Spring will soon be arriving, and with Spring comes the thoughts of gardening. Here are 12 reasons why you should be growing a vegetable garden this year. Maybe you have gardened for years and these thoughts are not new to you, or maybe you have never grown a vegetable garden and are thinking about starting one. This year is a good time to start!
1.Healthy Food
photo credit-thehappygardeninglife
When growing your own vegetables, you can have complete control of how it is grown. What type of soil and amendments are being used, or chemicals, if any, that are used. How it is watered and cared for. Good vegetables, grown in your own yard are wonderful, and wonderfully healthy for you. You might even find yourself eating vegetables that you are not used to eating.
2. Exercise
photo credit-homesteading_in_oregon
Gardening can give you a nice exercise work-out. Gardening is not work free, it does involve some physical labor. Bending, stretching, lifting, all activities that get you moving if you choose to garden. You can soak up lots of Vitamin D from the sun as you garden.
3. Save Money
There is an initial investment in growing a garden-garden tools, soil that might need to be brought in, soil amendments, compost-if you don’t make your own, maybe lumber and supplies for some raised beds, maybe some seed starting supplies. But once the initial investment is made, you can save money by growing many of the vegetables that you eat.
4. Prepare for Winter
Maria’s canning results from her 2017 garden.
Besides the fresh eating through the summer months, if you have grown enough produce, the excess can be ‘put up’, by canning, freezing, drying or root cellaring. How nice to just grab a jar of canned green beans from your shelf or a bag of frozen corn from the freezer and have part of the making of a meal.
5. Sharing with Others
Meadow’s Farm Stand.
How nice to grow enough vegetables to share with others. We have all heard the stories of the monster zucchini plants that won’t stop producing and overgrown zucchinis being left on neighbors door steps at night just to get rid of them, but it is so nice to have enough for your family, and to be able to share with those around you. I’m sure there are many elderly that have grown gardens in their younger years and now are no longer able to garden, that would love some fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and yes, maybe even zucchini!
Share with others!
6. Taste
Some of Esther’s harvest from her 5×5 garden.
There is just no comparison of the taste of fresh-from-the-garden vegetables to store bought veggies! The ripe, sun warmed tomatoes, fresh peas, green beans…you might even find yourself eating the vegetables before they make it into the house they are so good!
7. Beauty
A well-kept garden is a thing of beauty. But vegetable gardening does take a commitment of time to look good and produce well.
8. Training Children
Bethany, with her harvest of cabbages from 2017.
Growing a vegetable garden together as a family is a wonderful way to teach children responsibility and working together as a family with a common goal. Children can take pride in the help that they do.
9. Learn New Things
photo credit-Homespun Friends
Gardening is like any activity-there is a lot to learn. But learning, and trying new things is fun, isn’t it?
10. Sense of Achievement
There is a nice sense of accomplishment in the growing of a successful garden.
11. Time Alone
photo credit-Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
How nice to go out into the garden to spend some time alone and clear the mind.
12. Stress Relief
Gardening is cheaper than therapy….and you get tomatoes! If you have a bad day at work, go out into the garden and hack away at the weeds! Relieve your stress, and have a tomato when you are done.
Have you grown a vegetable garden before?
Are you planning on growing one this year?
Leave a comment and let me know what your gardening plans are for this summer!
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1 Corinthians 3:7
So then neither is he that planteth any thing,
neither is he that watereth;
but God that giveth the increase.
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