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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Array of benefits make growing produce at home popular

by Ryan Halston - Guest Writer

Making the choice to grow your own crops, fruits and vegetables is a decision that’s seemed to become more popular along with the “going green” movement. The shift towards being more holistic and putting control over consumption into your own hands has seemed to taken place in the past decade or so. Even if you haven’t made the switch to growing some of your own crops at home, there are a number of benefits that could help to sway the decision. 

Price is often the number one reason that people decide to make the switch to gardening crops and food at home. For example, one packet of seeds is generally less than a grown fruit or vegetable. Sometimes, the price of a pack of fruit or vegetable seeds can be less than the price of one or two of the actual food. For the money that’s being put towards fruit and veggies, there is a lot more bang for the buck in growing at home. 

The affect that growing your own food at home can have on health is excellent. When you grow your own food at home, you can control the use of chemicals that are sometimes rampant on food. There have been instances of pesticide, bisphenol A, melamine, and even asbestos exposure in some cases. Growing your own food at home allows you to oversee any pesticides or problems that may occur with the crops, keeping any possible health risks to a minimum. 

The taste and enjoyment of growing your own food is another major benefit of investing in your own gardening practices at home. Taking out any type of delivery and shopping system, growing food at home allows for the highest amount of freshness within the food. Instead of being picked and stored for weeks, then put on a shelf at the grocery store, the fruit or veggie can simply be picked whenever you feel necessary. 

A simple first step of growing a few small items like berry plants or fruit trees can be a great help. These types of plants will live for a long period of time, grow, and keep producing. This is not a project that has to skyrocket overnight, as a garden can be built up through time as you become more comfortable with growing produce. Luckily, with the influx of people trying out their own gardening and produce at home, there are a number of outstanding resources out there to help guide any newcomers in growing their own produce. 


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! I agree that starting small is still a great start. The mister and I started with a couple of fruit trees and branched out from there. This year we will have our biggest crop yet with over 60 varieties of veggies and twelve of fruit. The early years were our learning time!

MAYBELLINE said...

Excellent.

Flannel Jammies Farm said...

Great post! We started with a tomato plant or two and some lettuces while living in military housing. We planted little containers or raised beds everywhere we were stationed. Now that we're settled, we're growing more than ever all throughout the year. Organic practices, nutrient-rich and taste are our top reasons.

David said...

Ryan, all of your points for growing food are excellent ones. Beyond all of the logical thinking, it just feels good to be out digging in the dirt. Exercise releases the tension of the day. We live in such an instant world where everything has to be done now. As far as I know we have not discovered how to instantly grow a plant. Working in a garden requires patience, diligence, and perseverance which are all good qualities to cultivate in our emotional psyche. So gardening is good for all aspects of our lives.

Have a great day in the garden.