A healthy diet consists of lots of fruits and vegetables. You can find products in a lot of places, markets, shops, farmer’s markets, but what’s even better is growing your own produce. It’s a simple solution to having better health and improving the environment. It can also help you save money in the long run.
It can seem overwhelming in the beginning, but it’s actually a lot simpler than it looks. You don’t even need much space to have your own little garden. If you have a patio, you can create a small garden or even just a herb garden on your windowsill. There are many options, and if you read on, we will show you how having your own garden can improve your health.
More nutrients
We all know that fruits and vegetables are healthy, but growing your own produce makes it even healthier. When you grow your own food, your diet is more diverse, it’s healthier and includes more vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. The majority of products sold in markets has probably been on the shelf for quite some time.
In addition, they are being produced on a farm that is probably far away, so it needs extra time to get to the market, resulting in reduce of quality. It can take a long time to harvest, sort, ship, and distribute food. It can also stay for a long time in storage before being put on the shelf. Having your own produce will make it available instantly.
You can just pick it, wash it and cook it or eat it raw. Eating raw vegetables makes for the best solution, as it keeps all the nutrients that you need. This increases the overall health of your family, especially children who need nutrients the most for proper development and health. Be sure, however, that you consider garden fences to keep wildlife from invading your growth and eating the harvest before you do.
Increases health
Eating vegetables and fruit is the most important thing for health next to exercising. If you grow your own produce, it will be very difficult not to include it in your every meal. The nutrients they will provide will be at the best level, making you even healthier. It’s very important for children, especially, because if you introduce them to fresh and delicious produce early on, they will likely continue eating healthy for the rest of their lives.
The key to a good diet is to eat a “rainbow “diet. If you can produce a colourful variety of vegetables as you can, your body will thank you for staying healthy. Having your own garden gives you the power to decide which and if you want to use pesticides and fertilizers. You never exactly know how many times and how much have the vegetables been sprayed with pesticides when you buy them in the grocery store.
Pesticides can be very dangerous for your health, especially if they have been recently sprayed. Having your own garden can enable you to have fresh, pesticide-free, and organic food on your table.
Staying active
Having your own garden means you get to spend more time outside to take care of it. It can be very good exercise too. You re outside in the fresh air, producing your own food and getting physically active. With gardening, you can improve your cardiac health and immune system. Gardening can be a very therapeutic activity and can help you relieve a lot of stress.
If you are active, you are further expanding your health, reducing anxiety, depression, and you are boosting your energy levels. Being outside makes you absorb more vitamin D. It’s crucial to maintain healthy bones and can boost your energy and help fight depression. Having a garden, even if it’s a small one, will give your children the chance to help you and spend some time outside.
They stay in school the whole day, and when they get home, it’s very common to stay inside to study or play. With a garden, they can be outside, be physically active, and help you. If they are involved in producing food, kids are more likely to eat it. The satisfaction in eating what they helped grow will encourage them to help even more.
Saving money
Another very important factor when having your own garden is the bill reduction and saving money. Constantly buying fresh and healthy groceries can really add up, especially if you want to eat only organically produced food. By investing a very small amount of money in seeds, some plants, and supplies, you can grow a great amount of product very quickly.
Your grocery bill will shrink significantly when you start eating from your garden. If you buy and produce high-quality species, you can dry and save their seeds for next year. Another thing you can do if you have some pantry space is to learn how to dry, can, and preserve your vegetables and fruits.
By doing this, you will be able to eat your produce even when the season is over. This is especially good in the winter when it can be difficult to produce many types of vegetables and fruit. You can make jam, preserves or dried fruit if you have a fruit garden.
Reducing the environmental impact
Having your own garden helps the planet in many ways. Having a small garden that’s only for your family means that you don’t need to use any pesticides. Having an organic garden will save the earth from pollution. Using pesticides pollutes the air, the soil, and the water. It also greatly affects your health and can even produce some diseases.
When you produce your own food, it means that the fossil fuels that are used when transporting the goods from farms to markets are reduced. If everyone started producing their own food, mass production and transportation would become minimal, resulting in a healthier planet and environment.
Food safety
Growing your own food means that the food you produce and eat is controlled by you. You choose what goes into the soil, how you treat your vegetables and fruit, and if you use chemicals. Many people are concerned about food safety in their markets. They are worried about how the food is treated, if it has chemicals, in what conditions has it been produced, stored, and transported.
With your own garden, you don’t have to worry about those things because you have grown your own food. It’s an amazing feeling to know that your food is healthy, fresh, and delicious. Vegetables from your own garden have a much better taste than the supermarket ones. For example, varieties of tomatoes are crossed to make the biggest tomatoes possible. This means they are big, but they have a lot of water inside and don’t have any taste.
Reducing food waste
Food waste is a big problem in today’s world. While some people don’t have any food to eat, the majority is massively throwing out food. On average, people throw out several hundred dollars worth of food each year. Imagine how much food that is! It’s a lot easier to throw one fruit that you have paid less than a dollar for. But if you have your own garden and food, it’s really difficult to throw away the perfect and very delicious vegetable or fruit that you produced.
Growing takes time and dedication, so you will have to think really hard before throwing it out. This will make you more likely to eat all of the fruits and veggies or to preserve them if you really can’t eat it before it goes to waste. You control how many varieties and how much food you produce, so this means you know your needs and how much you need of a vegetable.
This means that you will be less likely to produce excess amounts of food that you don’t need or can’t eat in time, resulting in reduce of food waste. If you have grown a big amount of food you don’t need, consider donating it to families in need. Everyone can benefit from healthy and delicious food.
Garden supplies
No matter if you have a small or a big garden, you need certain supplies to take care of it. Before you start your garden, collect any necessary supplies you need. To start a garden you will need space for it. If you live in an apartment, planters are your best friends. They can stay on your balcony. You will need seeds for the plants you want to grow.
Garden tools like shovels and weeders will make your job a lot easier when planting and ploughing your garden. Plants and crops need water to grow, so make sure you are giving them enough water, especially in the very warm temperatures. If your garden is really big, using quality garden accessories for watering your plants will help you do it quickly. You can use pruners and snips to take off any unnecessary or wilted branches.
This will make your crops healthier and promote their growth. Garden carts come in a variety of sizes, good for any size of garden you have. They help you in transporting your supplies, really heavy bags of soil, or the fruits and veggies you have picked. They are also amazing as an accessory for your garden if you fill them up with flowers.
Which veggies and fruit to grow
Having your own garden means you choose which fruits and veggies you are going to grow. This means you can choose which ones you eat the most, cutting down your budget for groceries. There are many types of fruits and veggies that you can easily grow. Some of them are bell peppers, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, and various berries.
Bell peppers grow green at first, but they grow into very nice colours like yellow, red, and orange. Cucumbers require more space, but you can grow them in separate containers. If you have space to add a trellis, your cucumbers will be healthier and more productive. Tomatoes love heat, so keeping them in containers or plots in the sunshine will make them very delicious.
The more heat they soak in, the juicers and tastier they will be. Strawberries and other berries are pretty easy to take care of, and they provide a perfect sweet treat. You can even make jam for winter. They need a lot of sunshine that will make them very tasty and sweet.
Building your self-esteem
You can easily feel like you don’t have a green thumb, especially if you have grown up in a city. Most people think that if you didn’t grow up in the countryside, you will never be able to grow tasty and healthy food, but that’s just not true. After you start your own garden, even if it’s a small one, you will quickly see how easy it is.
After some time of planting, nurturing, and harvesting your plants, you will see how much your self-esteem in a gardening sense has grown. You will see yourself as a person who can grow his own food and survive on its own. It’s a very fulfilling sense of pride after you eat your own grown food. It feels good to accomplish a new task, and this should not be any different.
Even though having a garden and taking care of it seems like a lot, it doesn’t have to be. Growing your own veggies and fruit will lower your expenses, and you will eat healthier food. Gardening also helps with reducing your stress and generally makes you a healthier person. It’s a great activity for a family and will provide hours of fun and bonding. If you have been doubtful, we hope this article provided you with enough information to decide to start one.
Author’s Bio:
Patrick Adams is a freelance writer and rock-blues fan. When he is not writing about home improvement, he loves to play chess, watch basketball, and play his guitar. More than anything, he loves to spend his time in his garage, repairing appliances and creating stuff from wood.
