Five Kick-Ass Reasons Why You Should Grow A Garden
My Calendula photographed last summer
Ever consider growing your own food? Your own blooms? If I can do it, so can you.
This will be my second year as a novice gardner, and I’m taking a few more risks and starting many of my plants from seed! Last growing season I somehow managed to cultivate a successful container garden and I hope to do the same this year. I chose containers mostly for convenience. I don’t plant a large garden so I don’t require an abundance of space. Also I especially appreciate that it takes me less than a minute to walk out on our back porch, grab a handful of cherry tomatoes or a sprig of oregano and bring it straight into the kitchen for preparing.
Nearing the last frost date at the beginning of May here in zone 6, I began prepping and planting in the last couple weeks of April. (For those really cold nights I made sure to cover my pots!) Similar to last year I’m planting several herbs, two different types of tomatoes, two species of peppers and a variety of bee and butterfly friendly blooms. I’m most excited about adding more color to my garden this summer and fall! I’m including Zinnia, Marigold, Coneflower and a few others that in addition to adding bright color will also make for great fresh flower arrangements for my countertop. As I was putting together my homemade soil mix [NBD pinky out], it occurred to me that gardening is awesome for so many reasons! Yes, I’m admitting that I’ve entered a stage of adulthood in which gardening and birdwatching are exciting forms of entertainment. Anyway…Why is gardening so great?
Realizing the fruits of your labor
The truth is gardening is simple, you don’t need any prior experience in order to have a successful garden, but it can be a lot of work. The larger your garden, the more work required. Don’t get tricked into thinking you have to have a large garden in order to be a gardener. Tending to a few plants can be just as fulfilling as tending to many plants. Whether you have a small container garden or an entire backyard dedicated to growing, the time and effort spent caring for your plants is well worth the first sign of a green sprout or the first time you pick a fully ripened tomato from the vine. It is incredibly fulfilling to start a project and see it through to the end, especially when you have a brilliant creation to show for it. The pride and accomplishment felt from growing actual edible food for human consumption from a patch or pot of dirt is indescribably satisfying. Adorning your space with beautiful greens and blooms that you have raised from the ground up (pun intended) is also pretty goddamn satisfying.
Growing your own food
I love being able to provide a few basic, but commonly used ingredients for our kitchen. Growing your own produce is a good way to practice self-reliance and can help cut down on your grocery shopping expenses year-round. Vegetables, fruits and herbs can be used fresh out of the garden during growing season, but can be stored for later use during colder months of the year. Walk to the back yard and pick a few sweet peppers to use for a summer salad, or use your frozen garden green beans for a vegetable soup in winter. Arguably the best part of growing your own food is that the taste is far superior than any product you purchase in a store. Your garden grown produce is fresh (typically consumed within a few days of harvest) and picked when ripe (meaning the fruit has had time to fully develop). Store bought produce cannot stand up to the tasty goodness of home grown because it is almost always harvested before ripened for a longer shelf-life.
Providing a pesticide-free pollen source for pollinators
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, “Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world’s food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.” Many species of pollinators such as bees, butterflies, beetles, bats and birds are threatened by loss of habitat, disease and environmental contamination. That’s a lot of B’s… I imagine myself holding a poster and standing on the sidewalk like a middle schooler excitedly flashing a sign for a car wash: Support all the B’s! Would anyone appreciate my cleverness or would they drive on past scratching their heads because my message is undoubtedly lacking in clarity? Maybe I would offend someone or perhaps ignite a middle finger response, who knows anything is possible. The point here is we can play a role in providing a valuable resource to our pollinator friends which we all benefit from. Experts in pollinator conservation encourage home gardeners to seek alternatives to pesticides to further aid a healthier pollinator population. Even a small garden can help make a difference.
Mental health benefits
One of the most unexpected benefits of gardening for me has been the positive effect it has had on my mental health. Gardening calls to an instinctual human behavior that has been utilized and developed over hundreds of years, making you feel as if you’re performing a task that comes natural, feels right. The combination of spending time outdoors and immersing myself in a productive and re-energizing activity often helps lift my mood. Caring for plants is calming and therapeutic, it demands physical labor as well as thoughtful attention and planning both of which help to keep the mind in the present moment. The physical act of using your arms and hands to work the soil and then carefully nurture a growing green lifeblood is a healing activity for the mind and feels instinctively gratifying. Somebody contact Gardeners Are Us, I have their new mantra: Grow a green garden, foster a calm mind.
An activity that brings people together
Collectively engage in a fun activity; get the kiddos involved and encourage them to sow their own seeds and help care for growing plants. Gardening and cooking go hand in hand and is a great way to team up with your family to create a delicious meal together. Summer months are perfect for grilling out with friends and family and a small or large garden make an excellent backdrop for your outdoor space. We live close to town, but our back porch feels like our own little private oasis, surrounded by green. We spend many hours together sitting amongst the plants, enjoying a cold drink or simply conversing.
There’s so many great reasons to foster your own green space. I hope I have you convinced that gardening is not only beneficial to you and your family, but also to our environment. Which reason speaks to you the most? Did I miss anything? If you’re an experienced gardener, why do you love to garden? I am very interested to know if anyone else has had a similar experience in gaining positive mental health benefits as I have. Cheers to growing green things!
Thanks for reading.
Chance of Showers