Do you grow any of your own food?

[EugeneOnegin]

I grow a lot of herbs...chives, epazote, hoja santa, sage, parsley, basil, Thai basil, Holy basil, oregano, Cuban oregano, Mexican oregano, spearmint, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, culantro, cilantro, galangal, turmeric, huacatay, fenugreek/methi, marjoram, lemongrass, and dill. Also a curry tree and kaffir lime tree which have leaves that are used like herbs. Most of these I grow year around, moving them indoors for the winter.

I have some other tropical/semi-tropical trees that I keep in pots and overwinter too. Starfruit, Meyer lemon, kumquat, key lime, figs (except for the Chicago hardy figs which can stay outside year around), Australian finger lime, and some others.

In the summer I grow a lot of peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, fennel, okra, and some of the other common annual fruits and vegetables.

I also have paw paw, persimmon (Asian/American hybrids), and mulberry trees, and elderberries, gooseberries, currants, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, hardy kiwis, and aronia. A lot of the berries I make wine with.

I would like to have a lot more trees but I'm planning on moving south within the next few years so there wouldn't be much point. Hopefully to at least zone 8, and then I plan on buying a large greenhouse with small tropical trees and hydroponic herbs and greens. Ideally I would like to grow half the food I eat, but that's a ways off.

[wireyourworld]

I have 2 orange trees, one lime, one grapefruit, one lemon and one tangerine. In pots I have various tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, green beans, rosemary and mint. And a pretty red geranuim. Being in FL where we have more sand then garden soil, I find it best to grow in pots. It also allows me to move and/or cover them for the ocassional freeze.

[Azula]

My family has two muscadine grapevines in the backyard. We're planning on pruning it for the first time this winter and to rebuild the trellis because it's grown bushy and out of control. In the spring and summer, my brother and I pick wild blackberries and make sumac lemonade.

[phonelady61]

I cannot believe someone on here is advocating drowning a squirrel that is so sad how can anyone hurt an innocent creature like a squirrel . please do as I advised and just use chicken wire and hardware cloth to cover your plants and you save your plants and the squirrels .

[HomersBoy]

Potatoes, corn, beans, peppers, tomatoes, squash, kale and sweet potatoes are mostly what I grow. I had to put an electric fence up to keep the deer out but it was worth the cost. We do a lot of freezing and canning so we can enjoy our home grown produce year round.

[in_newengland]

We don't have much space now but even if I had to live in an apartment I would find a way to grow some vegetables. It's so simple and so convenient.

Right now in the dead of winter when it's 15 degrees out, all I have are herbs on the kitchen window sill. I want to start some romaine lettuce when it's a little bit warmer, in pots on the glassed in porch. Lettuce is a cool weather crop.

In the summer I throw down some compost (some store bought, some home made from our vegetable scraps) and grow things like tomatoes, green beans, summer squash, etc.) It's so much fun to just run out into the yard and pick tonight's food and it will be fresh and I know there will be nothing sprayed on it.

I don't know why more people don't grow their own vegetables.