Tuesday, March 19, 2013

10 Reasons to Plant a Garden

As most of you know, gardening has been one of those activities that has taunted me and somehow simultaneously drawn me. I have been in love with the "idea" of gardening for quite some time now and have this year, decided to jump in with both "hands" in this case!

It is due to this undying desire to garden that I write this post; 10 Reasons to Plant a Garden. Just in case there are more like me out there who've wanted to but have lacked the courage and/or confidence. In my case, it was both. Yes, I lacked them both!

1. It is environmentally friendly; producing clean air. You don't have to "dig" to deep to see that one. I mean, what was it, 5th grade that we learned that trees and plants breathe in our carbon dioxide and return to us oxygen? Therefore, it cleans the air around you. That's good for the environment and healthy for us and our families.

2. You'll reduce the amount of garbage in your trash stream as well as in the landfills. If you are like us, rather than buy fertilizer for our garden, we started a FREE compost. That's right, we could have gone the easy route but because we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables already, instead of tossing the remains down the garbage disposal, we toss it in the compost bin where it decomposes and will be used to fertilize our garden spot. You'll have less use for the plastic bags and plastic containers that our produce is usually packaged in.


3. Gardening is cost effective. I honestly feel that produce is not too terribly expensive. I've bought from Publix where I've found the prices to be surprisingly affordable and better than Kroger. However, no matter how inexpensive produce is, it will never be as little a cost as buying a pack of seeds which will yield more fruits and veggies than you probably normally buy. You will most likely give some away to neighbors. Which leads me to number 4.

4. You will have more than enough to share. Your garden will produce more harvest than you can eat and probably more than you would normally buy on your grocery trip. Ergo, you'd most likely share with your family and friends and neighbors. A lady in my Mother's neighborhood planted peppers last year and she had so much that on her morning walk, she stopped by several homes (my mom's included) just giving them away. They were delicious as I was also a recipient!

5. It's healthier. It is healthier to grow your own veggies, herbs and fruits as you most likely wont use harmful pesticides for you and your family to consume, which are in turn, harmful to the environment. Have you heard about the fact that bees are becoming endangered and extinct? It is mostly due to the harmful pesticides that are killing them and stopping the natural process of pollination which we need or else our crops will become endangered and extinct!! So lets pray for our farmers and agriculture industry to consider what it is they are actually doing and how to better the process. As a home gardener though, there are simple natural ways to deter insects from eating up your crop. I will share these in another post.

6. Gardening is considered good exercise. It has been reported that 20 minutes of gardening is considered a good cardio workout. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I didn't do much exercising over the winter months but after turning the soil and pulling up weeds from our garden spot, my hamstring muscles were sore the next day and I broke a small sweat while working out there. Not bad.


7. It brings the family together. The kids love getting out there with me to prepare our garden for seed time. Maybe it's their age (they are 7 and 4) so if you have small children, get them involved, turn it into a Life Science lesson, that's what I'm doing. We are writing a new Silly School Song about it also. The 5 Senses song is 98% complete! At any rate, some of our most energetic and meaningful
family times lately have been in and around the compost bin and the garden spot.



8. You get to see seed time and harvest in action. If you are a Christian, like us, you've heard plenty of Biblical references and scripture about seed time and harvest as it is the prime example of how the Kingdom of God operates and one of the most famous parables of all time. As an Executive Chef friend of ours told my husband once, "If you really want to understand how God works, plant a garden!" Enough said.

9. It's a simpler way of life that makes us more self-sufficient. I don't know about you, but I love the idea of being self-sufficient whenever and wherever I can. The idea of being able to plant, produce and harvest all in my backyard is the thought that continually draws me to the idea of gardening.

10. It is good for the Earth. Thereby again, being environmentally friendly. Once you've harvested your crop the final time for the season, all of the plant life that remains will die where its planted and re-fertilize the soil where its planted for next year! How cool is that? God's built in plan of recycling.

Now, I am not your Earth loving nature girl but I do like to do my part and what I reasonably can to protect our environment. I am definitely not a proponent of ruining it for our future generations. I consider us to be right down the middle of the road. We are not perfect but we are conscious of it. I hope our efforts will encourage others to start right where they are and enjoy the process of becoming more green.

You can also check out my older post entitled, Baby Steps to Becoming More Green. Linking up to Top Ten Tuesday!

14 comments:

  1. We're in the process of moving. So, I haven't started a garden this year...yet. I must put in herbs and a few veggies. Something to anticipate! Once we move, of course.

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    1. I hope your move goes smoothly and you get that garden up as soon as you can! Thanks for stopping by...

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    2. You all are doing it "BIG"! lol!

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  2. There's a lot of reasons why we should plant a garden. Saving money on foods and healthy living are two of my favorites.

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  3. Will drop by more often.. ;)

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  4. My kids have thrived as gardeners. I have seen more positive energy put into this activity by my four children (2 of which are now adults) then any other activity. I hope you'll consider sharing this wonderful post at the Look What We Did link-up that I host on HammockTracks. -Savannah www.hammocktracks./buttons/

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  5. Thank you for adding your comments about your kids. I am finding that our kids are crazy about getting out there everytime we bring it up and to know that your kids are still into it today, is awesome! Who know something as old as time could catch the attention of this sight and sound generation!!! Thank you for the invite to post at your link up!

    Steph

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  6. Oh this so reminds me of The Secret Garden. Love it. And you have amazing reasons.
    Following you from Look What We've Been Doing,
    Blessings,
    Janis

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  7. Great reasons for starting a garden! My family moved from a condo (no yard) to a house this past summer. I got a few late-season things planted then, but I am looking forward to having a garden the whole summer this year! We just started some seeds...hopefully the start growing =) Thanks for linking up to Trivium Tuesdays!

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    1. Thank you for hosting and I hope both our gardens do well this year. You probably already know what you're doing though. ;)

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  8. Thanks for linking this up to Look What We Did. Tomorrow I will be kicking off a new link up for April. I hope you'll stop by and add all your new posts. I look forward to seeing what you've been up to. -Savannah www.hammocktracks.com

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  9. great article. I am featuring this on iGameMom. http://ow.ly/kAV5t Thanks for sharing at Mom's library.

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