7 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food

via AlterNet:



Planet Green / By Judi Gerber

7 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food
Having your own vegetable garden is now trendy, 38 percent of people planted a vegetable garden in 2009, but there are a host of other reasons, too.

February 26, 2010 |


Not that being part of a trend is ever a good reason to start or learn something new, but if it helps you move forward by being part of the "in" crowd, then you really need to plant your own edible garden this year.

That's right, having your own vegetable garden is now trendy. In fact according to the 2009 Edibles Gardening Trends Research Report conducted by the Garden Writer’s Association (GWA) Foundation, over 41 million U.S. households, or 38 percent planted a vegetable garden in 2009. And, more than 19.5 million households (18 percent) grew an herb garden and 16.5 million households (15 percent) grew fruits during the same period.

The study found that there was a growth in edible gardening from both experienced gardeners and from an influx of new gardeners: 92 percent of respondents had previous experience and 7 percent (7.7 million households) were new edible gardeners.

And one-third of the experienced gardeners grew more edibles in 2009 than in the previous year. The GWA indicates that given the strong response for plans to grow more edibles into 2010, the vegetable gardening trend will continue and there will likely be a new high level of edible gardening activity this year. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/food/145826/7_reasons_why_you_should_grow_your_own_food

So, aside from its popularity, do you need some other reasons to grown your own food?

* The GWA’s survey found that the main reason given for increasing or maintaining edible gardening last year was to supplement household food supply — to help them save money on food. That alone is a very powerful reason.
* There is nothing more local than food grown in your own backyard, your windowsills, or on patio containers.
* Growing your own fruits and vegetables means that you know exactly what does and does not go into your food and exactly where it comes from.
* You will get healthier in a number of ways. Not only will you end up eating more fruits and vegetables, but you will be getting added exercise. Did you know that you can burn as many calories in 45 minutes of gardening as you can in 30 minutes of aerobics? And, working in the garden reduces stress.
* You will get a bigger variety of your favorite fruits and vegetables because you can choose from hundreds of different varieties and you can grow the things you like the best.
* You can teach your children or grandchildren where their food actually comes from and that it doesn’t come from the supermarket but from the soil, the earth that we all depend on.

it helps save money on food. Read your own snippets.

my plans are to expand my garden this year and try a few new veggies.

Going to add oats, barley and wheat for the first time!

My chickes are going to be very happy. :-)

Not much help to the urban apartment-dweller, though.

When I worked in DC, all I had was a small fenced concrete patio, but I was able to have a garden using inexpensive plastic laundry baskets, trash bags for liners and topsoil that I purchased at the local 'big box' store. It's just a matter of determination.

and compare that with the cost of purchasing the same quantity of produce from the local farmer's market? I just got a catalog from some gardening supply company that had all sorts of growing bags and other patio gardening stuff. The produce from those things would have cost at least 4 times what it would cost at a farmer's market.

And the farmer's market helps people who make their livings growing stuff to sell.

Growing veggies on your patio is fun, but it's hardly economical. And, when you consider the energy used to manufacture that stuff you grew your veggies in, it's not even green.

Sensible people do sensible things.

That is priceless to me.

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

I have a tiny urban plot of land that I plan to turn into a SFG if I can ever scrape together the $$ for basic materials.

I've found some good ideas there. Look at your local environment and see if there are any freecycle resources that could be adapted to prevent having to purchase materials.

We ALL benefit from that.

If you don't have land, you can perhaps get a plot at a community garden, or garden in a friend's yard, or START A COMMUNITY GARDEN IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Hint, hint.