There are so many reasons to grow your own food. How about a short list of only 6?
6 good reasons is probably enough reasons to do anything, assuming it is ethical and legal, which growing your own food is. Consider those two bonus reasons.
Save Money
Produce can be expensive, especially high quality produce grown without chemicals. It will take a little bit of money to cultivate a good place to grow your food. You will most likely need to amend your soil and buy mulch. You may decide you want raised garden beds or maybe you need a fence to protect your delicious garden from wildlife. Those small investments will pay for themselves many times over if your garden is productive. Between the months of May and early December my family buys very little produce at the store and we produce probably 80% of our own. In the Winter and early Spring months when the garden is sparse we eat the long storing vegetables like winter squash, sweet potatoes and regular potatoes and also the food we were able to freeze or can in the height of Spring and Summer when we had more than we could eat. We can tomatoes, pickles, green beans and beets. We freeze berries and melon (cut up in chunks). I also like to grate zucchini and store it in the freezer in just the right increments to throw into a zucchini bread. You will be shocked by how much growing some of your own food will reduce your grocery bill. (This article is primarily about growing produce but my family produces their own meat and eggs as well and that also saves us lots of money.)
Self Reliance
It makes me feel capable to know I can grow my own food. It is crazy how many things I used to buy from the store and eat that I would not have recognized in their natural pre-harvested state. Fifteen years ago I could have died of starvation while standing in a field of carrots because I had no idea what they looked like. Now I can walk into any garden and identify anything in it. It didn’t happen over night. I didn’t have a hundred varieties of food in my first garden, I started simple, with a few things. I learned how to grow them. The next year I added a few more things. I still add a few new varieties every year because it is fun. I recommend getting started with a handful of varieties, and of course grow the things you like to eat, so that you do not become overwhelmed with your first garden. I have no fear of a big disaster or a food shortage because I have dirt and seeds. I have livestock if we need meat. If the trucks all stopped running to the grocery store tomorrow, it would not affect my family. Well, ok, we would eventually run out of toilet paper, but we wouldn’t starve. That is a good feeling.
It’s Not Poisonous
Agricultural chemicals are poisonous. There is no way around this. I want no part of those poisons. Not on my food, and not even on someone else food, because I don’t want them going into the ground. Glyphosate, the pesticide in the widely used Round Up, has been detected even in the rainwater. Growing food without pesticides is more challenging. You have to get out there and pick off bugs by hand or introduce beneficial insects, or plant trap crops. Also don’t plant a huge field of one thing so that the pests proliferate because of an unlimited food supply. There are also “Organic” chemicals. I am not going to say I will never use them, but I will say I haven’t yet. Do I lose a little produce every year? Yes, I expect to. I have lost food to caterpillars, beetles, borers, squash bugs, and other pests. I plan on losing about 10-20 percent of the food I grow to nature, I consider it a tithe. I would rather plant a little extra than put poison on it any day. Also, I don’t use chemical fertilizers. I use compost, compost tea, animal manure from my own farm, fish emulsion, and other natural fertilizers. The chemical fertilizers will make your food grow but they are also full of things that are not meant to be consumed. Stay away from them. There is no price that can be put on eating food that you grew yourself, with the knowledge that there was nothing used in its production that will harm you or the planet.
It’s Convenient
I am a mother of four and I absolutely adore my children beyond measure. That being said, grocery shopping with all of them in tow is probably my least favorite thing to do. Being able to go into the garden and pull something out of it for a meal instead of having to go to the store is so wonderful. And they like it better too. Also, the same child who turns their nose up at vegetables is much more receptive about eating them when they are involved in growing and harvesting them.
It’s Better For The Environment
Already we discussed the not poisonous thing, which is great for the environment. But what about all the packaging that is used for food products now? Even things like single cucumbers or sweet potatoes are wrapped in non biodegradable plastic. Why? It is obviously a marketing ploy. Maybe packaged food sells better than loose? Even if it is not packaged, chances are you will use a produce bag, and you are also using fuel to get to and from the store. Not to mention the massive amounts of fuel that are used to transport food hundred and thousands of miles away from its origin. When you grow food, you walk outside, and pick the food. That is it. No fuel used, no packaging that will end up as a pollutant to our waterways or last for thousands of yeas in a landfill.
Plastic waste is a hot topic currently, you could massively reduce the amount of waste you produce by growing food and skipping stores and restaurant takeout. If you must use stores and restaurants, remember to bring your own resusable shopping and produce bags. Try to stick to packaged items that have environmentally friendly packaging, like uncoated paper. If it is a product you really love and do not want to do without, consider writting a letter or sending an email to the company requesting they rethink their packaing. You can do the same thing with your favorite restaurants, ask them to make the switch to compostable takeout containers.
It’s Great Exercise
Or, as I like to call it, Lifercise. Gardening gets me outside in the sunshine and moving around. Moving mulch and squatting to pull weeds or put transplants in the ground makes me use my body and it does wonders for my mood as well. Breathing fresh air, noticing the hummingbirds and butterflies, it is all so lovely. I would much rather be in my garden than a gym.
So there are 6 reasons, but there are many, many more. Like how awesome will your Instagram feed be with all those #homegrownveggie pictures? And your friends will all be super impressed when you show up to the potluck with a dish prepared using your own home grown produce! Just kidding, there are many many less shallow reasons to grow your own food. Like how far most produce travels away from its point of origin, and the amount of fuel used to get it there, and how that is putting green house gases into the air. All the serious stuff. Not Instagram. Seriously though, get growing! The internet is an amazing wealth of knowledge and you can get extremely specific with your questions should you run into trouble. If it all seems too overwhelming and you prefer to be mentored through your gardening process I do offer garden and homestead consulting, but I promise, it is easier than you think. And every year I am so amazed at the bounty that results from a few tiny seeds combined with a little sweat and dirt under my nails.
One resource I love to share with people is the Old Farmers Almanac planting dates guide. Just type in your zip code and it will provide a personalized chart telling you when you should do starts, when you should put your plants in the ground, and when you should expect to harvest. I know in my early gardening days I would get hung up on when I was supposed to do what, this chart makes it simple.
What do you think the best reason to grow a garden is? I would love to hear from you!
Below are linkd to some items I think you may find helpful on your food growing journey. They are all affiliate links.
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