Sustainability Conversations ... Grow your own food

Growing your own food can be fun! You can even start your own business doing it! You will not only save money but it also ensures you get the freshest pick of the day! Why not get your children and friends involved? It may relieve stress and help you be more physically active!

"It's easier than you think, and you can do it even if you don’t have a garden or plot of land," says Lee Kirk, 70, who has been growing her own fruit and vegetables in her garden for nearly 50 years. She gives some tips here:

- Buy seeds from the supermarket or your local garden centre.

- Try to grow something easy, like courgettes and tomatoes, to start with.
It’s worth consulting a gardener to see what produce is best suited to your ground. "For example, our garden gets too much sunlight for growing good root vegetables," says Lee.

- Lose the pests. "To get rid of slugs and snails, I encourage frogs in the garden and also mix a product in my watering can, which effectively kills them while I’m watering the plants," says Lee. If you're going down this route, make sure you are using a pesticide that is indicated as being suitable for edible plants.

- Consider the variety of plant you grow. "I find tomato blight (a fungal disease that attacks just as the tomatoes are ready to eat) very annoying, and I now grow more of the Tom Thumb variety, which are a kind of cherry tomato – smaller and less prone to blight," says Lee.

- Get your friends involved. "Our friends come over to pick our redcurrants and in exchange give us redcurrant gin, chutney, free range eggs and their company," says Lee.

The iStart2 Radio Show this week:

On the iStart2 Radio Show this week we chat to Gina Shoemaker, Managing Director of Green Earth Concepts. Gina has implemented many organic farming schemes and developed the commercial worm farm operation which generates organic fertilizer. Her main mission is to relieve hunger, promote job creation and enhance food security. Don't miss what she has to say.

Keitu Gwangwa & Pierre du Toit host the iStart2 Show on Thursdays at 17h30. Radio Today broadcasts on 1485 MW (AM) in greater Johannesburg and countrywide on ‪#‎DStv‬ audio channel 869.
Radio Today also streams globally on www.1485.org.za.

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