With the price of food going up, and all the chemicals and preservatives that are being put onto crops, more and more people are justifiably cautious about what they eat, and as a consequence of this are increasingly turning to organic produce for its numerous health benefits.

The problem with organic food is that it is considerably more expensive than the alternative, so for anyone who wants to feed the best quality food to their family, the bill for groceries is going to be a lot higher than those who don’t. The only alternative for people is to grow their own food, and this needn’t be as hard or time consuming as you might think.

The fact is, that if you have a garden, you can start to grow at least some parts of your food yourself, and enjoy the benefits of knowing where it came from, what was used in producing it, and of course, save a great deal of money on it all.

The first stage in growing your own food is to select an area of your garden that you will give over to food. You should dig over the soil and add an organic fertilizer such as horse manure to make the quality of soil much better and provide the nutrients for food to grow.

Then plan what you want to grow. A mistake many people make is to grow food that they do not actually like – as strange as it seems! Choose a variety of different plants in the first year, and pay attention to how long they take and when to plant them. As you get better at growing your own food, you will learn what will and will not grow in your plot, and discover how long each plant takes to grow, and plan accordingly.

Staples such as potatoes are easy to grow – simply drop a few rooting tubers into a trench and they will pretty much look after themselves. Other plants require a bit more work and you’ll need to buy seeds for them. You can get seeds from most large garden centers, and the staff will usually be very helpful about how to get the best results from your crop.

If you have a greenhouse, your options are even wider. You will be able to grow a variety of plants including cucumbers, peppers and even eggplants if you have the space. Tomatoes are a popular choice, and you can buy a special grow bag that comes pre-planted with seeds and is ready to go.

If you love apples, and plan to stay in your home for a long time, growing a tree will provide you with an excellent harvest each year. Make sure you choose a variety that is well suited to your area – as a guide green apples require hotter and drier weather, while red apples will grow in almost any climate.

One thing that many people who grow their own food will claim is that their food tastes much better than what they get from the super market, although the only way to find out if this is true is to try it yourself. You will probably never become totally self sufficient, but every little will help with your food budget, and give you a great deal of satisfaction.