After hearing about the latest e coli outbreak which involved pre-packaged lettuce, I started to think about the importance of growing your own vegetables or getting your produce from a reliable local source. Just yesterday, I learned that the e coli virus spread to 23 states from lettuce officials originating from Arizona that was shipped throughout the country. There is something definitely wrong when a staple vegetable is making people sick. Aren't vegetables supposed to be healthy?

Until the food industry is more tightly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, e coli and other food contaminations may be a serious problem for quite some time; to me ,this means that growing a vegetable garden at your home should be a strong alternative to buying produce at your local grocery store. Not only does growing your own vegetables save you money in the long run (let's face it- organic vegetables are not usually cheap at the farmer's market), it's kind of exciting to "pick" your salad every day and you'll know for sure that your vegetables are safe for you and your family to eat.

If you are at all like me, the thought of growing your own produce is a little scary, but I've  come to realize that growing vegetables is not as daunting a task as you might think. Basically, if you can take care of a houseplant, you can grow some of your own vegetables as well.

Luckily, you don't have to have a backyard garden or access to a neighborhood pea patch in order to grow your own vegetables. Once your seeds have sprouted enough, you can put them in pots outside. According to my more gardening-savvy friends, if you are friendly enough with the people at your local nursery, they might just give you some free pots. For those with backyards, raised garden beds are a great way to separate your garden. Here is a link to a site explaining how to make your own raised garden bed. 

Here is a list of some of the easiest vegetables to grow. This link provides specific step-by-step instructions on how to grow some of these organic vegetables from seed.

• Cherry Tomatoes
• Radish
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Peppers
• Beans

When looking for information about which vegetables are easy to grow, I also found this gardener's site, which visually details the gardener's  experiences with vegetable gardening. As someone with a new interest in vegetable gardening, I'd love to hear about any experiences you may have with your own vegetable garden.