The garden is a fantastic place for enjoying fresh air and spending time with the family. You can turn your small (or big) home garden into something even more useful if you start growing your own food.
Here’s a look at the five biggest benefits of growing your own food in a home garden and a quick guide to getting started.
The benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables
If you’re not convinced growing your own food is better than just buying the products from the store, here are some benefits you’ll enjoy that might change your opinion.
Enjoy from fresh, organic food
The most obvious benefit of growing your own food comes from the fact that you know exactly what you are eating and your produce is fresh – it goes straight to your plate! Food security is a big issue in the modern world and studies are beginning to explore the downside of pesticides and other chemicals used to keep our store-bought veggies fresh. If you grow your own, you don’t need to worry about what might have been sprayed on your food – you know exactly what you’ve used.
The benefits of organic food are vast. You’re not eating additional chemicals, you get more nutrients from the food and the flavours are natural and often stronger.
Lower your food bill
You’ll also be able to enjoy from a smaller grocery bill. The starting cost of growing your own vegetables, herbs and fruit is not that high and you’ll quickly reduce your grocery bill consequently. You can find seeds for just a pound on most stores and the produce will cover a number of family meals! You can even opt for heirloom products that can keep popping up and providing you food year after year.
Get more exercise
Gardening is a great way to get exercise and growing your own food will guarantee you spend more time outdoors doing a light workout. The good thing about it is that it isn’t anything too stressful and you can use planters and potting tables to ensure you don’t need to slouch with a bad back. Yet, you still get to do movements with your body, ensuring you stay in good shape.
The additional benefit is that you’re doing the exercise outdoors. This gives you more exposure to Vitamin D, which an essential vitamin for a healthy body. Fresh air is also great for the mind and body.
Protect the environment
Growing your own food in a home garden will also help you do your bit for the environment. Not only are you reducing your impact by avoiding products that add stress to the environment, but you also boost the local ecosystem with pollination. The use of herbicides and pesticides, along with the mass use of water, in traditional mass farming is not good for the environment. Getting vegetables from the other side of the world to your dining table is also adding stress on the planet. By growing some of your own food, you can help reduce this by lowering the demand.
As mentioned, you can also boost the local ecosystem. The pollination that happens as a result of your gardening can help small insects to thrive. Bees, for example, are crucial for our environment but they are suffering under the current conditions.
Nurture your body and your soul
Tending your food garden is not just going to provide you more nutritious food and opportunities to exercise. You’ll also have a mental boost doing it. Studies have shown that gardening can brighten up your mood and help fight off anxiety and depression.
It’s also a great way to spend more time with your partner or the kids. Gardening and looking after your food gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment – important feelings in the competitive, cutthroat world.
Of course, the act of eating fresh vegetables and fruit is highly beneficial for your body. You’ll get the right nutrients and vitamins to keep your body healthy and strong. Boosting your physical health will also help you have a happier mind – we don’t feel as sad when we aren’t out of energy and feeling sick.
How to get started
Enjoying the above benefits is not hard, as it’s rather easy to get started with home gardening. First, you should analyse your garden and pick the vegetables, herbs and fruit you’d like to grow there. The key is to focus on the amount of light your garden provides for produce and the kind of soil and temperature conditions they would grow in.
GardenFurnitureland.com has plenty of great planters and potting tables you can buy for your produce. Once you’ve created the right environment, you can look for seeds and other gardening equipment. To cut the costs, use the voucher codes from www.hotuksavings.co.uk and enjoy gardening produce for less.
Then it is just the time to plant your products, give them plenty of TLC and enjoy the harvest! It’s definitely going to be worth it and right now is the perfect time to get started.
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