It’s that time of year where we all think about our goals for the New Year. Most of us include getting healthy as our primary goal. Whether it is to exercise more, eat healthier or lower our stress level, we all have the ultimate goal of working on our wellness. What if one resolution would achieve all these goals? It would certainly seem more achievable. One goal isn’t as overwhelming as multiple resolutions. What if this is the year you start an organic food garden?
Starting a garden, planting organic seeds, maintaining your garden and growing organically will be a huge step toward better health. The following nine reasons will convince you that this is the year of the garden.
- Exercise. You are outdoors, stretching and performing low impact tasks that improve your physical health. Digging, planting and weeding require different movements and involve all the muscle groups. In addition, you can burn between 200 and 400 calories an hour. Plus, you are out in the fresh air, getting physically fit and relieving stress.
- Emotional wellness. Planting a seed, nurturing the plant and finally harvesting food for you and your family can give you a lot of positive rewards. You are adding to the health and well-being of others. You are growing high quality food. Just growing a live thing is an accomplishment. When you are pulling weeds, it is a repetitive motion that doesn’t take much thinking. It is a great time to meditate, which is also a stress reliever. In addition, you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in nature with all your senses. Feel the warm earth, smell the flowers, listen to the bees humming and the birds chirping and enjoy the beauty of your garden.
- Variety. When you shop at the produce section of your local grocer, there is a very limited selection of each vegetable. Often, only one variety is available. When you order seeds, you have multiple varieties. There are the hybrids and also the heirloom varieties. Some plants have been developed to withstand the heat or the cold better than other varieties. The flavor is affected by variety. It may be sweeter or more acidic. Tomatoes aren’t just red. They can be yellow, orange, purple or even striped. Each has its own unique flavor, from a rich smoky flavor to a light sweetness. They can be huge tomatoes where a single slice will hang over the edges of your sandwich, to a smaller meaty tomato perfect for sauces or ketchup. Other vegetables have the same variations as well.
- Higher nutrient value. When you buy produce in the grocery, a high percentage of what you purchase is not grown locally. It used to be that the food was grown primarily in California or Florida; however, now we are seeing a lot of our food coming from Mexico and South American countries. Food is picked, packaged for shipping, shipped to the States and then distributed to your area. It finally reaches your store and may be stored until needed. Much of this food ripens while in transit, not out of the field. This food has been developed to withstand shipping, often at the cost of flavor and certainly with a decrease in nutritional value the longer it is stored. When you go out to your garden and pick food that will immediately be consumed, the nutritional value is the highest possible.
- No chemical contamination. Large corporate vegetable farms use both pesticides and herbicides. In order to produce large volumes of food as inexpensively as possible, they rely on chemicals rather than costly labor-intensive methods. That is the main purpose of GMO seed––to produce plants that can tolerate high doses of these chemicals including Roundup. You can remove some of the chemicals from the surface of the fruits and vegetables you purchase, but you can’t do anything about the chemicals that have been absorbed into the produce. Many of these chemicals have been classified as carcinogenic. It will take many years for those chemicals which are in the soil to decompose. By growing your food organically, using organic non-GMO seeds, you will protect your soil and know that the food you are feeding your family is free of harmful chemicals.
- Reduce food contamination. We all have heard of food recalls and multiple people getting ill from contaminated food. E. Coli and salmonella are frequently the culprits. Sometimes, it is the establishment where you purchase the food product that is to blame and sometimes it is the grower who is to blame. Somewhere, there has been a breakdown in safe production, processing, transportation or storage of these food products. Both of these bacteria will make you very ill and can be deadly. By growing your own food, you will know your food is safe.
- Less waste. This has to be one of the biggest benefits of having a garden. You are much less likely to waste food you actually worked to grow. Since you don’t have to pick the food until you are ready to use it, having it go bad in the refrigerator is much less likely. If you do have more food ready to harvest than you can use, you have the option of preserving it by canning or freezing for use in the coming winter.
- Save money. If you are buying organic vegetables or fruit in the grocery store, you are going to pay significantly more. A package of seeds can cost less than a single serving of the same store-bought food.
- Food security. If you have a large enough garden and are willing to do the extra work required, you can grow enough food to last months or even a full year. It will require preserving the food. Whether you freeze, dehydrate or can the food, it isn’t difficult, but it is time-consuming. Be realistic about how much time you have and how much food you would need for your size of family.
Now that you are convinced that you need to start gardening, the first decision to make is where to locate your garden. Ideally, your garden should be in full sun for a minimum of six hours. More is better. You will also need access to water.
Once you know where you want the garden, you need to decide how large it will be and what type. If you are going to plant directly in the ground as a traditional garden was always done, you will have to prepare the site. Remove any sod and grass as well as any other plant material. An alternative is to kill the grass by covering the area with cardboard or a heavy tarp that will prevent any sunlight from penetrating to the grass underneath. Leave this in place until spring and it should kill most of the grass and plants underneath.
If you live in the North where the growing season is short, you may want to start your plants indoors to get a head start on planting. The easiest way to do this is with a seed starter kit. These kits have everything you need to successfully grow plants from seeds in a short season, including lights. Growing seeds on a windowsill is always worth a try. You will need a window with full sun. The difficulty is that the days are shorter in the winter and there are a lot of cloudy days. You are more likely to have success with a seed starter kit.
What if you don’t have room for a garden or they are banned in your area? You can still grow food in containers. Choose plants specifically made to grow successfully in containers. They usually have the word patio or miniature in the name. Another option is to grow vertically. There are planting towers available that have multiple planting pockets surrounding a central watering tube. There are also vertical planting pockets that are grouped together on a rack that is hung on a wall.
If you are willing to travel, look into community gardens. These gardens are usually located in urban areas and often are located on church property or public land. Some of these gardens require a certain amount of time spent working in the garden and then all participants receive a share of the produce. Others section off the garden and each participant is assigned a section to plant as they wish. There is usually a small fee to cover costs like water.
The last alternatives if you can’t grow your own food are to purchase a share in a CSA or purchase produce at the farmers market. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The farmer grows vegetables and the customer pays a monthly fee for a share of the produce. Each week, you receive a box of freshly harvested food. In some cases, the customer can work in the garden to help defray the cost. Some CSAs include eggs and some include meat like chickens or turkeys grown on the farm for an additional cost. Each CSA is unique, but you will personally know who is growing your food and the farmer is sure of his income. The farmers market is also mostly locally grown produce sold directly by the farmer. Not all are growing organically so ask questions to determine who is growing food the way you would.
Happy gardening!
