Growing a garden is an absolutely beautiful experience that gives me absolutely enjoyment and I can’t imagine my life without it! So today I’m going to share Ten Reasons to Grow a Garden to hopefully inspire those who are on the fence about it…
Save money on food
You can certainly spend a whole lot of money on your garden, but I tend to find almost everything I need for free or very inexpensively. Here at our apartment garden we practice no-till gardening so we use lots of nice amendments to build up our soil. Manure, straw, and compost cost next to nothing. All of our plants are started from seed sourced from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. A packet of seeds goes a long way and most will last for a few years! I also love to have local seed exchanges to get new, different seeds and make new friends.
Connect with your food
The only true way to understand and deeply connect with your food is to grow it yourself! You will gain a deep awareness of the soil, the water, the plants, bugs, animals and all the other life that is flourishing in your garden.
REAL organic food
Many of the codes and regulations of organic food in the United States are totally hypocritical of what we think to be organic… With all their rules and wordy documents, how do we really know what is truly pure? The only way to know your food meets your standards is to grow it yourself, or go to the farm that you are buying your food from!
Daily Dose of Vitamin D
Gardening will take you outside in the warm sunshine! Absorb the rays of the beautiful, life-giving sun and let it fill you up with luscious vitamins! The sun can also ease your stress and lighten up your spirit.
Calm your Mind, Body, and Soul
Our lives can be very hectic these days. Computers, checkout lines, driving cars, and meetings can make my head spin 20 ways at once! When I go outside in the garden, it takes me back to simplicity where life moves slowly and naturally. It brings peace to the mind, body, and soul like a deep meditation.
Garden Parties
Have a garden work-day and invite some friends over to share the work and play of gardening! It is so much fun to share the work load with friends and time will fly by! Brew some sun tea for everyone with some of the herbs from your garden and have fun!
Feed the Neighbors
There is no gift I love more than homegrown food, and my neighbors feel the same way! When I knock on my next door neighbor’s door with a big patty-pan squash and a bag of tomatoes, her face lights up and it totally makes her day! Sharing fresh, homegrown food is absolutely rewarding. You can include a little recipe card with your harvested bounty for bonus points!
Local and Sustainable
Eating local food is one of the most sustainable practices each of us can commit to. When we eat local, we eliminate LOTS of harmful fossil fuel emissions from gunking up our atmosphere. Eating food from your own yard is as local as you can get!
Dirt Makes You Happy
Scientists have actually found a strain of bacteria in the soil called Mycobacterium vaccae that triggers the release of seratonin in the brain! So there is literally a little element of the soil that elevates your mood and decreases anxiety! Very cool.
Be the Change
Talking, planning, and protesting may help spread the message, but to truly transform this world we are living in, we just have to DO IT. Take the leap and make a difference in your world by growing your own food.
Linked up at Inspire Me Monday, Party Wave Wednesday, Tasty Traditions, Small Footprint Friday, Fight Back Friday, Saturday Round Up, Simply Natural Saturdays, Eat Make Grow
Re-Grow Roots 
February 23, 2013 at 11:22 am
I do lots of gardening, especially growing my own food. I love it for all the above reasons; it’s kind of meditation for me – I go back to nature and give her back as she is giving so much to me.
February 23, 2013 at 1:46 pm
That’s wonderful! I’m so happy to hear that you garden. It truly is so meditative and purifying. It’s a great way to let go of my troubles and just get back to nature, like you said. What are you growing this year?
February 23, 2013 at 1:29 pm
This post makes me wish I had a garden!
I hope you’ll consider entering it in the Saturday Round-Up, the new blog hop over at A Joyful Mother! I’d love it!
http://ajoyfulmother.com/2013/02/22/saturday-round-up-a-new-blog-hop/
February 23, 2013 at 1:53 pm
Why don’t you start a little garden? Anyone can do it and it’s so much fun! You can start small and add on a little bit every year when you feel more and more comfortable. I live in an apartment myself and we have a nice garden outside the apartment building. We also do some container gardening.
I’ll go check out your blog hop now! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
February 25, 2013 at 10:37 pm
Thanks for linking up!! I did do a container garden last year but I killed it, it was sad :(. We are often gone from home for long spurts and aren’t close with our neighbors. Doesnt make for a good garden :/. I do buy food locally though as much as I can! Thanks for linking up at the Saturday Round Up!
February 26, 2013 at 4:52 pm
Awe don’t give up!! I’m a wanderer at times too, leaving for a good while here and there.. There is a sprinkler system set up here so everything gets watered daily. That might be an option for you. If not, then consider growing perennial plants that don’t need so much water, like herbs and native plants. I’m sure you can find something that works for you! 🙂 Best wishes, Sara.
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February 25, 2013 at 10:13 am
great post. shared.
February 25, 2013 at 11:10 am
Thank you Cory!
March 5, 2013 at 7:57 am
Beautiful post. These are all great reasons.
March 6, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Thank you Tammy! It’s a warm day today and I’ve spent much of it sitting outside day dreaming.
March 23, 2013 at 1:40 pm
This so perfectly sums up the benefits of gardening – I can’t help but repost it!
March 23, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Thank you! I’m glad you like it. 🙂 This is one of my favorite posts that I’ve written.
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March 27, 2013 at 8:26 am
Reblogged this on bookofshadowsandblessings and commented:
I love all these reasons. I also love that my kid will eat veggies right off the plate and when she occasionally tries to tell me she doesn’t like a particular vegetable such as broccoli I can say. Oh your silly remember how you ate it out of the garden? Or the days that I try to harvest say a bunch of carrots and half of them disappear from the sink as wash them and she munches happily.
March 27, 2013 at 8:39 am
That is such a beautiful thing! I have seen many times that kids say veggies are gross, but they’re used to canned and flavorless veggies.. So when they eat fresh vegetables its like a whole new world! Thanks for reblogging my post! 🙂
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April 3, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Reblogged this on BetR2 and commented:
No truer words spoken! Shake off all your problems and get down and dirty in the garden. Thanks to misscorinne at http://agreenishlife.wordpress.com for pointing me to this great post by Re-Grow Roots.