Grow your own food for free

August 12, 2022, Reading time: 2 minutes

Imagine eating seasonal produce that you have grown yourself and harvesting it with your own hands as part of every meal. Imagine having unlimited access to your own vegetables 365 days a year.

I can assure you it is feasible.

How to sow your first plants without spending too much money. All this can even be done on your balcony.

Some examples:

• tomatoes
• peppers
• paprika
• potatoes
• beans
• pumpkin
• sunflowers

How I usually start

First I go to the supermarket or the organic store. - (Or just see what you’ve got left). There I look for some special, tasty tomatoes, long bell peppers, regular bell peppers, snack (mini) bell peppers, peppers, everything that contains seeds.

You can dry these seeds for a few days before sowing them in a pot filled with potting soil. (I eat the rest of the fruit). Usually I am too lazy for this and put the seeds directly in a pot with potting soil. Then it remains to be seen what will come up. Keep in mind that most seeds will actually sprout.

If you have sprouted potatoes, you can also put them in the ground and see what will come up. To get a nice potato plant, put a potato with runners in the ground. Those suckers will be the start of your new plant. When you cover the sprouted potato with soil and water it, it will naturally grow towards the light.

Most do have a pantry with dried beans, for example kidney beans. To germinate the kidney beans, you need beans. Not those that come from a can or jar, but dried brown beans. These can be purchased at almost any supermarket or greengrocer. Before you start the experiment, soak the beans in water overnight.

Then moisten a piece of kitchen roll and put it in the resealable plastic bag. Drain the beans well and add them. Make sure the beans are on one side of the paper towel so you can see them well. Close the bag tightly and place it on the windowsill where it is sunny.

So you see that it does not have to be expensive to grow your own vegetables.