The Benefits of Growing Your Own Food
Over the past few years, we’ve noticed a huge demand for designing veggie gardens for residential landscapes. Growing your own fruits and/or vegetables is becoming increasingly popular. While some of us have our parents to thank for passing down the green-thumb, most of us can thank Netflix food documentaries for encouraging us to grow our own food. Whatever path led you to this inspiration, WELCOME! Whether you have a large yard or live in an apartment with a balcony, growing your own food can be simple and easy. If you don’t have an outdoor space attached to your property, many neighbourhoods now offer community garden plots that can be rented.
As with all new projects, start out small. No one needs to grow every fruit or vegetable available. Grow what you love to eat! A veggie/fruit garden can take many different shapes and sizes based on how much you actually plan to grow and maintain. Cultivating your own food is technically pretty simple: soil, seed, sun, and water. Boom, life.
Here are some advantages to growing your own food. Your time and effort are really worth the rewards!
SAVE MONEY – We could all benefit from saving a couple of bucks here and there. Growing produce from soil and seed is a lot cheaper compared to buying from the grocery store. If you have most of your ingredients available at home, you will also be less likely to splurge on eating out. Spending $16 on a garden salad at a restaurant seems like robbery.
FEEL SAFE ABOUT WHAT YOU EAT – I think we all know that “foods” like Mr. Noodles are not exactly healthy fare, but did you know that many store-bought fruits and vegetables contain pesticide residue? Pesticides play a huge role in our food supply chain, as they help producers keep up with growing demand. When you grow your own produce, you can guarantee that your crops are pesticide-free.
REDUCE WASTE – Smaller, localized horticulture decreases the amount of industrial fertilizers and pesticides being introduced to our ecosystems. It also eliminates the fossil fuel consumption and excess packaging associated with shipping produce over long distances. Even a small vegetable garden can go a long way toward reducing your carbon footprint!
MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH – Aside from the nutritional advantages of eating fresh, locally grown produce, there are numerous other health benefits associated with gardening. Studies have shown that gardening reduces stress, improves mental clarity, and helps prevent various diseases.
Tl;dr – Growing your own food can bring huge benefits to your life. Don’t be intimidated! Start small and simple and grow (haha) from there. If the list above hasn’t convinced you already, keep in mind that not only will your food taste delicious, it will also look great on Instagram!
Staff
Sources:
https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2017/fruits-vegetables-most-pesticides-fd.html
http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/what_are_the_physical_and_mental_benefits_of_gardening
