Fresh Veggies on the Back Porch

It's that magical time of year when certain members of the Pingree community start to get a gleam in their eye--planting season has begun. That's right! This past weekend was the first weekend for the dedicated gardeners among us to start planting our cool weather vegetable seeds. We sprout and raise them indoors for a few weeks so that they're ready to be put in the ground just as soon as it thaws.

There's nothing better than home grown vegetables. Not only are they YOURS (you're personally invested in their growth, which psychologically makes them taste better), but they're as local as you can get and they can be as organic (or not) as you want them to be. But for many of us, committing to a garden (even a very small one) isn't feasible (you might not have a yard or the soil in your yard is questionable) and it's inherently intimidating if you didn't grow up with a garden. So what's a wannabe gardener to do?

Enter "Bag Gardening." This is, hands down, the easiest way to grow your own delicious vegetables.

Here's what you need:
- One 40 lb plastic bag of topsoil ($1 to $5), and I know the bag is plastic but we've got to start somewhere, right?

- One packet of seeds (I recommend a nice salad greens mixture for your very first bag experiment).

- A 2 x 3 foot area of space that gets sunlight most of the day, such as your back porch (or front porch, whichever is sunnier).


Here's what you do. At the beginning of April put the bag outside where you want to grow your salad greens. Poke a bunch of small holes in one side of the bag with a screw driver (for drainage). Flip the bag over and cut the top portion of the bag off to expose the soil inside of it, effectively turning the bag into a container. Plant your lettuce seeds according to the instructions on the back of the seed pack. Water lightly (just enough for the soil to feel "damp" but not "wet." Fertilize if you like, but it's not really necessary.

Tah-Dah! In just a couple of weeks you will have a crop of delicious lettuce that was grown as local as local can get. Harvest at your whim, making sure to pinch off any flower spikes that try to grow. Yum!

Go on. Try it. Be the type of person who tries it out!