Starting a garden can be both fun AND environmentally friendly.  Last spring two friends and I decided we wanted to try our hand at gardening.  Not just tossing a few flower seeds in the ground and seeing what happened, but a full on vegetable garden complete with fertilizer and lattice work for our tomatoes to climb.  We worked hard, but through trial and error and not being afraid to ask questions, we were able to enjoy quite a crop of fruits and vegetables.  This season we hope to reap even greater rewards. 

We knew right away we wanted to make our garden environmentally friendly so we made our own compost to serve as a nutrient-rich base.  We have limited space in our backyard which we maximize by planting vegetables that compliment one anther such as tomatoes and basil.  We also encouraged plants such as cucumbers, peppers, melons and tomatoes to grow upwards on the fence and lattice work we provided them rather than sprawling out.  We visited our local nursery where we purchased seeds and small plants for our garden along with asking every question we could possibly think of.  We then fertilized our plants with an organic fertilizer called Neptune’s Harvest.

Several weeks into our experiment we began to see the early stages of what would soon be a large and healthy harvest.  Despite our limited knowledge at the start of the season, we were able to cultivate over 20 different varieties of fruits and vegetables.  This fun outdoor activity also benefits the environment in that it saves many trips to the grocery store and lessens the demand for store-bought vegetables that typically must be transported from around the world.  There is nothing more satisfying than heading out to your own backyard garden to pick a salad for dinner.