Keeping a garden has so many mental, personal, and health benefits it’s a shock to us that more people aren’t doing it. We love top ten lists whether they are about Viking funerals or freshwater fish. Today, we thought it would be interesting to go over food and how growing your own food will benefit you and your family.
You may be thinking, “I don’t garden because I don’t have an adequate yard.” Well, with the technological advances in indoor gardening, it is becoming easier and easier for apartment dwellers and folks with concrete yards to keep a garden. All you need is some great space with ample sunlight. Of course, if that’s an issue with natural light, grow lights can solve that for you here.
So, since we squashed that excuse, let’s move on to the many benefits you will receive by growing your own food.
1. Save Money
This is one of the best benefits of growing your own food. If you have space and capabilities to keep a full garden, then sky’s the limit on what you can grow for your meals. No longer will you spend astronomical amounts on fruits and vegetables when you hit the local grocery store.
Are you a fan of organic produce? Then you are spending more on your food than people who aren’t concerned. You can take those extra dollars and spend them on something fun for you and your family.
2. It’s Healthier
Eating meals that have leafy greens has been proven to be the best way to eat if you want to be healthy. Don’t get us wrong, we all love a good burger once in a while, but if you are eating fast food every day then you aren’t taking very good care of yourself.
When you have a steady flow of fresh herbs, vegetables, and fruits in your kitchen, then you will most likely eat them because you don’t want the fruits of your labor to go to waste. (Pun completely intended!) This will create a new eating pattern for you and you will feel better for it.
3. You’ll Waste Less
When you take the time to cultivate a tomato plant, wait for it to flower, and then watch the green fruit grow and slowly turn red you will be less likely to let that tomato go bad in your refrigerator only to end up in the garbage can. Even if you have a huge bumper crop you will more than likely give away anything you have in excess.
An added bonus is that the packaging, the plastic bags, and containers used when produce is put in a store will not be thrown away when you unwrap them. Imagine if everyone in the world grew their own food. That would mean less gas used transporting produce to the grocery stores.
4. You Won’t Eat Chemicals
You know that there won’t be any pesticides on your fruits and vegetables unless you decide to use them yourself. Very few home gardeners use pesticides that are unnatural, so odds are you will avoid them as well. Health conscious hobby farmers create their gardens simply to make sure the food they’re eating is free of any harmful toxins. Your garden will be no different.
The difference this will make in your over health and well-being will be profound. When we purchase our veggies from a store, they might say that they are free of pesticides and harmful toxins but do we know for sure? We don’t because we weren’t present when this vegetable was planted, nurtured, grown, and harvested. Growing your own food is the only way to truly know how toxic free your produce is.
5. You’ll be Helping Mother Earth
Creating your own garden is a great way to help our Mother Earth survive. Not only are you adding more green foliage to the mix that will utilize photosynthesis to exhale the oxygen we need, you will stop supporting grocers that transport food via truck or rail. The less they work the less exhaust from shipping to be dumped into our atmosphere.
If you grow your garden while using a compost pile you’ll be freeing the dirt of chemical fertilizers, which can bleed from a small backyard garden to surrounding vegetation.
6. You’ll Get Exercise
An indoor garden will not give you the same kind of exercise an outdoor garden will but that’s okay. If you have an outdoor garden you will be amazed at how much work goes into this and how great you feel when you are doing it. Nothing beats putting your hands into some dirt, carrying soil with your own wheelbarrow, and basking in the sunlight while you pull weeds.
Of course, this may not sound like fun on paper, but when you are doing it, you will hardly believe that this is considered work. Another part of your body you will be exercising is your mind. If you are new to gardening then the research you will do, and the learning through trial and error will be an amazing work out for your brain.
7. You’ll Feel Good About Yourself
Growing your own food will be a fantastic boost for your self-esteem. Taking seedlings and planting them well enough that they begin to sprout. Then transplanting them into a garden is a task that isn’t suited for everyone. So many people kill their plants by over watering them or not watering enough.
If you are able to produce some veggies for eating, then you will feel a sense of pride in this amazing accomplishment.
8. You’ll be Spending More Time with Your Family
Making gardening a family activity will have many benefits for your family. Not only will you all be spending quality time together, your children will learn how to grow their own food from the experience. By the time they are grown, they will probably follow in your footsteps and become food growers as well.
There are ways to make gardening fun for your children. You can designate a section of your yard just for them and let the children decide what they would like to grow. If they are more involved with the decision making odds are they will become more invested and interested in keeping it going.
9. You’ll Feel Less Dependent
Having your own food source might not seem necessary to some, but to others, especially those who live in rural areas, growing your own food means you will be less dependent upon the grocery stores or local farmers. While it’s great to support local businesses, maintaining your own independence is important as well.
10. Make Your Yard/Home Look Good
Imagine your home with herbs growing year-round and how that will smell to potential visitors. Or, how does your yard look with those sunflowers you added this year or the burst of purple eggplants growing around your peppers? Yards that are full of colors are aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Conclusion
Growing your own food has no downsides to it unless you consider hard work a downside. We suggest to start small and let your garden grow from there. Before you know it, you’ll be making veggie dishes you never even knew existed with food you cultivated and grew. Sounds like a win-win situation for us.