Grow foods yourself - that's the best way to insure that what you eat is healthy. That way you can be sure of what kind of soil you have and what kind of pest control (natural) that you use.

This is easier than you may realize if you think outside of the box, or in some cases, inside a box. If you have any sunny space at all, be it patio or deck, you can grow your own food. And if you don’t, you can still grow food hydroponically. There is always a way it can be done.

The Earth boxes have their own nutrient and watering system and you can’t overwater them at all. Any excess water just goes right on through and out the overflow space.

You do have to keep them watered regularly, though, especially in times of drought when you have to add water every two days. Even though I have Earth boxes, I think the ones from a Garden Patch (www.aGardenPatch.com) are a better value.

I have grown foods such as garlic, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini squash, strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, chard, cantaloupes, Stevia and tomatoes, with varying degrees of success. I don’t use regular growing spaces for two reasons: 1. The soil here is beyond lousy and 2. We have problems with bears and other critters.

We have nothing but Georgia red clay here (like in “Gone With the Wind”) and it won’t grow foods or much of anything else, even with attempts at amending it. After trying many things, I have just given up and used raised beds and planters to grow foods.

My partner Brian Fraser and I are blessed to live right across the valley from Amicalola Falls, one of Georgia’s prettiest state parks, and we have a beautiful view of the falls from our backyard. Because of the close proximity of the park, there are a lot of bears and they do come around our area.

Therefore, we have to keep our bird feeders and produce up off of the ground in order to keep them away from the food. We also have tons of deer, rabbits, and other critters who would just love to share our home-grown foods.

So up on the deck it goes, and the system has worked very well. At the present time, no bears have tried to climb up the deck supports, although they are quite capable of it.

Using pots and planters means that you can control the soil and the nutrients that go in it. I put my Earth boxes up on concrete blocks too in order to make it easier on my back, both to water them and to harvest produce. Water can run out more easily as well, which is a plus.

I am a new gardener with not much experience, so every year is a new challenge and experiment. I lost all of my broccoli and squash the summer of 2009, but other things did well so overall, I am pleased with the results of my growing foods.

Aerogardens

If you don’t have the outdoor space, or just don’t want to deal with the bugs or problems of growing food outside, you can always use Aerogardens. I’ve had mine for a number of years and just love them. Nothing beats fresh cherry tomatoes and salad greens in January!

They come with planting kits that are guaranteed to grow. All you do is put the seed kits in the holes, add water and the nutrients that they provide, and watch your food grow!

OK, so maybe that isn’t all you have to do. You do have to check the water, especially when the food is growing rapidly, and keep it topped off. You’ll hear when the water is low and know to add more, and lights flash to warn you as well.

You also add more nutrients every two weeks when the lights flash, and raise the lights up when the plants start to grow tall. The system tells you what to do - it’s pretty minimal and easy.

When the plants start growing, you also have to trim them back (and eat the trimmings, usually), and make sure any dead leaves, etc. are cleared out, the same way you would if you were gardening outside. The reward is fresh home-grown foods, even in the dead of winter, a fair trade off in my opinion.

There are various Aerogardens with different sizes and different styles depending on what you are growing. The plant kits include salad greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, various herbs, green beans, romaine lettuce and flowers, if you don’t want to grow foods.

You can't beat cherry tomatoes straight off the vine in the middle of January! Or for that matter, lettuce and fresh herbs as well.

Topsy Turveys and Tomato Trees

The Topsy Turvey planters that I bought had a serious manufacturing problem. They fell apart after just one year of use. The same thing happened with the Tomato Trees I tried.

The ones that I had bought before lasted many years so they had changed the composition of the plastic. To their credit, the company replaced all of the ones that were defective so I can definitely recommend them both to you.