The Green Thumb: 6 Reasons Why You Should Start Growing Your Own Food

Photo by Kiy Turk on Unsplash

You tend to wonder what’s with the food you always eat, especially the herbs, spices, and vegetables, that they’re all so pricey. You can’t even guarantee the quality of these ingredients. If you don’t want to spend all day at the market looking for high quality ingredients, why not make them yourself?

As you further read down below, you’ll come to know these six significant reasons why you should start growing vegetables and fruits in your own garden. You’ll also learn about the countless benefits of doing this to yourself, to others, and the whole community. Keep reading!

1. Good for Your Wallet

Who needs money to go to the market when you already have the herbs, spices, and vegetables planted in your garden? With all the expensive ingredients for your meal recipes, you can plant all of these in your garden. You can plant and grow your own gourds, herbs, and other vegetables, provided that there is enough space to plant all of these.

However, without proper orientation, gardening can be expensive. To minimize, start a small garden with specific vegetables and plants you want. A small garden only requires fewer materials to start, which means fewer expenses. To further save up on your garden, you can also dig a compost pit to create your own fertilizer..

2. Tastes So Good!

Nothing tastes better than homegrown vegetables and herbs that come out of your own garden. These freshly picked ingredients can make your dish taste even better and boost your appetite to eat even more. The flavor just explodes in your mouth. The taste difference between homegrown and bought vegetables is mostly observed in tomatoes and gourds.

Bumps and bruises on bought vegetables when getting them out of the fridge are typical problems for any cook at home. With homegrown ones coming from the garden, you won’t have to worry about that anymore. Pick the produce right away from the source and mix it into your recipe to have a nice family meal.

3. Safer and Healthier

Now that you’re growing your own produce, you don’t have to worry if your food is safe to eat. Aside from seeing your own vegetables, you’re also using less chemicals and other toxic stuff for your plants to grow.

When everything from your garden is safe, it makes the produce healthier to eat. Organic products are much fresher and more nutritious than produce that comes from mass production farms. Safe eating and low chemical use is the reason why local farmers advocate for organic planting.

Talking about health also includes the therapeutic and physical advantages of gardening. Since it is an outdoor activity, you tend to burn fat while breathing in the fresh air. Doing this can also relax your mind from stressful work. You know that sweating up your body will be worth it, knowing that there are fresh and nutritious vegetables just waiting to be harvested.

4. Lesser Environmental Impact

Because of its sustainability, your own garden is helping a lot when it comes to taking care of nature. Your unnecessary use of herbicides and pesticides can lessen air and water pollution. There will also be less use of fossil fuel for agricultural equipment and transportation, like those in manufacturers and chosen farms.

You can also help prevent soil erosion from happening in the country through gardening. This phenomenon is indeed a challenge for farmers as soil erosion heavily affects their products. There are available plants that can help prevent erosion from happening, such as forsythia, creeping junipers, creeping myrtle, and Japanese spurge.

5. Improving Local Economy

You can’t plant anything in your garden when you don’t have any seedlings. So, you have to buy these in your local stores. Purchasing seeds and transplants in your local nurseries and garden centers for your garden helps improve your local economy. You also have a variety of plants to choose from that suit the region you’re living in.

Alternatively, you’re also giving back to the community by selling your produce. Most of the time, people plant more than they can eat and this ends up in a healthy local economy. You’re paying it forward by making others experience the joy and happiness of buying, growing, and selling your own produce.

6. Legacy

Gardening is a great legacy to your family, most especially to your kids. They will learn the importance of organic food consumption for healthy living and the love for our mother nature at such a young age. Teach them well, and they’ll become a good gardener and a nature-lover.

Takeaway

Gardening is such a fun hobby to do. It gives relief and happiness and introduces us to organic ways of producing and consuming food that can give numerous benefits to ourselves, to others, and the environment. It leads us to a healthier way of living and lifestyle for us to live longer. Now, you can start making your own garden. Good luck!