By Taivan Acer
Recently, more people are growing their own gardens. This may be a hobby for some, but gardening actually has a larger impact on people than just being a way to pass the time.
Many kinds of gardens can be started in a backyard. But one of the most valuable among them is a food garden, which consists of fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The most obvious reason to start this kind of garden is having a personal supply of food at home.
But if that’s not enough to convince you, let’s look at the many reasons why you need to start your own food garden right now.
Become A Healthy Eater
Having your own garden will encourage you to eat healthier. When you grow your own food, you know exactly what chemicals go into them. Thus, you’ll be more encouraged to eat what you harvest from your own garden. And they will be a better choice over fruits and vegetables sold in markets, whose sources are unknown.
Also, by choosing to eat your homegrown food, you will be less inclined to order takeout or fast food. If you’re craving for salad, for example, you can go to your backyard, pick a few vegetables and herbs, and pour over the dressing.
Become Physically Active
Gardening can be an instant workout. If you don’t move a lot, starting your own garden will help you be more active and leave that sedentary lifestyle behind. But if you’re physically active, starting your garden will supplement your extensive workouts.
One study found that gardening can help you burn a lot of calories. For every 30 minutes of general gardening tasks, you can burn 135 to 200 calories, depending on your weight. Meanwhile, 30 minutes of weeding can help someone burn up to 205 calories. These numbers are almost equal to the calories you can burn by walking for about 20 minutes.
Learn New Things
Starting a food garden in your backyard will help you learn new things. In the beginning, you’ll have to research plant-related information frequently. For instance, before planting anything, you’ll have to check the kind of soil it needs. You’ll also need to check how often a plant should be watered, and so on. Food gardening will also allow you to recognize more crops.
This home activity will also help you develop soft skills. For example, since the journey from planting seeds to harvesting food is quite long, you will improve your patience.
Gardening also teaches the value of hard work. Especially when you’re just getting started, you may get frustrated with how much work it takes to grow just one plant. Also, not all plants will grow. While this failure can be discouraging, it can also be motivating. You will learn what you need to do next time, which will only make your success much sweeter.
Improve Your Mental Well-being
Aside from increasing your knowledge, food gardening at home will also improve your mental well-being. As mentioned earlier, gardening can be a form of exercise. Thus, it will help you release endorphins that can improve your mood.
Some studies also found that gardening reduces the risk of depression and anxiety since it helps lower stress levels. Planting can be a therapeutic activity for everyone.
Lead a Sustainable Life
Food gardening is a gateway to sustainable living. By growing your own food at home, you will no longer order food from outside and thus reduce your plastic waste.
Also, gardening would encourage you to create your own compost to improve your garden soil. This would reduce your waste even more. For example, you could use your food and paper scraps and make them into compost instead of throwing them away.
Another effect of gardening is making more sustainable decisions and purchases. For example, if you were to use technology to check and maintain your garden, these extra gadgets would hike up your electric bill. This might convince you to shift to using solar energy at home to save money. Or, instead of buying new gardening materials, you could reuse some items at home.
Connect With Other People
Lastly, food gardening will help you connect with more people. The current pandemic has limited our movement and social interactions, but there is a big online community for home gardeners.
There, you will meet new people virtually to ease the loneliness caused by social isolation and distancing. The people in this community can also give you tips and tricks to improve your gardening skills. You not only get a sense of belongingness, but you can learn new things, too!
It would be best to stop waiting for the right time and get started with growing your own food garden now. It’s not only a great pastime but can also improve your physical and mental health.
