How to Plant a Garden

Santa Monica has a few communal gardens that are really great to see.

Carrots, for one. Rhubarbs & strawberries are excellent too. If you obtain a Jack LaLane juicerator you can feed massive amounts of carrots into it and produce a juice that will help your digestion before meals and add another 20 years onto your life span. The fructose in carrots can't be easily tasted unless you eat carrots that are so ripe they're soft(and not so appealing). But if you juice fresh carrots that are nowhere near ripe you release all that fructose and carotene into its water soluable form which is easily assimilatable. It also helps you regulate your weight as you get older by regulating your blood sugar level. Carrot juice is the choice of body builders, and tastes even better when you juice a favorite fruit compatable with its texture and taste. If you've had rhubarb &
strawberry pie, you're in for a treat. Makes a great desert with home made ice cream. Always compost your soil first with organic biomatter that tempers the PH of the soil it makes, compatable with the PH of the plants you grow in it. Eg.with growing strawberries,you need to compost biomatter rich in acidic minerals like iron, or add iron per se before the soil gets watered, and you plant. Good luck..

For good advise ask successful gardeners in your area, not only will they be happy to give you advise they'll be giving you advise specific for your zone.

State Co-ops sites usually have example gardens, free classes and free over the phone advise from their master gardeners. Check local listings or call a near by community college or garden club they can hook you up with the co-op. Good luck!

The taste of the first home grown fruit or vegetable is a real taste rush. They are so much better than store bought, you want to keep doing it every year. You and your friends and family will thank you.

I was nervous when I started my garden...but my mom gave me advise similar to this blog posting: just get the seeds and get going. Fine tune your skills and knowledge of the land and what it needs as you go.

Meanwhile: if you want a sneak peak into worm composting: I made this video awhile back. Enjoy!
http://current.com/items/89832504_green-or-gross-worm-composting.htm

Growing is awesome, and it can be done in any space in some capacity. If you live in an apartment with any sort of small balcony that gets some sun, you can definitely plant out there. I planted a tomato and basil plant and left the pots out on my balcony, and they're growing! All you have to do is water them twice a week and pick off flowers starting to grow on the basil plant so it doesn't die. I recommend trying this, its great and you'll end up loving your plants.

Gardening! <3!

I just recently started to have an interest in growing my own foods when a) I realized I didn't really know where any of it was coming from, b) I saw Food, Inc, and c) it's so much better than wasting my life inside, on the computer, etc etc =)

Getting out there and interacting with the earth is really cleansing for me.