Why Grow Your Own Vegetables and Herbs?

People who have never gardened or those who haven’t in a while are now growing vegetables and herbs for fun, health, and economy.

1. Garden for freshness and flavor. Most store-bought vegetables can’t match the flavor of homegrown. Vine-ripened tomatoes have fuller flavor, especially varieties for home gardens (not shipping types). Squash is without scratches. Leaf lettuce is perfectly crisp. Basil is fresh and aromatic. The list goes on.
2. Save on your grocery bill. With so much good produce, you’ll make fewer trips to the grocery store. It’s not just a savings on what you grow, but it’s also what you don’t buy that helps you save. Saves gas, too.
3. Minimize pesticide exposure. You can grow your own organic produce.
4. Avoid tainted produce. When veggies are from your own garden, you can rest easy about recalls of tainted produce.
5. Garden for exercise. Gardening incorporates many important elements of accepted exercise regimes, such as stretching and stance, repetition and movement, and even resistance principles similar to those in weight training. In general, gardening burns about 200 calories an hour!
6. For your health. A diet rich in vegetables as part of an overall healthy diet may reduce the risk of stroke and cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and may protect against certain cancers. Eating vegetables that are low in calories instead of other higher-calorie food helps cut total calories, too.
7. It’s social. You’ll have a bounty to share with friends and neighbors. You may also have a chance to introduce a person to how food plants grow.