This is a guest blog post by our friend Dwight Santana. @Slayerkun on Twitter. 

Margarita

Lately I have discovered a passion for plants. Throughout the process I realized that I can plant, grow, and depending what seeds I purchase, eat. Mostly I have been planting flowers and other type of decorative plants, until I tried to grow some plants with actual purposefulness. I mean not to underestimate the miracle that are flowers, but they are mostly decorative, and I wanted something more with a purpose.

Sweet Peppers

Plant and Grow

So on my “gardener” journey, I started experimenting with cultivating some plants that are either edible or they grow some type of produce. I planted herbs, a tomato plant , lettuce, peppers (Regular and sweet), culantro (coriander), mint, “Yerba Buena” (that stuff that looks like mint and it is use to make mojitos but its not mint), “Anis” and Albahaca blanca” (white basil.)

Sweet Peppers Bail Me Out

At first I thought it would just be cool to plant them and grow them and make it a hobby. Until one day I  was cooking a potato salad and I realized I had not bought some peppers. In my frustration that I’d have to change to mashed potatoes, I remembered that my sweet pepper plant had flourished!

It had green, red, and some yellowish ones. This was perfect I thought, so I picked them, really cleaned them with some water and soap, an proceeded to use them. Let me just say they were delicious and fresh. But a different kind of fresh; a fresh you can only get from just picked produce.

Coriander or Culantro in Spanish

The fruits of my labor

Then I realized that this hobby had turned into something else, something with an actual purpose. This plant completed my meal and it saved me from running out to the store to buy peppers. This part about not going out saved me gas, supermarket parking fee, time (important) and having to actually buy the peppers that would have costed me around $3 dollars. I thought I could be onto something. The thought that I had was not just in the monetary savings; I knew that they had grown naturally without any help of fertilizers or everything else they are used at the farms. It was easy, fun, and the space I used for them is minimal.

Where I live there’s not that much space for planting but I used pots and they are doing really well.

Grow what you can in limited spaces 

I also thought this might be a good resource for saving some money and if you are vegetarian it helps a lot since organic food at places like “Freshmart” are  more expensive.

Here is an opportunity to  actually see  what you are growing and what you’re going to eat.

Some plants that can grow fast are: beans, pumpkin, corn and a variety of vegetables. And here on the island many of them have a perfect weather to grow.

Orange Roses

I may not be vegetarian, but fruit and vegetable are a great part of my meals, so slowly I might change and start  a project, where I can eat just what I plant. I’m betting I’ll be saving a lot when that happens, and the best part, I really don’t need a farm, just some time, pots, and good weather.

All Photo Credits thanks to Dwight Santana!