** This is a Guest Post 🙂 **
My mom and grandmother always had a garden when I was growing up, at least until my late teens. I’ve always considered them green thumbs. Me? Not so much, but I had the desire. For several years when we lived in a townhouse we kept a small vegetable garden. Then we started studying organic farming and moved to a borrowed 200’ x 80’ field, then helped on an acre of another farm and now we rent 16 acres. We are hoping for a bountiful harvest this year from at least an acre of vegetables, if not more, if we get enough planted for a future cow.
Here are six reasons to grow your own vegetables:
1. Economical. Seed packets are really not expensive and the bounty is so much more than you paid for the seeds, if done correctly. Our experience has been to plant more than you need to safe guard against plants not germinating or dying.
2. Fresh veggies are better for you and your family. Do you know how old the food you buy in the product department is? Yeah, think about it. It is usually trucked from some far away state or country, sits during transport, then in the corporate store warehouse for days or weeks and then the local store warehouse. Each day that goes by more and more nutrients will be available to you once you buy it at the store. Fresh veggies from your own garden does not compare to any other veggies and are much more nutrient dense because of their freshness.
3. Teaches your children where their food comes from. Do your children know where tomatoes, cucumbers or peppers come from? Growing your own vegetables teaches your children where their food comes from and what it looks like on a plant.
4. It’s fun to grow things! To some it seems like more work, but it’s truly rewarding.
5. Rewarding. Growing your own vegetables makes you feel good about growing your own food. It also gives you a sense of pride and accomplishment, which is felt by everyone in the family.
6. Children tend to try new veggies more easily if they grew them. Our children have tried numerous new vegetables all because we grew them. They also enjoy eating them right off the vine. Harvest is one of their favorite parts of growing our own vegetables.
So, if you have never had a garden, do these reasons ignite a desire to? If you are planning on planting a vegetable garden, what veggies will you plant?
* On a side note * It is not recommend that you use cardboard egg cartons for planting, unless you plan to plant the actual plant with the little egg carton cell (its biodegradable). The roots embed themselves into the carton.
Theresa has been married for nearly 19 years and is a homeschooling mom to 8 beautiful children. She is also a WAHM (Work-At-Home Mom). In addition to blogging, she is a Virtual Assistant with her own company as well as a subcontractor to a couple other VA firms. Her interests include: reading, writing, traveling, education, being an entrepreneur, being self sufficient by growing her own food through farming and gardening. You may read more about her and her family at Faith and Family Reviews.
Rachel says
I love growing our own veggies. It is a great way to teach the kids about where their food comes from.
Barbara Montag says
I love growing my own veggies!
I know that they’re organic and haven’t lost any nutrition in transit time.
Favorites are tomatoes and cucumbers.
Thanks for a great post!