen gardens are gardens that provide for produce in your own kitchen. These are your backyard vegetable and herb gardens.

During the pandemic, nurseries and seed companies alike, saw a major uptick in sales, due to homeowners who decided to start gardening. Even novice gardeners, who had no idea what or how to plant seeds started to garden to grow their own food. It is estimated by the gardening industry, that over 18,000 people picked up gardening, who had never grown anything before. While for a country like the U.S. it may not seem like that much, it is significant, and these people were correct in identifying that there is a need and an urgency to grow your own produce.

To those who started their gardens in 2020: kudos to you! You did the right thing! Supplychains are still broken, inflation is putting a pinch on peoples’ wallets, and if that is not enough, we have worker shortages in many companies, and we have a fertilizer shortage due to export restrictions by China to export fertilizer to the U.S. due to sanctions and due to sanctions on Russia due to Russia’s war with Ukraine. (Source:World Economic Forum)

Why am I bringing up a fertilizer issue you may ask? The answer is two-fold. All those people starting their gardens, you are right to take care of yourself and grow in your own backyard because our food production supplychain is broken and in jeopardy. The second reason is because feeding your soil is essential to the health of your crops. On a small scale, it is actually easier to feed your soil to ensure that you can keep your soil healthy. This means that even though there is a fertilizer shortage, there are steps you can take to be independent from this shortage by implementing organic farming practices.

While personally, I find it mindboggling, that a country as large as the United States does not have a means to generate its own fertilizer, it is where we are at. There is no point to argue about it now that we have a shortage – we need to work with what we have. What we can do, is adapt, and learn from it. We can tell both China and Russia to keep their fertilizer if we implement healthier, more wholesome farming practices, and bring back homesteading to the backyards of the American families. 18,000 people and counting are already doing this, and I hope to encourage many others to do the same.

How many of you are seeing reduced growth? After all, successes come with failures… always. And it is ok! Acquisition of new skills always comes with learning curves.

I had my own challenges as a seasoned gardener. Last year, I was at war with pickle worms, then over the winter, I lost a bunch of tomatoes to frost. This year, I practiced companion planting and I am treating my squashes with BT, and i am looking for means to better protect my plants to the elements.

As individuals and within communities, we can implement Organic, wholesome farming and homesteading practices ensures healthy soil naturally without the addition of manufactured chemicals. Soil requires balance, it does not like to be disturbed, it likes to be built.

The healthier your soil, the more beneficial bugs you will attract. Gardening with bugs is a natural thing, and unhealthy soil will have and attract unhealthy bugs like nematodes, whereas healthy soil will have beneficial bugs like rainworms!

Crop rotation will aid to prevent depletion of your soil, as some plants such as legumes (like beans, peas) will bring nitrogen back into the soil via the roots.

Composting builds healthy soil with loads of organic matter that plants naturally thrive on.

Companion planting deters pests and attracts beneficial bugs, and plants can form symbiotic relationships with each other.

If after two years, your soil has depleted and your plants are just not thriving the way they used to, get your soil tested to see what the soil needs. Keep track of what you have been growing in that spot so if you had some heavy feeders such as tomatoes, peppers, squashes, etc, plant a light feeder or beans instead.

It is a great idea to join your local garden club, so you can learn from people who have been growing for more years than you can imagine. Their combined knowledge and passion to help you often far exceeds anything you can get out of any gardening magazine, because these people live near you, in your community, and they deal with like-conditions.

I personally am the President for the Deltona Garden Club which is connected to Florida Federation of Garden Clubs and National Garden Clubs. Gardening became my passion after a battle with breastcancer, in 2019 and 2020, where I became determined to find ways to get exercise, to eat more healthy and fresh food, and to spend more time outdoors and in nature. It was a means to dive into a new world, away from chaos. Such as the economy that turned this country upside down. While I had grown my own produce before, I expanded upon this passion for growing, and I now have an expansive vegetable garden that provides us with food every single day. It is my mission to get others to be successful with their own vegetable gardening as well.

You have more reasons to grow your own, than reasons for not doing it. Even some of my friends with disabilities are growing their own foods, and if they can, you can too!

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