5 Edible Gardening Tips from Future Growing CEO, Tim Blank

Who doesn’t love fresh from the vine produce?  It’s impossible to beat the flavor of fruits and vegetables grown in your own backyard- and believe it or not, edible gardening is easier than you might think.  Tim Blank, CEO of Future Growing and Developer of Tower Garden, teamed up with us to share his top five edible gardening tips.  With his advice, you’ll be a gardening expert in no time!  Choose a few of your favorite fruits and vegetables to enhance your dishes, or plant a variety and experiment with recipes and combinations.  The choice is yours and the options are endless.  Are you ready to get started? 

1. Grow Up

Don’t let a lack of space limit you!  Despite what you might think, you don’t have to have a spacious backyard to grow your own produce.  Thanks to vertical aeroponic gardening systems such as the Tower Garden, the sky’s the limit!  They work perfectly on balconies, decks, sunrooms, rooftops or in any other limited outdoor spaces. 

2. Location is Key

Where you plant your produce is just as important as what you plant.  Keep in mind that like you, your produce will need the correct balance of sun and shade to grow the best it can.  Optimally, your plants will have full sunlight for at least 5-6 hours a day.  In locations with intensely hot summers, it can be beneficial to bring in some shade in the mid afternoon and evening to give the produce some relief.

3. Plant What You’ll Eat

While it can be exciting to start out on a new gardening adventure, try not to get over excited and plant too much.  You want to be able to eat what you grow and not waste any of your beautiful bounty!  A good rule of thumb is to plant what you currently buy at the grocery store. About one plant of each type of produce is sufficient for the average family.

4. Harvest for Health

Harvest your produce in a way that will encourage healthy harvests in the future.  Herbs, edible flowers and produce all benefit from being harvested frequently.  Herbs such as basil, chives and parsley, for example, are able to produce multiple harvests in a single season if harvested correctly (only harvest 1/3 of the plant at a time).  Edible flowers benefit the most from being harvested in the cooler morning hours.

5. First In, First Out

In order to take advantage of the delicious produce you just grew and harvested yourself, eat it in the order you harvested it.  (This is also a great tip for grocery store or farmer’s market bought produce.) That way, not only will you waste less by eating the produce before it goes bad, but you will also ensure that you and your family are always eating the freshest produce possible!

There you have it!  Tim Blank’s tips on how to grow your own delicious fruits and vegetables right at home.  Fresh produce can elevate any meal from ordinary to extraordinary- not to mention what it does for the nutrition factor.  So what are you waiting for? Find your inner green thumb and get gardening!

What dishes are you most excited to make with the produce you grow?  Tell us in the comments!