Learn How to Grow Your Own Food

By Urban Harvest


growyourownfoodphotoA surprising number of otherwise well-educated people complain when the activity of gardening comes up that they just don't have a green thumb.

If you are like the vast majority of people, in order to reach your potential in a garden, you will need to take classes, read books, and especially try and try again with your hands out there with the mosquitoes and in the dirt. You will not learn gardening over night any more than you could quickly learn to read or to drive a car or navigate Houston in rush hour.

Start by taking a class. If you are interested in vegetables, there is no better place than Urban Harvest's 25-hour class "Growing Organic Vegetables" taught two Thursday nights a month for five months starting Jan 24. Dr. Bob Randall and Gary Edmondson teaches this class series (Urban Harvest classes calendar). If you are interested in fruits, take Urban Harvest's many fruit classes January through February.

Urban Harvest has many other classes including permaculture which is how to design your landscape to maximize its uses and be sustainable with minimum cost and labor. There are also a whole series of classes every fall on basic gardening techniques and in some years an amazing series on how to attract birds and butterflies and other wildlife to a landscape.

There are an abundant riches of other classes. Many county AgriLife agencies offer Master Gardening classes and Master Naturalist classes. Harris County Extension has a Green Thumb Series evening classes at different library locations. And there are many other topics available for study at Harris County Extension Horticulture. Galveston County Master Gardener classes start in February every year. Fort Bend's Master Gardeners have horticultural news letter that you can sign up for, as well as a master gardeners program. For other counties, phone them.

Classes can only take you so far. Both Urban Harvest and the Extensions offer opportunities to garden under guidance in real gardens. There are demonstration gardens at the Extension offices and you can volunteer in your neighborhood at many community gardens throughout the Houston area. See the Urban Harvest Community Gardens directory.