When it comes to wanting the best for your kids, diet plays a big part, but lifestyle plays the biggest part when considering how to get your entire family to eat well. Have you ever considered growing your own vegetables? There are considerable pros and cons of doing this, so, what are they, and should you go green or go home?
The Many Benefits
First thing’s first, it’s a fantastic way to eat healthily. By taking a portion of your garden, and planting root vegetables, you’ve got yourself a sustainable way to feed you and your family. Growing your own fruit and vegetables means that you are being organic in the purest form. By growing your vegetables and fruit without pesticides, they will be healthier and will taste better.
Have you ever been to a farmers market? Organic fruit and vegetables taste much better! Once you’ve grown an abundance of various crops, you will have a self-sustaining lifestyle, which means you will save a lot of money in the long run. If you spend a lot of money at the grocery store, by making the shift from relying on in-store produce to your own, it promotes independence, but also, you may start to branch out into other areas, for example, raising hens that lay eggs for you. Before you know it, you may have a truly self-sustaining lifestyle.
What It Does For You
As far as your health is concerned, it’s not just about eating sufficient vegetables. In fact, having a vegetable garden means you will get involved in a lot of physical labor. Because you invest a lot of time and effort in ensuring your garden is sprouting vegetables and fruit, this gives you the incentive to keep working at it.
So, not only does the physical labor count as exercise, but the act of gardening is very good for the mind. A lot of people garden to relax, and if it gets to the point where are you have so many crops that you don’t know what to do with them, you will have to come up with new and interesting ways to store the food. From freezing the items to pickling them, there are many different things you can do with fruits and vegetables.
Organic and Fresh
Naturally, the more you do this, the more you are going to rely on your own food stores, which will save you so much money in the long term, meaning you can live a healthier lifestyle for less money. A lot of people grow fruit and vegetables in their back garden because they are conscious of their carbon footprint.
If you are looking to find ways to help mother earth, growing your own fruit and vegetables is a very simple way to minimize this. Because food bought from supermarkets tend to be shipped from other countries, the amount of fuel used to transport these goods means that over time, their carbon footprint can have a devastating impact on the planet. By going local, and growing your own, it’s a very easy way to give back.
The Drawbacks
And while there are so many positives to growing your own vegetables and fruit, there are some disadvantages to consider. While over time, the costs of being self-sustaining end up quite low, the investments you have to make at the outset can be quite costly. To begin with, if you are ill-prepared to grow fruit and vegetables in your back garden, you may find this to be the equivalent of renovating your house in terms of cost.
You need to purchase the equipment and the essential supplies, from the tools to the compost and the greenhouse. As a result, the garden can cost more per fruit or vegetable than its store-bought equivalent. What can be incredibly insulting, after you spend all this money setting your vegetable garden, taking the time and effort to grow crops, you could find yourself at a loss because of wildlife and pests.
Pest control
Growing a basic plant can mean that you may have an infestation of aphids, commonly known as greenfly, not to mention other pests, but while there are methods of pest control for vegetable gardens, by having a few tricks up your sleeve to prevent pests, you shouldn’t have any problems, such as spraying specific pesticides, or more organic measures.
Arguably, the biggest drawback of growing a vegetable garden is time. If you have a big family, growing vegetables, and giving them the care and attention they need could mean you have very little time for anything else. This is why many people do this as a hobby in retirement. It can be frustrating to spend many hours per week on something that only grows modestly, not to mention the fact that you are out in all weathers!
It is a pastime that requires a lot of time, and a lot of people view gardening as a rewarding hobby in its own right. It’s something that you need to weigh up. If you want to grow your own fruit and vegetables, you have to be prepared to put in the time, effort, and money, at the very beginning.
Time and Balance
Growing vegetables and fruit are very much like growing your children, they need as much care and attention as possible. It’s so important, before heading into an activity like this, to ask yourself if you can sustain it.
Having your own fruit and vegetables is something completely different from planting a few plants. And if you like gardening, then it is a rewarding hobby in its own right, but if you want to grow organic fruits and vegetables for a reason, then you had better start now because it can take a long time for you to see the fruits of your labor. And especially if you consider the fact that you have to balance family life in addition to this, is it worth your time?
A lot of people have allotments now, but people have them for the very reason that gardening relaxes them. If you are happy with this, then go for it, but if you are looking long-term, and you want to be self-sustaining, it’s going to take a lot more effort than you think. But with the right amount of time and determination, it can most definitely be done. Can you do it?