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Why You Should Grow Your Own Food: 8 Research-Backed Reasons

Ever wondered whether it’s worth the time and effort (not to mention money) to grow your own food when it’s so easy and convenient to just buy what you need at the grocery store? I did—but after more than 14 years of growing my own food under a variety of challenging conditions, I can confidently say it’s always worth it.

Written by Linda Ly

Ever wondered whether it’s worth the time and effort (not to mention money) to grow your own food when it’s so easy and convenient to just buy what you need at the grocery store? Especially if you live in a challenging climate, don’t have a lot of space, or work a full-time job on top of family obligations?

I did—and I’ve dealt with all those scenarios. But after more than 12 years of growing my own food (in two vastly different climate zones, from a small second-story deck to now an acre homestead, and with two kids underfoot while running a business from home), I can confidently say it’s always worth it.

Here are eight reasons—all backed by research—you should seriously consider growing an edible garden this year.

Disclosure: If you shop from my article or make a purchase through one of my links, I may receive commissions on some of the products I recommend.

1. Growing food can save you money.

With the current state of affairs in the world, the cost of groceries has jumped more than 7 percent since January 2021. More specifically, the fruit and vegetable index rose 0.9 percent over January 2022 and price surges are still happening due to inflation.

So it stands to reason that growing your own food can save some money on groceries, but let’s be real: Some people go all out on their gardens and the amount of money they’re actually saving is debatable.

Like any financial investment, your potential return (and long-term success) largely depends on what you choose to grow. Not all crops have the same monetary value, but knowing what to grow can offer significant savings over supermarket purchases.

What kind of crops are worth your time? It helps to start with how much they cost at the market. Prices tend to fluctuate based on the season, geographic location, and environmental factors like drought or disease, but generally, these items are the most expensive to buy organic:

• Bell peppers
• Leaf lettuce (and other leafy greens like kale and chard)
• Summer squash (including zucchini)
• Beans (you can get more bang for the buck by growing pole beans up a trellis, thereby maximizing your garden space)

One of the reasons I don’t include root vegetables like carrots, turnips, or radishes on my list of high-value crops to grow is because they’re what I call “one and done” crops. That is, you plant them once, harvest them once, the end.

It takes a little more effort to keep these crops going through succession planting, and unless you’re looking for specialty varieties (like black radishes ), it’s generally more cost-effective to buy them in the store.

On the other hand, a single tomato plant can yield upwards of 35 pounds of tomatoes. Bell peppers (the organic ones go for $2.50 each in my local grocer) continue to grow all season long until the first freeze, giving you several harvests from a healthy plant.

When you implement an organic, closed-loop garden that uses natural systems to sustain itself (a method that I teach in Lazy Gardening Academy ), you’ll have more productive crops that require fewer outside resources to thrive. And that means more savings in your pocket.

2. Growing your own food results in less waste.

This is a topic I covered extensively in my book, The No-Waste Vegetable Cookbook , and it’s a topic I’m passionate about. In the United States, we waste a considerable amount of produce not only in our homes, but in our supply chains (waste that totals roughly half of the US produce supply ).

There are many edible and delicious parts of vegetables that never make it to market because:

• Industrial farming is hard on the plants due to fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanical harvesting—you know this if you’ve ever bought carrots or radishes with limp, dingy greens.
• They won’t survive transit, at least not without looking a little ragged (which ultimately leads to waste since consumers are wary of imperfect produce).
• People just don’t know what to do with them because they’re not widely used in this country (but are, in fact, staples in other countries).

That doesn’t mean things like pea shoots, broccoli leaves , squash leaves, and sweet potato leaves are any less nutritious or palatable than their more commonly known “vegetable parts” (in fact, they sometimes pack even more nutrients than the pods, flower buds, fruits, and tubers).

It simply means we, as a culture, need to open ourselves to “new” foods and strive to make vegetables a larger portion of our meals.

Read more: 11 Vegetables You Grow That You Didn’t Know You Could Eat

When you grow your own food, you not only minimize waste, you double the amount of food in your garden (without having to plant more plants) because you can harvest and use the entire vegetable from top to tail. (And that goes back to the first reason: growing food can save you money, sometimes in unexpected ways).

(Pssst… I have an entire guide inside Lazy Gardening Academy that details all the edible parts of common vegetables you buy or grow, so you always know what’s safe to eat and how to prepare it.)

3. Food you grow is guaranteed to be fresh.

About 30 percent of fresh vegetables and 55 percent of fresh fruits sold in the United States come from overseas , and those numbers continue to grow. That means they traveled many hundreds or thousands of miles to reach your grocery store, in trucks, trains, and ships.

How fresh do you think all that produce really is by the time it lands on your table?

Yeah, probably not so fresh—especially when a lot of vegetables (for example, tomatoes) are harvested when they’re still green and forced to ripen in produce distributors’ warehouses by artificial exposure to ethylene gas.

This is why your red, supposedly-ripe supermarket tomatoes are still rock hard when you buy them and taste kind of like styrofoam. (Honestly, you’re probably better off buying canned tomatoes if you intend to cook them.)

Related: 4 Easy Ways to Ripen Your Tomatoes on the Vine

No one can argue that your own yard is as fresh and local as it gets. And since your food is just steps away, you can pick your vegetables at peak ripeness (and peak nutrition) in the proper season, with flavors and textures that surpass those of commercially grown produce.

4. Homegrown produce doesn’t get recalled.

So, all the vegetables and fruits I just mentioned that are shipped from overseas? Turns out, less than 1 percent of imported foods are physically inspected by the FDA.

When you grow your own food, you control your growing environment. And that means you don’t need to worry about E. coli, salmonella, or listeria outbreaks, as long as you keep a tidy garden and have a clean water source.

5. Commercially grown produce often lacks nutrients.

Despite (or because of) scientific advances and modern farming practices, the vegetables of today have fewer vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients than the vegetables our grandparents and great-grandparents ate. Research has shown up to a 40 percent decline in nutritional content in fruits and vegetables since the 1940s.

Agricultural researchers attribute this decline to two causes :

Environmental dilution effect. The yield increases resulting from fertilization, irrigation, and other environmental means used in industrial farming tend to decrease the concentrations of minerals in those plants. So while farmers can get greater yields from their crops (at more affordable costs), it comes at the expense of lower-quality food.

Genetic dilution effect. This is the result of scientists breeding high-yielding crops without a focus on broad nutrient content, and it’s why heirloom tomatoes are far more flavorful and nutritious than conventional tomatoes .

Much of the food grown commercially comes from hybrid plants that were bred for “desirable” characteristics such as pest and disease resistance, uniformity in appearance, and high yields in a short span of time. While all of this makes it easier for industrial farmers to reliably produce vast amounts of perfect-looking food, nutritional value sometimes suffers.

6. You know exactly what goes in (and on) your food.

There’s another reason conventional supermarket produce looks so perfect: pesticides.

Not all pesticides are equal, as some are relatively benign while others are more concerning (especially to children and other vulnerable people). But, it’s always wise to reduce or moderate your consumption of fruits and vegetables that are known to be vigorously treated with pesticides.

The numbers are fairly shocking if you’ve never thought about it. For example:

• Strawberries may contain as many as 45 pesticide residues .
• Celery may contain as many as 64 pesticide residues .
• Cucumbers may contain as many as 86 pesticide residues .
• Sweet (bell) peppers may contain as many as 53 pesticide residues .
• Spinach may contain as many as 54 pesticide residues .

EWG has a handy guide for what it calls the “Dirty Dozen” (that is, plants you should probably grow yourself to avoid contaminants) and the “Clean 15” (plants that are least likely to contain pesticide residue).

In my garden, even natural or organic pesticides (like neem oil or insecticidal soap ) are a last resort.

Rather, I rely on biological controls, crop rotation, interplanting, and soil building to manage pests effectively, and these are methods I teach inside Lazy Gardening Academy . (It might sound complicated, but I named my course Lazy Gardening for a reason!)

7. Growing your own food makes you happier.

There’s certainly a feeling of accomplishment when you harvest something you grew with your own hands, but that natural high isn’t merely pride: It’s also the result of mood-altering soil bacteria entering your bloodstream.

Read next: Getting Stoned on Soil: How to Dose Yourself With Nature’s Happy Drug

No need to panic though. The feel-good bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae , is harmless and present in all living soils.

By working in your garden or running your hands through soil, you inadvertently inhale M. vaccae (or get it through a cut), which (according to a 2019 study ) has anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory, and stress resilience properties.

In other words, M. vaccae bacteria works like nature’s Prozac, giving you a serotonin boost and improving your mood and performance every time you come in contact with the earth.

8. Gardening is simply good for your health.

So you know the mental benefits of gardening, but how about the physical benefits?

Just the simple act of getting outside and doing some light physical activity like mulching , mowing, or raking can reduce cardiovascular mortality by 19 percent. (And according to this study , all it takes is 15 minutes a day of moderate exercise. I don’t know about you, but I get that just from moving bags of compost around the yard!)

Science has proven many times over that gardening has positive effects on your overall health and body by contributing to longevity , reducing heart disease and stroke , reducing risk of death from respiratory illnesses (thanks to improved air quality), warding off dementia , reducing obesity , improving your sleep , and boosting vitamin D levels (which in turn help prevent chronic diseases ).

All that—without ever stepping foot in a gym, and with all the joy of feeding yourself and your family fresh, nutrient-dense food while doing good for the earth, too.

Learn how to grow more food with less work—using my tried-and-true Lazy Gardening techniques.

View the Web Story on research-backed reasons you should grow your own food .

I'm a plant lover, passionate road-tripper, and cookbook author whose expert advice and bestselling books have been featured in Time, Outside, HGTV, and Food & Wine. The National Parks Cookbook is my latest book. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring—all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors. After all, the secret to a good life is... Read more »

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Dig into the benefits of gardening

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Growing your own food in a garden isn't a new idea. It was a critical way for ancient people to have access to reliable, nutritious foods.

The necessity of vegetable gardens has varied through time. Gardening has gained popularity recently, even with easy and inexpensive access to food at grocery stores.

A study found that interest in gardening increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. People spent more time at home and turned to their gardens for a connection to nature, stress relief and food provisions.

For 10 years, I've tended large vegetable and flower gardens at my home. I find it to be challenging and gratifying to watch the gardens grow and develop.

Here are a few of the many benefits I've found from digging in the dirt:  

Increased exercise.

A busy day in the garden can be a good form of exercise. While tending a garden, you perform functional movement that mimics whole body exercise. You perform squats and lunges while weeding. Carrying bags of mulch and other supplies works large muscle groups. Digging, raking and using a push mower can be physically intense activities.

You may burn as many calories as a workout in the gym. If you aren't used to these types of activities, it is likely that you will feel a bit sore after a busy day gardening. Gardening also can improve your balance, strength and flexibility.

Gardening activities can be modified if movement is a challenge. There are different ways to participate if you think outside of the box. Use a small stool or raised garden beds if you suffer from back pain. A shovel or rake can be used to support your knees when squatting. Smaller pots are lighter and easier to move than large ones. Buy smaller bags of mulch or soil that are easier to carry.

Improved diet

Growing and eating your own fruits and vegetables can have a positive impact on your diet. Gardeners are more likely to include vegetables as part of healthy, well-balanced diets. My family eats corn, potatoes and salsa made from ingredients grown in our garden year-round.

Different vegetables have a variety of unique health benefits. Peppers contain capsaicin, which has anti-inflammatory properties and can reduce heart disease. Tomatoes are high in vitamin C and potassium. They also contain lycopene, an antioxidant that may reduce prostate cancer risk. Sweet potatoes are high in beta carotene, an antioxidant that may help slow the aging process and reduce the risk of some cancers. Spinach may boost your immune system and broccoli protects your body's cells from damage.

Time in nature

Getting outdoors is good for your physical and mental health. People tend to breathe deeper when outside. This helps to clear out the lungs, improves digestion, improves immune response and increases oxygen levels in the blood.

Spending time outdoors has been shown to reduce heart rate and muscle tension. Sunlight lowers blood pressure and increases vitamin D levels.

Reduced stress levels

Nearly all forms of exercise can reduce stress including gardening. It's been shown to lighten mood and lower levels of stress and anxiety. It's very gratifying to plant, tend, harvest and share your own food.

Routines provide structure to our day and are linked to improved mental health. Gardening routines, like watering and weeding, can create a soothing rhythm to ease stress.

After a day in the clinic, my routine is to check in with my family and then spend an hour or so in my garden. I find that pulling weeds can be therapeutic and calming after a long day. It provides the opportunity to slow down, plan or mentally work out a problem.

Social connection

Gardening brings people together and strengthens social connections. The gardening community is rich with people willing to share their expertise, time and occasionally plants with new gardeners. Master gardeners are local volunteers dedicated to educating and empowering fellow gardeners. Community garden plots bring together people with diverse backgrounds to work on a common goal. Many gardening friendships begin over celebrating a success or bemoaning a gardening misstep.

Social connections are important because they help lower stress, improve resilience and provide support during difficult times in life. A strong sense of belonging lowers your risk of depression, anxiety and suicide.     

The friendships that I've made have been the biggest benefit of gardening for me. During the spring, my friends and neighbors plan our vegetable gardens together. We discuss what worked well or needs to be improved from the previous year. In summer, we share extra produce with each other. In the fall, we host a big salsa making party to enjoy the harvest together. These activities improve the joy we get out of the garden and strengthen our connections.

Starting a garden

Here are three tips if you are considering starting a garden at your home:.

• Start small. It's easy to get excited and want a large plot with many plants. Don't take on more than you can handle because that could cause more stress. The larger the garden, the more work it is. It can quickly overwhelm you if you don't have enough resources or time to care for it. You can always increase the size of your garden in the future.
• Build a network. Find other people who are interested in gardening. Learn from each other's successes and failures.
• Research appropriate plants. Find plants that grow well in your climate or hardiness zone. Talk with local master gardeners or county agricultural resource office to get tips on what plants thrive in your area. This improves your chances of success and lowers the stress and potential disappointment.

Related Posts

Grow Your Own Food Movement: Benefits of Self-Sufficiency

Have you ever wondered about growing your own food? Why grow your own food when you can so easily buy fruits and vegetables at the supermarket?

People who grow their own food care about their health. And they understand the positive impact of being in charge of what they eat.

Who would you put in charge of producing the food your family eats if you believed that food impacts everything you ever cared about? To take charge of what you eat means that you have to take charge of producing it. If you care about your health, growing your own food should be an important part of your life.

Can you be self-sufficient on one acre?

You can be self-sufficient on one acre of land. Of course, you could try to be self-sufficient in a smaller area, but it would be tough. But being self-sufficient is not just about the size of your land. It’s about your skills, climate, and time and energy invested in the land.

For a family of four, self-sufficiency is more than possible on one acre of land. But, it isn’t possible as a beginner. You need experience. Of course, you can learn everything you need to know, but it’ll take longer than one season. But, if you stick with it, every year you’ll become a better, more efficient gardener.

Why has gardening reached an all-time high?

According to the National Gardening Survey, 77 percent of American households are gardening . Many people focus on gardening with a purpose. They are kitchen gardeners , keeping edible gardens. Their focus is gardening to enjoy fresh, nutritious, and organic produce right from the backyard.

What is a kitchen garden?

Many of us know the kitchen garden by the name of a veggie plot. More gardeners than ever are devoting space to growing food. The kitchen garden is about utility, designed for growing fruits and vegetables, herbs , and harvest throughout the year.

It’s best to cat-proof your garden to keep your plants and vegetables safe from and for your cat.

What are the benefits of growing your own vegetables?

There are many benefits of growing your own organic food, such as:.

• You can always eat what’s fresh and learn to appreciate the difference between homegrown and store-bought produce.
• You will learn to eat what’s in season, enjoying fruits and vegetables at their peak flavors.
• Planting a seed and watching it grow into food is one of the most gratifying experiences.
• Because you can pick as much food as you need, you don’t have to worry about waste. It is estimated that people who buy their food waste about 30 percent of it.
• When you grow your own food, you can eliminate pesticides. You are free to harvest chemical-free produce in your kitchen garden. Many store-bought vegetables such as spinach, peppers , celery , and tomatoes contain high amounts of pesticides.
• You can choose the varieties you want to grow. When you buy your food, you are limited by whatever the store has in inventory.
• You can taste the difference between homegrown organic food and store-bought food.
• There is no need to worry about foodborne illness. Home gardeners can reduce the danger of food contamination. Some of the most common foodborne illnesses are caused by Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria.
• Gardening is exercise . You will not only eat fresh produce harvested in your very own kitchen garden, but you will also live a healthier life.
• If you want to save money, you will love growing your own food.
• People who grow their own food take charge of their food supply. They don’t rely on corporations to produce their food.

How much food can you grow on 1/4 acre?

A one-quarter acre of land may not sound like much, but it is a large enough area to produce enough food for a family of four. If you think about it, a one-quarter plot of land is 10,890 square feet. Numbers don’t lie. You can produce more than one pound (closer to 1.4) of homegrown organic food on every square foot of land.

How much food can you grow on half an acre?

You could produce around 30,000 pounds of food on one-half of an acre of land. That means that you could feed at least three families of four on half an acre of land.

How much food can you grow on 1 acre?

If you know what you are doing, you could produce about 60,000 lbs of food on one acre in a year. However, they say a family of four only consumes about 8000 lobs of food in a year. So, you could produce enough food on one acre to feed at least seven families of four.

How many vegetables can you grow in one acre?

In general, you can expect to grow about five tons of vegetables per acre. That is five tons per season. If the climate allows for a second growing season, yield may increase to ten tons per acre.

How many vegetables you can grom in one acre depends on several factors:

• Vegetable crop – For example, you can grow more pumpkin per acre than beans.
• Organic or chemical treated
• Fertilization

Organic crops generally yield less than non-organic crops.

How many carrots can you grow in one acre?

A farmer can expect to grow up to eight tons of carrots in one acre of land.

How much food can you grow on 2 acres?

You can grow 120,000 pounds of food on two acres. That is enough to feed about 15 families of four.

How many people can be fed year-round off of one acre of crop growing?

You could feed anywhere from one to one hundred people year-round off of one acre of crop growing. Are you growing soybeans or corn? Or, are you raising cattle on your one-acre land? Of course, raising beef would be a lot more inefficient than corn or soybeans. Corn, on the other hand, is a super productive crop.

Besides, a lot has to do with the person’s diet you are trying to feed. For example, while a non-meat eater could live off of a quarter of an acre, a meat eater would require about one acre.

Did you know that one hour of gardening burns over 300 calories?

Why growing your own food is important.

When you grow your own food, you value it more. Even if you only grow some of your food, you appreciate the effort it took to get to your table. You won’t have to settle for nearly ripe fruit bought at the supermarket. Your family will only eat fruits and vegetables ripened in your garden.

Tips for growing your own food at home

• For home gardeners who are lucky enough to have a lot of space in their yard, raised beds could be a great option. Raised beds allow home gardeners to maximize space.
• Container gardening is excellent if you have limited space. You can grow almost any kind of vegetable in a container.
• Vertical gardening is the ideal choice for urban gardeners. Growing food in such as way at home makes sense if you have to work in a smaller space. Vertical gardening offers many options, but it requires some creativity to get the most out of your space available for gardening.
• To maximize space and eliminate the need for walkways, you could grow your food in keyhole gardens. This drought-resistant garden can produce food for your family throughout the growing season.
• Even if you don’t have a yard, growing your food in a community garden is an option. In the process, you could make some new friends too.

Why should you grow your own food?

Growing your food gives you the opportunity to grow what you want. You can get your children involved and teach them about the importance of taking control of your food. If your children take part in growing the foods they eat, they will be less picky when it comes to eating.

What are the health benefits of growing your own food?

There are several major health benefits to growing your own food:

• Working in your garden helps you stay fit and connected to nature. Gardening activities such as planting, weeding, and digging can strengthen your heart.
• Gardening increases muscle strength. Working in your yard keeps your hands and fingers strong.
• Eating homegrown fresh fruits and vegetables helps you eat healthier.
• You can grow what you want. You can harvest your fruits and vegetables when you want. Vegetables that ripen in your garden have greater nutritional value than store-bought produce.
• Gardening improves your mental health, reducing stress, depression, and anxiety. A healthy bacteria, called M. vaccae, may increase serotonin levels and reduce anxiety.
• Working in the sun is a great way to get a healthy dose of vitamin D into your body. Vitamin D increases the calcium levels in the body, which benefits your immune system and your bones.

Can you save money by growing your own food?

Families who grow their own food will significantly reduce their grocery expenses. Kitchen gardens are especially helpful for low-income populations.

What would be the economic impact of growing your own food?

According to one estimate, a family investing $25 in their kitchen garden could expect to save nearly $500 per year on groceries.

Is it worth growing your own food?

Growing your own food is as close to growing money as you can get. When you grow your own food, you don’t just eat fresher and healthier foods, you are also saving money. More important than saving money is that when you grow your own food you are eating the freshest and the highest quality foods.

There are several reasons it is worth it to grow your own food, including:

• You are becoming more self-sufficient when you are growing your own food.
• Your entire family can take part in growing your food. It is something you work on and enjoy together as a family.
• When you grow your own food you know everything about the fruits and vegetables you eat.
• Growing food can save you money, as long as you grow the right fruits and vegetables. Not all crops make sense in every climate. You have to do your homework to make sure you plant the right fruits and vegetables in your garden. Talk to experienced gardeners in your area to find out which crops are cheaper to grow.
• The fruits and vegetables from your own garden will always be fresh. When you buy fruits and vegetables at the supermarket, you are eating produce that traveled great distances. Some vegetables can be shipped from overseas. Would you rather eat produce grown in your own backyard or produce shipped to your local grocery store from another continent? Remember that only about 2 percent of imported produce is inspected.

Growing your own food vs. buying.

Starting a kitchen garden takes some upfront costs, but in the long run, it makes financial sense.

What can you plant in a kitchen garden?

Some of the most cost-effective homegrown vegetables are:.

• Cherry tomato
• Hybrid tomato
• Heirloom tomato
• Winter squash

These are some of the least cost-effective vegetables:

• Bell pepper
• Brussel sprouts
• Green cabbage

Can you grow veggies in pots?

You can grow vegetables in small containers and pots . Pots make a great edible garden. You don’t need specially made pots for vegetables. As long as they are large enough and located in a sunny area, your vegetables will grow nicely.

How can you grow most of your food?

Starting a kitchen garden is a huge step toward self-reliance. There is nothing more rewarding than eating what you grow. It’s so empowering to walk out to the vegetable garden and pick your own vegetables minutes before you eat.

In order to grow most of your own food, you should:

• Maximize your space – To maximize your garden is to understand your space. Your backyard might lack the required sunlight for certain crops. You might want to utilize every square inch of your yard. There may be sloops or areas with rocks.
• Improve the soil to include essential nutrients for your crops.
• Set realistic goals. How much space do you have? How much time can you invest in gardening? It is best to start small and grow as you learn.

How growing your own food can benefit the planet?

Growing your own food is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Think about the amount of energy it takes to transport produce to the grocery store. Food is transported an average of 1,500 miles before it is consumed.

What are the environmental benefits of growing your own food?

The produce you buy at the grocery store has been treated with pesticides and fertilizers. Many pesticides have not been extensively researched and were linked to cancer and other diseases.

If you grow your own food, you say no to monocropping. Monocropping, or growing only one type of crop in huge areas, is a harmful farming practice because it ravages biodiversity. Even worse, monocultures can’t exist without pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and genetically modified (GMO) seeds.

Growing your own food and climate change?

A society whose citizens grow their own food depend less on fossil fuels. Think about it. Eight percent of our total carbon footprint comes from the food we eat. Kitchen gardeners could reduce their carbon footprint by about 68 lbs of CO2 per year.

Can growing your food help you upcycle?

Instead of buying products made of virgin materials upcycle something old. Use containers and planters in your garden made from upcycled materials.

You can grow your food upcycling any of the following:

• An old tire

What are the disadvantages of growing your own food?

There are a few disadvantages to growing your own fruits and vegetables. Growing your own food requires a lot of your time and a little bit of your money. If you are serious about growing your own food, you have to make the time. It is a simple equation. If you fail to set aside the time it takes to take care of your garden, your kitchen garden project will fail.

Unfortunately, growing your vegetables comes with pests and diseases. For one reason or another, you may not always get the yields you have expected. Leaving home for a vacation or a longer business trip could complicate keeping your garden going. If you plan ahead, you might be able to ask a friend or neighbor for help while you are gone.

The statistics of growing your own food.

The average size of a kitchen garden in the United States is 600 square feet. Seventy-nine percent of good gardeners are college graduates, and 54 percent are females. Tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers are the three most popular homegrown vegetables. On average, Americans spend five hours growing their own food.

Are millennials growing their own food?

Backyard veggie plots are popular with millennials. Millennials are attracted to the lifestyle gardening offers. Gardening is a welcomed break from smartphones and social media accounts. Because millennials value independence and are concerned about the planet, they are thrilled about growing their own food.

Can you grow vegetables indoors?

You don’t have to give up on growing your own food just because it’s cold outside, or you have no garden space. With the right amount of light, you can grow small fruits, leafy greens, and herbs.

Finding the ideal location with optimal light is key. If there is insufficient light, you might have to boost your light with grow lamps. This is even more important during the darker winter months.

How to grow food with hydroponics?

Hydroponics gardening is ideal for tomatoes, melons, radishes, lettuce, celery, berries , cucumbers, herbs, and grapes . Hydroponics food gardens are neither expensive nor complicated to set up.

What can you grow in a hydroponic garden?

The best plants to grow in a hydroponic garden are:.

• Blueberries
• Strawberries
• Bell peppers

Plants with deep roots such as carrots, potatoes, and turnips are more difficult to grow hydroponically.

Is it illegal to grow your own food?

Some of you may be concerned about whether or not it is legal to grow your own food. The short answer is, it is absolutely legal to grow your own food, and there has never been a better time to start. Cities may make restrictions regarding the height of plants and the presence of dead plant material in front yard areas.

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Benefits of Raising Your Own Fruits and Vegetables Research Paper

Introduction.

Raising your own fruits and vegetables in a personal garden provides one with a very satisfying experience. The taste of the home-grown fruits and vegetables is incomparable to those that are sold in the supermarket and such organic produce is even healthier since there no use of pesticides or herbicides is made. Also, most of the vegetables lose some of the healthy nutrients in them after they have been picked (Bruning & Lierberman 22); growing your own greens means that you can have them right after gathering them, thus obtaining the maximum possible health benefits from them.

This is certainly a great advantage to the vegetable gardeners. However it is not the sole one. Home grown fruits and vegetables are popular due to other reasons as well. One such is that gardening offers with a wide variety of benefits to your body. The fresh air and the exercise together make a perfect combination for a perfect health. In addition, it is said that working in natural surroundings leads to reduced stress and increased wellness (Francis & Hester 6).

Another major benefit of home grown fruits and vegetables happens to be the financial savings that result due to this; this is more the case if the home garden is planned to be for a long term. The prices of food have been rising (Geneflow 28) and at such a moment the best option could be to grow your own fruits and vegetables. Home vegetable and fruit gardens have become extremely popular now, that is during the recession.

There is an opposing view that home gardening does not lead to any economic benefits. The argument for this is that although you are working hard in order to grow your very own fruits and vegetables, you can easily get the very same items in the market and even at a lower cost. This is certainly possible since the professional growers would be having their huge farms on which they produce on a large scale. The result is the same products as yours but at a reduced price.

Although the above argument has some weight in it, there are various factors that prove otherwise.

Caring for your very own vegetable garden would certainly allow you to save money. Such a garden should be growing all kinds of vegetables and fruits that you require in everyday use. All you would need to do is to buy the variety that you want and you can simply cultivate that in your personal garden. This would result in a whole harvest of vegetables and fruits which you might want. The money spent for the purchase of the seeds will be only a small percentage of the money that you would spend for buying the same products in a market. You can produce huge amounts of fruits and vegetables, all in your backyard. The extra can be distributed or sold, or you can even get it canned for later use. That again means less purchasing of items from supermarkets.

Apart from this, it is much cheaper if you buy a packet of seeds and grow the plants yourself. For example, you will be spending less if you purchase lettuce seeds as compared to if you purchase a head of lettuce. Seeds certainly are cheaper than the fully grown plants.

A varying point here can be that there are expenses other than just the seeds in home gardening. For example, there have to be purchases made of certain other things, like tools and the gardening clothes. Plus, there has to be some planning done and effort is required for the job.

Although all these above mentioned factors may lead to the view that home gardening is more expensive than simply buying the required items from the market, it is not wholly true. In spite of these factors there is a belief that producing your own fruits and vegetables does result in substantial amounts of savings. The tools only have to be bought once and if you find them too expensive there is always the choice of second hand stores from where quality implements would be available at a cheaper cost. Plus, these would last for at least a couple of years and so the cost of them would not need to be repeated every often, which is again a benefit. Therefore, it is rightly said that home gardens lead to advantages in the financial area.

One such saving is in the transportation. If you have your garden you can obtain the required food whenever you wish, and without even going far or spending money. In the case of no garden you would have to go to the market and make the purchases. This would result in spending on transportation as well. Thus, one economic benefit of home gardens is savings from transport. This is a hidden saving and it might possibly seem to be inconsequential but if you go ahead and add up the costs that incur due to transportation only then you would realize the savings that you can make by travelling less in this era when the fuel prices are soaring higher and higher.

It is possible that initial expenses of home gardening are high but once a person gets into it he can save a lot. For example, seeds from the tomatoes can be saved and used instead of buying packets of seeds before each season. Also, there is no requirement of chemicals for the plants and the produce would be free from herbicides and pesticides; another advantage for good health, and this means that you would be healthier plus saving money. When you would be growing such “organic” food you would be saving even more since the cost of organic food in the markets is much higher than that of non organic produce.

There can be the expenses of soil builders. However, this can also be avoided by using manure instead of fertilizers; the former being cheaper as well as more environmentally friendly. Manure can even be obtained free of cost if you look around and see if there are any pets (for example, guinea pigs) in the neighbourhood. Or compost can be built using just anything at all, like the kitchen waste that includes egg shells, tea bags, peels of fruits, apple cores, etc. Then there is the option of heaping up leaves in the autumn season and allowing them to rot. This could then be used later. Thus, you would be getting your soil better which would allow for better quality of your fruits and vegetables, and this for no payment at all.

Also, water would be required for the gardening of fruits and vegetables and that would also lead to an expense. Although this would be the case in spite of it there would be savings. Water can be easily obtained. In the case where a person has no issues with having inorganic food, he can even use the water from washing to irrigate his fruits and vegetables. Apart from saving water expense, this would also allow for the soil to become more fertile due to the detergents in the water from washing. Probably there would also be no additional need of fertilizers or manure and this would again result in savings, since there would be no need to spend on fertilizers.

There are direct and indirect cost savings from having a home garden. The direct ones have been mentioned above; that you would not have to spend on transport to get the required items nor would you need to spend much to get the food. Apart from this you would also save because now you wouldn’t be paying the price for the transport of those fruits and vegetables from farms to the grocery shop, or for the salaries of the drivers who transported the produces from the farm.

Another way of saving up would be to offer your pet rabbit or guinea pig with the vegetables from your garden instead of going out and buying special food for them. This would not mean that you do not care for your pets. In fact, the natural and home grown fruits and vegetables would turn out to be healthier than the canned food that you might have been previously buying for them.

The more indirect savings involve issues like health. Since you would be having home grown fruits and vegetables you would eat more of natural foods as compared to the industrialized ones. This would lead to improved health and there will be savings since you would not need to visit a doctor, or to purchase medications for matters like heart disease, stroke, and obesity. This would also be due to the fact that you would be having organic foods, absent of any chemicals which are normally present in the market items.

Recently there had been a book published which deals with a study conducted regarding the choice of food that people normally make and how it affects them (Pollan 2008). The author of the book also presents a conclusion, stating that we only need to change our eating habits in minor ways and we would be much healthier. Some of his suggestions include eating more of leaves rather than seeds, eating more of organic instead of the processed and industrialized foods, and eating more of grass-fed rather than corn-fed when considering meat. The first two suggestions can easily be complied with if one has a home garden where he grows fruits and vegetables himself.

Also, consuming more of natural food, and specifically fruits and vegetables, allows for a person to reduce his weight. He does not need to waste his money at slimming centres neither pay a doctor to suggest him a controlled diet that would allow him to lose weight. His medication would be right there in front of his house, and without any hassle.

Taking into consideration all the factors discussed above it can be said that home grown food certainly allows for substantial savings and helps in the tougher economic times. Also, it is fun and easy, making it all the more attractive.

Bruning, Nancy Pauling & Lierberman, Shari. The Real Vitamin and Mineral Book: The Definitive Guide to Designing Your Personal Supplement Program. 4 th ed. United States: Penguin Press, 2007.

Francis, Mark & Hester, Randolph T. The Meaning of Gardens. Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1992.

“Nutritional Security and Biodiversity: Meet the Women who strengthen the Link.” Geneflow: A Magazine about Agricultural Biodiversity. 2008: 28-, Bioversity International. Web.

Pollan, Michael. In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto. United States: Penguin Press, 2008.

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buying food versa growing your own food

IELTS essay buying food versa growing your own food

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Why More And More People Have Begun Growing Their Own Food

Growing your own food can be a cheaper alternative to hunting through grocery store produce . Homegrown food is rich in nutrients, and you will have the peace of mind of knowing exactly how it was grown.

Spending time in your garden outside can even have other health benefits, says Healthline . Spending time in the sun will help your body absorb vitamin D, which can strengthen your bones and immune system, as well as prevent certain cancers. Gardening can even help boost your mood — spending time working in the garden can lower anxiety and reduce stress. You might even feel empowered once you can enjoy your food, knowing that you were able to grow delicious fruits and vegetables from seeds .

Although it may be easier to drive to the grocery store and pick out some produce, rising food costs may be a source of stress. Growing your own food can be a great way to save some money while still enjoying fresh food.

Healthier food at a lower cost

The boom in gardening started during the pandemic, reports Fox Business . Now, people are using their newfound skills to combat inflation as food costs continue to rise . The food index has been steadily rising for nearly a year and a half, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . Rather than paying higher prices for produce, people are finding it cheaper to purchase seeds and grow their own food.

When growing your own food, think about what you typically eat. If you consider yourself a green bean aficionado , do yourself a favor and start a supply at home. Good Morning America says zucchini , tomatoes, and cucumbers generally have a high growth success rate. They also say a package of lettuce seeds could only cost a few dollars, and provide a whole summer's worth of produce .

Growing your own produce is a great way to save some money while still enjoying fresh food. No space for a full yard garden? Start small with an in-home herb garden .

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Why Gardening is Better Than Buying Produce

by admin | Jul 2, 2021 | Gardens and Farms | 0 comments

Written by: Mehavi Jeyabalan

E ven though all produce is grown in soil, there are substantial differences between purchasing produce at the supermarket and growing your own. Growing produce by ourselves allows us to take control of our diets and ensure our health. However, at supermarkets we blindly trust shiny fruits and vegetables, oblivious to the process it’s gone through to make it to the store.

The Reality of Most Grocery Stores

You would probably expect the best of your local grocery store that you frequent often. Sorry to say that the expectations you’ve created in your head aren’t realistic.

The moment produce arrives at stores, it is displayed immediately. Without cleaning the product,  we can assume contaminants may have come in contact with the crops.  Since no one can guarantee that the delivery plan went smoothly  from step to step, we can deduce that the products aren’t as clean as we thought they were.

Apples aren’t the only fruit to cause a shock. Farmers pick bananas when they’re green, and rely on a scientific process that delays the ripening of the bananas. Generally, many places use different methods to achieve this. Examples include the usage of gas or ethylene to control ripening . The procedure also allows bananas to ripen again later. Though, of course, chemicals are being used in this situation as well. 

Other risks include fruits and vegetables with high pesticide levels. Pesticides are often used on produce after being taken from the soil or trees. There might even be more bizarre findings we have yet to uncover. Until then, all that should be said is that “fresh” isn’t as fresh as you would think. 

Advantages of Gardening

Produce grown from gardening often proves its value up against store-bought groceries. Homegrown produce has more nutritional benefits to which store-bought products can’t compete. 

Produce is generally sent from abroad and gets here through planes, then cars and all types of transportations to arrive at the shelves of grocery stores. All that fuel and gas is now released into the atmosphere, lessening our air quality. When you garden, you cut the need for all that air pollution, making our planet a better place to live. However, depending on where you live, growing all your crops is impossible. In Ontario, a few plants we can grow are onions, peppers and squash. Certain crops like bananas and mangoes are unable to grow in our region. You’re still creating change, no matter the size of your efforts or doings!

The commonly unknown benefits of gardening include working the muscles, and better mental well-being. I believe that people gain satisfaction from watching their efforts bloom, and that happens with plants quite literally. Gardening also allows us to be active and gives us an excuse to be outside. Especially with the incoming sunshine, who wouldn’t want to enjoy the weather?

Garden Today

Not everyone likes gardening and no one is born with this skill either. It takes dedication, learning, and sometimes even some research or mentorship from a fellow gardener to achieve it. Nothing comes easily, so you can’t expect results from meager labour. Put that work in, and you’ll get the outcome you want. So what are you waiting for? Get out, and garden!

• https://www.delish.com/food-news/a47986/dirty-secrets-of-supermarket-produce-departments/
• https://www.rd.com/list/things-you-never-knew-about-grocery-store-produce/
• https://www.gardentech.com/blog/gardening-and-healthy-living/garden-to-table-goodness-and-nutrition
• https://www.canadianliving.com/health/article/10-health-benefits-of-gardening
• https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/09/24/650585212/science-reveals-how-fruit-keeps-a-lid-on-ripening-until-the-time-is-right

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A Beginner’s Guide to Growing Your Own Food

You can grow fruits, veggies, and herbs no matter where you live.

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At the beginning of the 20th century, more than half of Americans lived in rural areas. How we lived and what we ate were deeply intertwined. But today, fewer than 2% of people live on farms or ranches.

Despite this trend toward Big Agriculture, Victory Gardeners in the 1940s and plant lovers in the ‘60s and ‘70s chose to grow their own food. Today, Millennials and a growing number of Gen Zers recognize that kitchen gardening helps curtail their carbon emissions, connects them with their bioregion , and saves them hard-earned cash.

We designed this guide to help you grow your own food, no matter where you live.

The Popularity of Home Food Gardening

By 2014, around one in three American households grew their own food—the highest participation in a decade. Public figures, including Michelle Obama , popularized edible gardening and brought the connection between food, health, and climate into the national conversation.

By 2020, the country was primed for an explosion of what’s commonly known as kitchen gardening . Supply chain issues, the challenges of shopping for food in a grocery store, and the need to find safe, outdoor activities drove many younger Americans to grow their own food. 

A survey conducted by retailer Bonnie Plants found that nearly two in five people under the age of 35 reported growing their own veggies and herbs—many of whom were gardening for the first time. Suddenly, the younger generation had supplanted Baby Boomers as the largest demographic of home food gardeners.

Challenges of Home Food Gardening

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These new gardeners face unique challenges compared to older generations. Because the majority of Millennials live in urban areas and rent instead of own their homes, it can be difficult for them to find space or proper sun exposure to grow edible garden plants. These gardeners must cultivate food in their kitchens or, if they’re lucky, in community gardens. 

The generation gap also exposes itself as a wealth gap, not just in property ownership but also in wealth accumulation. Millennials make significantly less money than any generation before them, but they bear the cost of inflation, including food.  

Corn, soy, wheat, and rice subsidies make processed foods far less expensive than fresh fruits and vegetables. For people on a budget, affording the luxury of buying plants or seeds and waiting for them to produce edible food may not be feasible. 

The same holds for composting , which has size limits if confined to an indoor space. Without state or local ordinances that require municipal waste management to include composting, a genuinely circular food system remains a dream.

Still, with a bit of research and some creativity, almost anyone can create an affordable edible garden, no matter how small.

The Benefits of Growing Your Own Food

Growing your own food provides benefits to both personal and planetary well-being. It can help you create a circular waste stream, educate you on your local climate, and even save you money.

Reduces Food Waste

As much as 40% of food in the United States is wasted—a devastating and unsustainable reality given that we must feed our ever-growing population. Food grown at home is less likely to go to waste because it can easily be picked fresh and consumed immediately. Plus, it tastes great! 

Reduces Transportation Emissions

Kitchen gardening requires fewer transportation emissions from farm-to-store and store-to-table. A 2008 study found that about 15% of food-related emissions occur after food leaves the farm (not accounting for consumer transportation to home). Reduce your mileage—or the mileage driven by a grocery delivery service—and save time by growing foods you consume regularly. 

Reduces Plastic Waste

Fruits, vegetables, and herbs are notorious for being packaged in plastic. Clamshell boxes, pre-portioned mesh bags, and plastic produce bags (for customers who forget their reusable ones ) are nonrecyclable. Many veggies and herbs can be grown in nearly any home, keeping that plastic out of landfills and eventually our drinking water.

Turns Food Scraps into New Food

There’s a type of composting for you no matter where you live. After using your homegrown veggies and herbs in a broth, repurpose the scraps into food for your food. Welcome to your circular kitchen.

Provides Homes for Pollinators

The only thing that makes an edible garden better is an edible garden that attracts pollinators like bees, butterflies, birds, and even bats. 

Helps Sequester Carbon in Soil

Let your kitchen garden double as a carbon garden. By taking pollinators into account, edible gardens can mimic natural relationships between plants and animals, creating carbon sinks that remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. 

Improves Health

A study out of Texas A&M found that gardening can reduce stress and anxiety. Growing your own food also encourages you to eat more fruits and vegetables, reduces your pesticide intake, and engages you in a relationship with your food.

Saves You Money

There are many foods you can grow for next to no investment. You can grow celery from scraps and green onions in a jar of water. Culinary herbs like mint and basil can grow in containers by a kitchen window and are often comparably priced to their precut counterparts.

Getting your kitchen garden started is easy. Once you know where you’ll be growing, you can plan out your fruits and veggies and celebrate your climate victory .

Select Your Garden Location

You don’t need a plot of land to grow your own food. You can grow inside or outside, so long as you have access to sunlight and water. Even a well-lit window can grow herbs and other vegetables in small containers.

Understand Your Hardiness Zone

Edible gardens understandably look different in South Dakota than they do in Florida. USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map guides gardeners to the plants most likely to thrive in their zip code.

By understanding how your microclimate will help or hinder your gardening efforts, you can build a resilient and diverse garden that can provide food for years. Go another step further by including the concept of bioregionalism in designing your kitchen garden. 

What Is a Bioregion?

A bioregion is a geographic area defined by its biological and topographical features while considering how the humans who live there interact with the natural world. This concept contrasts with boundaries defined by political, economic, or cultural distinctions.

Map Your Sunlight

Whether you’re planting in your backyard, on your balcony, or in your bedroom, what you need is good sun exposure. Many edible plants, especially fruit trees, require six hours of full sun that can be split up during the day. 

Scout the perfect garden location by creating a sun map . Pay attention to how sunlight affects your whole gardening area as some parts may have sun and shade at different times of the day. Sunlight also changes throughout the year, so it’s often valuable to map your sun once per season to get an accurate annual picture.

If you’ve got more shade than sun, don’t despair. Lettuce and other greens love the shade.

Select Your Plants

After all that research, you’re ready to choose which plants will work best for your edible garden. If you’ve got a yard, you have your choice of beans, squashes , root vegetables, fruit trees, berries, herbs , and cruciferous vegetables. Container gardeners often favor herbs, tomatoes , peppers, onions, greens, and dwarf fruit trees.

Consider planting a mix of foods instead of a singular crop. Polyculture gardens have higher yields than monocultures. You may also want to plan for a bit of crop rotation through the growing seasons.

If you’d like expert guidance on what to select, buy your starter plants at a specialty nursery where the employees are knowledgeable about home food gardening.

Consider your container size when choosing your plants. A limited space garden can support peppers, herbs, kale, and greens grown in small containers. Beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers, on the other hand, need containers at least two feet in diameter. 

Choose Good Soil

If your yard garden has deep, well-drained, quality soil, you can plant food in it. Otherwise, you may opt for purchased soil in raised beds (just as container gardeners do). You’ll see a difference when using high-end organic soil wherever you grow.

Quality soil comes at a price, but it’s a worthwhile investment for beginning gardeners. Keep in mind that while topsoil for ground gardening stays stable year after year, potting soil decomposes. You’ll need to add soil to your containers after the first year.

Use the Right Tools

Nothing’s more frustrating than trying to accomplish a task with the wrong widget. Garden tools such as pruners, watering cans, and trowels make the elbow-grease of gardening that much smoother and more enjoyable. Don’t forget your gloves (and always wash your hands after handling soil).

Water Deeply and Infrequently

Instead of feeding your plants a little water all the time, deep and infrequent watering encourages root growth. However, if you live in a particularly hot climate or your plants are in terracotta containers (which dry out more quickly than glazed containers), you may still have to water up to twice daily if the top two inches of soil are dry. 

Ensure your containers have good drainage to prevent the roots from becoming waterlogged. Avoid wasting water by practicing mindfulness—stop when water starts to fill the bottom saucer instead of blindly drenching your plants. 

Building berms, or raised mounds of soil, can help keep water around the plant for yard gardeners. Container gardeners can keep the plant slightly higher than the soil height for best drainage.

Feed Your Plants Nutrients

All food gardens need additional nutrients and should receive light fertilization once a week. Food gardens in containers lose more nutrients in watering than fruits and veggies plants in the ground, and they require additional organic fertilizer .

Both container and yard gardens do well when properly mulched because mulch helps keep nutrients and moisture in the soil. Good mulching practice is becoming more and more important as more parts of the country experience droughts caused by climate disruption . 

Enjoy Your Harvest

Nothing tastes better than the food you grew yourself, and after all your hard work gardening, you deserve a celebration. Invite some friends over for dinner. Maybe you'll inspire another gardener to take up the trowel.

Growing an edible garden connects you to what you eat, saves you time and money, reduces your carbon footprint, relieves stress, and provides healthy, nutritious food.

Growing your own food reduces pesticide use, plastic pollution, and food waste—all contributors to unsustainability. In addition to cutting down on carbon emissions from transportation, home food gardens also trap carbon dioxide in their soil.

Yes, for so many reasons. The initial financial investment provides an excellent food yield over an extended period. On a day-to-day basis, the mental and physical health benefits are worth the time spent.

Growing your own vegetables can be an easy and enjoyable way to positively impact the environment. Not only do you get to enjoy the literal fruits of your labor, but your hobby can reduce your food bill, provide a home for pollinators, and reduce greenhouse gas levels.

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" Fast Facts About Agriculture & Food ." American Farm Bureau Federation .

" Garden to Table: A 5-Year Look at Food Gardening in America ." National Gardening Association . 2014.

" COVID-19 Inspired Grow-Your-Own Food Movement Causing Seed Shortages Nationwide ." Vincennes University . 2021.

Choi, Jung, Jun Zhu, Laurie Goodman, Bhargavi Ganesh, and Sarah Strochak. " Millennial Homeownership ." Housing Finance Policy Center . 2018.

Cramer, Reid, et al. " The Emerging Millennial Wealth Gap ." New America . 2019.

Gunders, Dana. " Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill ." Natural Resources Defense Council . 2012.

Weber, Christopher L., and H. Scott Matthews. " Food-Miles And The Relative Climate Impacts Of Food Choices In The United States ".  Environmental Science & Technology , vol 42, no. 10, 2008, pp. 3508-3513.  American Chemical Society (ACS) , https://doi.org/10.1021/es702969f.

Hall, Charles, and Melinda Knuth. " An Update Of The Literature Supporting The Well-Being Benefits Of Plants: A Review Of The Emotional And Mental Health Benefits Of Plants ".  Journal Of Environmental Horticulture , vol 37, no. 1, 2019, pp. 30-38.  Horticultural Research Institute , https://doi.org/10.24266/0738-2898-37.1.30.

" Measuring and Optimizing Polyculture Yields ". Association for Temperate Agroforestry .

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The Benefits of Garden-to-Table Produce Versus Supermarket Varieties

Garden Varieties: Why Your Choices Matter

Commercial produce breeders often develop new varieties based on high yields and fast growth or the ability to withstand shipping. Sometimes, flavor and nutrients are inadvertently lost. Many modern varieties offer fewer nutrients than varieties did decades ago. Research comparing nutrient content in garden crops using U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data from 1950 to 1999 found significant drops in several nutrients. 1  Researchers attributed the decline to new cultivated varieties. High-yielding, fast-growing plants may not process nutrients at the same fast rate, so they have fewer nutrients compared to lower yield, slower-growing varieties.

In your garden, you can pick varieties based on what's important to you. Old-fashioned varieties, known as heirlooms, have been passed down through generations and may have superior flavor and higher nutrients. One exception noted in the USDA data was modern carrots, which showed increases in some nutrients, including vitamin A. One explanation is that modern varieties have been bred for deeper orange color, which is tied to more vitamin A. 1

Growing Methods: How They Affect Results

Healthy, nutrient-rich soil improves the nutritional value in your fruits and veggies.  Vegetable gardens use up lots of soil nutrients. When soil is depleted, so are crops. Your soil's pH level is an important factor. Soil pH doesn't change which nutrients are present, but it does affect whether nutrients stay in forms plants can use. If pH is off, added fertilizers won't necessarily make it into plants. So, if you have a vegetable garden, test your soil every two to three years and amend it according to test recommendations. Your garden will benefit from the nutrients it has, and those you add.

Gardening methods that promote soil and plant health, such as using cover crops to restore soil nutrients or practicing integrated pest management , help maintain natural balance and enhance plant growth. This promotes higher nutrient content in crops. 2 Nutrient comparison research shows that nitrogen fertilizers in particular have beneficial effects on vitamin levels. 1 Watering moves nitrogen easily through soil, so it needs frequent replacement. Through soil tests and appropriate fertilizers , you can keep your garden healthy and strong.

Harvest Habits: How Timing and Handling Enter In

You probably wait — or try to wait — until your homegrown fruits and veggies reach peak ripeness before you harvest. That's a good practice. Research shows that crops picked fully ripe have more vitamin C than those picked early. 3 The downside is that fully ripe fruits and veggies are more apt to bruise during picking and they have shorter shelf lives — two of the reasons commercial growers often pick pre-full ripeness.

Many commercial crops are picked early and ripen on the way to stores. But not all fruits continue ripening once they're picked. Even when they do ripen in color from green to red, for example, they may not “ripen" in nutrient levels the way they would have if picking was postponed. 2 Mechanical pickers and bulk commercial handling often cause more stress and bruising, which speed up nutrient losses. 2,4 In your own garden, you can keep crops on the vine until fully ripe and handle them gently. You'll be rewarded in taste and nutrient content.

Local Advantages: Why Distances and Storage Matter

When your only shipping delay is the time it takes to get from the garden to your table, fruits and veggies are at their best. Deterioration starts as soon as crops are harvested, so homegrown and locally grown produce that gets to your table fast offer more nutrients than produce that travels over time and distance. Vitamins and antioxidants in some types of produce may be more than 100 percent higher in local crops versus imported ones. 3 Produce from local farmers doesn't have to stand up to long-distance shipping, so they, like you, may choose to plant more nutritious varieties.

Storage times, temperatures and exposure all affect nutrient loss. North American-grown commercial fruits and vegetables typically take about five days to get to U.S. markets. Produce from outside North America can be in transit for several weeks before it hits store shelves. 4 Add one to three days before it's purchased, plus several days in your refrigerator after that, and the end product is no match for nutrient-rich crops from your own back yard.

Kitchen Customs: How Cooking Methods Affect Nutrition

Fresh, raw, fully ripe produce delivers maximum flavor, freshness and nutritional value. Processing fresh fruits and veggies by cooking, freezing or other methods — in your home or before it gets there — impacts nutrients as well as appearance, textures and flavors. Water-soluble vitamins, such as B and C, are lost in cooking water. Fat-soluble vitamins, such as A and E, are hit by heat and cold. 4 Time between harvest and cooking matters, too. Fresh green beans can lose 77 percent of their vitamin C over seven days in the fridge, even at proper temperatures. 4

Depending on your cooking method, fresh, raw produce can lose up to 55 percent of its vitamin C, along with other nutritional benefits. 4 Fresh broccoli, for example, loses vitamins, chlorophyll, proteins, sugars and more during processing. Research shows that boiling broccoli causes a vitamin C loss in excess of 30 percent. Microwaving can cause a 24 percent loss in vitamin C, while stir frying can cause a loss of 16 percent. However, properly steamed broccoli has just as much vitamin C as raw. 5 So, keep a steamer handy or munch on fresh, raw veggies for maximum garden goodness.

Growing your own fruits and vegetables can take nutrition to new levels and increase garden fun. GardenTech and the GardenTech ® family of products are committed to helping people of all ages enjoy all the benefits of home gardening, including beautiful, tasty and healthful crops.

GardenTech is a registered trademark of Gulfstream Home and Garden, Inc.

1. Donald R. Davis, PhD, FACN, Melvin D. Epp, PhD and Hugh D. Riordan, MD, “Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999," Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2004.

2. Kathleen Frith, “Is Local More Nutritious? It Depends," Harvard School of Public Health, 2007.

3. Corilee Watters, “The Nutrition Benefits of Eating Locally," Hānai'Ai / The Food Provider, Western Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, 2013.

4. Diane M. Barrett, “Maximizing the Nutritional Value of Fruits & Vegetables," University of California – Davis.

5. Gao-feng Yuan, Bo sun, Jong Yuan and Qiao-mei Wang, “Effects of Different Cooking Methods on Health-Promoting Compounds of Broccoli," Journal of Zhejiang University Science B, 2009.

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10 Reasons Why You Should Start Growing Your Own Food

• July 11, 2022
• , Garden Tips , Lifestyle

Growing your own food is honestly life-changing. If you haven’t tried it yet, what’s holding you back? You can grow so many delicious things in a vegetable garden here in Bismarck, even if you’re a beginner. Don’t believe us? We’ll prove it!

Growing Your Own Food vs. Buying It From the Store

Once you start growing food in your own garden, the benefits will be hard to ignore. Edible gardening is a hobby that’s definitely worth exploring—you’ll gain so much in the process! Here’s why we think you should start growing your own food in 2022.

1. It Saves Money

You’ve seen the prices of food these days! A pint of cherry tomatoes can cost $5.00, but a single tomato plant can produce up to 30 pounds of fruit in one growing season! While you may need to invest in a few startup costs like soil, fertilizer, seeds and starter plants, or planters, the long-term cost savings are staggering!

2. It’s Convenient

Skip the long lineups and crowded grocery stores and visit the fresh produce aisle located in your very own garden. It’s an introvert’s dream!

3. It’s Healthier

Fruits, vegetables, and herbs contain the most vitamins and minerals as soon as you pick them. The longer they’re off the plant, the more those nutrients deplete. When your food is fresh off the vine, you’re getting the healthiest, highest quality crops possible!

4. You’ll Know Exactly How It Was Cultivated

If you want to go spray-free and organic, you can control everything that goes into your food when you grow it at home. You can’t always be confident in what’s been sprayed on your veggies when they’re shipped here from the other side of the planet. No need to worry about mystery chemicals when you’re growing your own food!

5. It’s Better for the Environment

Speaking of food getting shipped across the world, all the carbon emissions from global importing is pretty harmful to the environment . Reduce your carbon footprint with edible gardening, so you won’t have to rely on food that’s traveled farther than you ever have!

6. You’ll Be More Self-Sufficient

Food prices and availability aren’t always predictable due to global supply chain issues, droughts, floods, and other factors. A huge step towards self-sufficiency is learning to grow your own food. When you’ve got a steady supply of food at home and continue to build on your skills every gardening season, you gain food security, peace of mind, and a huge sense of accomplishment!

7. It’s an Opportunity to Try New Foods

Kohlrabi, cucamelons, banana mint, purple carrots—there’s no shortage of interesting fruits, vegetables, and herbs to grow here in North Dakota! Diversifying your diet is great for your health because every plant has its own unique composition of antioxidants and nutrients, often indicated by its color. For example, purple cauliflower and carrots have cancer-fighting antioxidants, and golden beets and tomatoes have higher Vitamin A.

8. It Supports Local Pollinators

Vegetable plants and fruit trees need to be pollinated, and the pollinators need food to survive. Everybody wins! Bees and butterflies will happily visit your blooming plants, and the birds will be grateful for the extra berries and other fruits to help them get through the upcoming winter.

9. It Gets Young Kids Interested in Vegetables

Trust us: get your kids to plant a seed , watch it sprout, and develop into a huge thing they can eat. It will blow their minds! It’s the magic of science in action, and kids love discovering the mysteries of nature. They also love having a sense of ownership, so letting them grow a bean plant they can claim as their own will make them much more inclined to eat them!

10. It Makes Your Yard Prettier

Vegetable plants and fruit trees have plenty of ornamental impact—especially if you’re growing lots of colorful varieties! Blooms always precede fruits, so you’ll get pretty flowers as well as tasty edibles. Vining plants like cucumbers and hardy kiwis look gorgeous on obelisks and trellises. Fruiting shrubs and trees bring shade, privacy, and structure.

Ready to start growing your own food in Bismarck ? Visit Plant Perfect and get stocked up on all the startup supplies, seeds, and plants to begin cultivating delicious, healthy food for years to come.

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Grow your own vegetables to benefit your health and the environment

There are many reasons to grow your vegetables, including health benefits, better flavor, and environmental protection. The health benefits are exponential with the combination of nutrients, sunshine, and exercise gained through vegetable gardening.

Studies show that those who garden are more likely to eat more vegetables. Vegetables are a good source of essential nutrients such as calcium, vitamin A, potassium, and fiber for example. As you work outside in the sunshine, you are aiding your body in the production of vitamin D. 

Walking, bending, lifting, and pulling movements that happen while gardening fit into the moderate excise category that can increase your body's immune system function. See this fact sheet about Training your Immune System for more information.

Certain vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and Brussel's sprouts produce a disease-fighting compound called sulfurane when cut. Colorful vegetables provide antioxidants such as lycopene and beta carotene. Diversity in the types of vegetables ensures balanced nutrition.  

Freshly picked vegetables that you grew in your garden seem to taste better. Several factors determine taste. Different varieties of vegetables have different flavors. You can choose varieties for your garden to suit your tastes.  

The flavor is also based on biochemical changes that happen to the produce once it is harvested. "Sugar stored in sweet corn kernels is being converted to starch as soon as the ear is harvested," says Nicole Flowers-Kimmerle, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension serving Fulton, Mason, Peoria, and Tazewell counties. “Cook sweet corn as soon as you can for the most sweetness.”

Harvest time can also affect the flavor of the vegetable. In your garden, you can harvest your vegetables at their peak to ensure maximum flavor. For more information on the perfect time to harvest different vegetables go to the University of Illinois Extension A Taste of Gardening website . 

Vegetable gardens benefit the environment in many ways. Locally grown vegetables reduce carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels. No plastic packaging is required when you harvest vegetables straight from the garden, which also reduces fossil fuel inputs. Pesticide and other chemical inputs can be much less in a small, well-tended garden than even a small farm.

Instead of your kitchen and yard waste going to a landfill, start a compost pile. A bonus is you are creating your own soil amendment to increase your garden's productivity. Visit the University of Illinois Extension site Composting Central for more information on composting for the home garden.

These health and environmental benefits can last even longer when you plant vegetables for fall harvest. Vegetables that grow well in cool weather such as leaf lettuce, radish, spinach, and turnips can be planted throughout August for a fall harvest. Visit the Illinois Extension website “Vegetable Garden Guide” at web.extension.illinois.edu/vegguide for planting dates.

For more information on how to start a vegetable garden, contact your local University of Illinois Extension office or visit the website  extension.illinois.edu/ .  

MEET THE AUTHOR

Nicole Flowers-Kimmerle is a Agriculture and Natural Resources (Horticulture) Educator for Fulton, Mason, Peoria and Tazewell counties.  She completed a bachelors of science degree in crop science at the University of Illinois, and a master’s of science degree in agronomy with an emphasis in weed science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She has also worked at Montana State University as a research associate where she worked on weed control in sugar beets and barley.  She taught high school chemistry and other science classes where she was able to teach students in both the school garden and greenhouse.  She works with both the Extension Master Gardeners and Extension Master Naturalists.

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Gardening Tips

Grow your own food: 10 reasons to start a garden.

Curious about gardening but aren’t quite sure if you’re ready to grow your own food? We understand starting a garden can seem a little intimidating, but we promise it’s worth the effort.

Even with limited space you can grow your own food and enjoy a thriving vegetable garden, giving you and your family nourishment each and every day.

Get ready to learn why starting a garden and growing your own food is a great idea. From less stress to more nutritious vegetables and plenty of other benefits in between, here are 10 reasons to grow your own food.

1. Connect With Nature

Vegetable gardening is a wonderful hobby, and you can use the food you grow as a way to connect with nature. You can start small with a lavender windowsill planter  or a hydroponic garden  for your kitchen. Or you can roll up your sleeves and get to work with DIY raised beds and everything you need to for an outdoor space.

Believe it or not, tending plants in your garden has its own set of health benefits. Gardening  gives you a chance to enjoy fresh air, get some safe sun exposure, relax and destress, and even improve your immune system.

Instead of going inside and watching television, enjoy a late summer evening in your garden.

2. Save Money (and Time)

Growing your own food is an excellent way to save both time and money. Imagine skipping a trip to the grocery store and harvesting fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs directly from your own garden. You’re putting nutritious food on the table and getting a little bit of extra time in your day to catch up on other projects. What could be better?

You can always pick just what you need from your garden too. You won’t be stuck with a bunch of carrots when you only need a few to toss in a salad or add to a hearty stew. A home garden allows you to grow your own organic produce and keep a little extra money in your pocket.

3. Cut Back on Waste

A home garden can cut back on waste when you only pick what you need. Still, even if you harvest a few too many zucchini or radishes, you can easily repurpose them.

Try your hand at composting. It’s a terrific way to repurpose kitchen scraps and give your garden a boost. Toss fruit peels and rinds, grass clipping, coffee grounds, and so much more in a compost bin. Before long, you’ll have fresh compost ready for your garden.

Use it to make a potting mix or incorporate the compost with your existing soil. While it’s always best to start with high-quality organic potting soil , you can always give your plants much-needed nutrients with your own compost.

4. Eliminate Pesticides

Another benefit of growing your own food is having complete control over any pesticides or chemicals used. In your own garden, you get to decide exactly what your plants will be exposed to. Typical pesticides can be harmful to birds and other animals, but there are several earth-friendly options you can try.

Take mulch, for instance. It pulls double duty, helping to cut back on weeding and keeping insects out of your garden. You can also sprinkle diatomaceous earth around your veggie patch as a natural form of pest control . Sometimes herbs and other plants can keep critters away too.

When you carefully tend your garden, you’re also minimizing the chances of contamination. We’ve all seen news stories about produce recalls because of e.coli, salmonella, or listeria. When you grow your own food, you don’t need to worry about tuning in to see if the lettuce you bought could make you or your family sick.

5. Grow Exactly What You Want

With a home garden, you get to grow what you want. Maybe there’s a particular variety of heirloom tomatoes you’d like to grow, or you’d love to have fruit trees with Meyer lemons.

If you’re still deciding what to grow and are looking for somewhere to get started, check out the organic seed packets  from Back to the Roots. All Back to the Roots seeds are 100% organic and grown here in the United States, ensuring you’re getting the best quality seeds for you and your family.

Check out the herb garden variety pack  or beginner seed bundle  to get your garden started off on the right foot. Hint: If you’re looking for more ideas on what to grow, check out this post on some of the easiest vegetables to grow .

Don’t forget — if you decide to grow heirloom plants in your garden and find one you love, you can save the seeds for future seasons.

6. Make Eating Healthy Even Easier

It may not always feel easy eating healthy. Still, with a little prep work, you might see it’s much simpler sticking to a wholesome and nutritious diet — especially if you have healthy fruits and veggies growing in your backyard (or on your balcony or patio).

Think about growing tomato plants in the summer. You can add them to salads, salsas, and make your own pasta sauce. There’s no reason to stop gardening when the warm weather is over either. A winter garden  will give you veggies and fresh produce even when you think it isn’t possible.

7. Grow More Nutritious Food

While there are still nutrients in the produce you find at your local grocery store, it may not be as nutritious as what you plant in your garden. Researchers  have discovered that fruits and vegetables grown decades ago were richer in vitamins and minerals than what we eat today. Some nutrients have dropped by 37% — yikes!

A critical part of the equation in nutrient decline? Soil quality. A home gardener like you can do a lot to make sure the soil your fruits and veggies grow in is full of what your garden needs to thrive season after season.

It’s worth carefully managing pH, using compost and mulch, and minimizing chemicals if you want to make sure you’re growing the most nutritious food you can.

8. Nurture the Environment and Manage Resources

One of the best reasons to grow your own food involves how you can positively impact the environment.

When you’re in control of your garden, you can ensure the soil quality isn’t compromised by pesticides or other harmful chemicals. Adding nutrients back into the soil means you can enjoy future seasons of successful gardening.

And when your food is right in your backyard or sitting on your windowsill, you’re helping the environment. Without transportation and fuel costs, you’re reducing the impact on the planet. Benefiting from Mother Nature while giving back? That’s a win-win.

9. Take Advantage of New Learning Opportunities

When you grow your own food, you open yourself up to a world of learning opportunities for you and your family. You can study plant life cycles, different types of seeds to grow, insects, composting, growing seasons, balancing and improving soil quality, the list goes on.

Being invested in successful vegetable gardening makes it much easier to enjoy learning, which can be especially true for kids. Helping them pick out a fruit or vegetable to grow can open the door to learning the difference between heirloom and hybrid seeds. Exploring natural pest control can unlock the wonderful world of insects and how they work together in a garden, from worms in the soil to hungry ladybugs and caterpillars.

Picking up a mushroom growing kit  is another perfect opportunity to check out different ways to grow your own food. Plus, Back to the Roots grow kits feature a discovery booklet and downloadable curriculum to learn all about the science behind mushrooms!

10. Enjoy Fruits and Vegetables at Peak Freshness

It’s hard to beat a juicy summer tomato or sweet strawberry from your own garden — you know you’re getting produce at the peak of freshness.

When you head to the supermarket, you never really know how long it’s been since your produce was harvested. Sure it’s fresh, but unless you’re getting food from local farms, you can’t be sure your celery or apples didn’t spend days getting trucked across the country.

Sometimes the produce you see in your local supermarket isn’t picked when it’s ripe either. If it was, it could spoil before it even makes it into your shopping cart. Just another reason to opt for homegrown food when you can.

Grow Your Own Food for Better Health and Sustainability

There are many reasons to try growing your own food. Whether you’re looking for ways to be more thrifty and save time, or you’d like to connect with nature in a new way, a home garden could be the ticket.

Even more, whether you have a lot of outdoor space, an empty windowsill, or something in between, you can keep a garden. Remember, you can maximize small spaces with vertical gardening (like a trellis) or set up a hydroponic system and grow your own food and herbs year-round.

Gardening is a rewarding and eco-friendly hobby that’s perfect for the whole family. With a bit of knowledge and patience, you can easily grow your own food and enjoy healthy and delicious produce anytime.

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10 Reasons To Grow Your Own Food

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Whether you’re new to food gardening or need a reminder of why you’ve tended those tomatoes for so many years, you’ll find inspiration here to grow something delicious this season.

Fresh, flavorful, healthy food doesn’t have to be something reserved for people with big bank accounts. Anyone with a container or a small piece of ground can grow something they can eat. Replacing even just one or two items you usually buy at the grocery store with those you’ve grown yourself can add so much more fun and flavor to your world.

• Your food will be fresher and more flavorful.

There’s nothing fresher than picking tomatoes off your own vines at the peak of ripeness, when they are packed with mouth-watering flavor and nutritious vitamins. Growing your own produce allows you to harvest when the food is at its very best.

• You control what goes in and on your food.

Organic produce costs more in stores because it costs more to grow commercially. It’s far easier for a home gardener to grow their own food organically using natural ingredients like compost and manure to enrich the soil. We can choose to use organic fertilizers and pest control measures as we desire.

• It can be more cost effective to grow your own food.

Food crops that continue to produce a harvest for many weeks or even months are generally considered more cost effective to grow yourself. A single tomato plant can produce more than a bushel of fruit over the season—far more cost effective than buying tomatoes for $3.99 per pound at the grocery store. Other foods that fall into this category include lettuce, herbs, beans, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant and zucchini.

• You’ll have a much broader selection.

• It’s better for the environment.

You lessen your environmental impact when you grow your own food because you’re eliminating the need for it to be trucked from the farm to the processing plant to the store.  

• Gardening is good for you!

We’re all interested in lower maintenance gardens, but getting some exercise is never a bad thing! Did you know that gardening for just 45 minutes can burn the same number of calories as running 1 ½ miles in 15 minutes?

The physical act of gardening helps to release tension, relieve anxiety and stress, boost our energy levels and our Vitamin D, too. It’s been scientifically proven that soil contains healthy microbes which can affect our brain in similar ways as anti-anxiety medication. So, dig your hands into the dirt and breathe in the fresh air—it’s good for you!  

• It will give you something to be genuinely proud of.

•  It’s fun for the whole family.

Gardening as a whole can be a rewarding family activity but being able to teach your children or grandchildren how to grow their own food is especially gratifying. The saying goes: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. It’s safe to say, the same goes for zucchinis.

Planning, planting, caring for and harvesting a garden with your family is something that creates lifelong memories, all for the cost of a few seed packets or potted plants. Let’s teach our kids where their food comes from together.

• Gardening challenges provide learning experiences.

Though modern conveniences have made it easier than ever to grow our own food, there are plenty of opportunities to learn as we go. Gardening expands our consciousness and helps us appreciate all that goes into growing the food that sustains us. It presents new challenges such as trying new recipes and learning how to preserve your harvest.

• There is great joy in sharing the bounty.

Anyone who’s ever grown tomatoes, zucchini or basil knows there is always plenty to share. Most people will be thrilled to accept the extras from your harvest. You never know what affect you might have on someone—yours might be the only fresh produce they eat all week.

Growing your own food is almost always coupled with the joy of sharing the bounty with family, friends and neighbors. Growing healthy together is a beautiful thing! Get started today!

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A fresh approach: cut food bills by growing your own fruit and veg

Expert tips on what to plant, the expensive mistakes to avoid and the joy of bartering with gardeners

• Garden tools: the essentials you need to get growing

With the cost of living crisis driving up food prices, you may be considering growing fruit and vegetables as a way to cut the cost of your weekly food shop.

But doing it yourself is not guaranteed to save you money. Before you pick up your trowel and start digging, it pays to find out which crops you should grow to cut your food bill. What are the biggest money mistakes to avoid and how can you get stuff for free?

Grow the most expensive food you like

The best way to save money is to figure out which fruit and vegetables you regularly buy from the supermarket can be grown successfully in Britain, then prioritise the most expensive to purchase by the kilo.

“Often, people grow food like carrots and potatoes that is very cheap to buy – and spend a lot of money doing that,” the RHS’s horticulture expert Leigh Hunt says.

Instead, he recommends growing salad leaves: “A pillow packet of lettuce is going to cost at least £1. But lettuce and rocket are the kind of crop you can get cheaply and grow readily.”

At harvest time, you can simply trim the top off these plants. “And they will then regrow and you will get another crop out of them.” You can do this two or three times, he says.

Jane Perrone, who presents the gardening podcast On the Ledge , recommends growing fruit bushes. “If you look at the price per pound of fruit like blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, gooseberries and redcurrants, they are quite expensive at the supermarket,” she says. “You can buy them quite cheaply as small bushes and they will, without much effort on your part, produce pounds of fruit every year.”

An advantage of growing currants and berries is that if you get to the point where you have too many to eat fresh, you can freeze the rest. “Then you will have a supply through the winter,” she says.

Beans also freeze well, Hunt says, and offer good value. Plus, if you want plants that also look good in the garden, runner beans are among the prettiest food to grow. “You will get a good crop of flowers,” he says. “And you will find they will crop over quite a long period and produce heavy crops.”

Asparagus is another good option, if you can afford to wait a while for your harvest. Hunt says it takes four years to crop but for the few pounds he spent when he planted it, he now has three or four servings a week. “Given that bunches are £2 or £3 in the supermarket, that’s very good value – and it always tastes better when it’s picked fresh,” he says.

Perennial vegetables, such as Nine Star perennial broccoli or cauliflower, are also excellent value for money, Perrone says. “You plant them and you never have to sow a seed again. They’re so easy to grow, and a couple of plants can give you 10 or more tennis-ball-sized heads a year.”

Plant seeds …

Huw Richards, the author of Grow Food for Free and The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook, says the biggest trap gardeners fall into is buying seedlings. “If you buy seedlings at the garden centre, it might cost you £3 for six kale plants. But if you spend that amount on seeds, you might get 300-400. And you will be able to use those seeds for another four or five years.”

If you urgently need to cut your food bill, the good news is it usually takes only an extra week or two to get a harvest when you grow from seed rather than seedlings. Lettuce and radishes in particular grow quickly, says Richards, who gives lessons on how to grow food cheaply on his YouTube channel .

He highly recommends planting salad leaves and herbs from seeds if you want to save money. “In a very small space, you can grow enough to supply your whole household. Whereas in the same amount of space, if you just grow potatoes, it might only last you about a month.”

With homegrown herbs, cooking on a budget can taste more like restaurant-standard cuisine: “It’s one of the easiest ways to add a lot of flavour to what you’re cooking,” Richards says.

But to save money on herbs, Perrone warns that you must be savvy about what you buy.

If you buy parsley or coriander frequently at the supermarket, for example, then growing it from seed will certainly save you money. “It will flower and set seed, and lots of seedlings will come up, and basically, you will have it forever more after that,” Perrone says.

The same applies to perennial herbs such as thyme, rosemary and sage.

However, she says one trap many would-be herb gardeners fall into is buying exotic or unusual herbs they do not cook with very often. “Don’t say to yourself: I’m going to start making all these recipes. Buy the herbs you already know you’re going to use. Otherwise, you will waste your money and time,” she says.

Courgettes are also very good value if you plant them from seed. “From one seed, you will get a plant that might provide you with 30-odd courgettes,” Hunt says.

… but not from the kitchen

You may be tempted to plant seeds from vegetables you have bought for eating but there are potential problems to this. “If you plant any member of the cucurbit family – so courgettes, pumpkins, squash and butternut squash – it will probably be fine but there is a risk of toxic squash syndrome ,” Perrone says. This can cause vomiting and diarrhoea and is down to a genetic mutation that occurs during pollination.

You are unlikely to have much success with seeds from supermarket tomatoes or chillis either. “Generally, these varieties have been bred to grow in a certain way,” Perrone says.

For example, supermarket tomatoes may have been designed to crop all at the same time and to cope with very high polytunnel temperatures.

For guaranteed success, she believes it is worth investing in packs of seeds that are marketed for outdoor growing and the UK’s short season.

Make your own compost

Compost is vital to growing your own food but the cost of buying it can quickly add up, warns Richards. “At the start, you will need to buy compost because it can take a while to make,” he says. “But the best investment you can make is to make your own compost.”

You don’t need a compost bin: “You can just pile everything in a corner and turn it every two weeks.” He suggests asking neighbours for their vegetable scraps and peelings, grass cuttings and cardboard, as well as collecting your own, to get your compost pile started.

Get seeds and plants for free

Many gardeners get their plants and seeds for free from neighbours or other local gardeners. Put the word out that you are looking for crops to grow, or join a local gardening group on social media or via the RHS website .

“People at this time of year have got so many spare plants, it’s really worth going to an allotment and having a chat,” says Rob Smith, the winner of BBC Two’s Big Allotment Challenge. You could offer them some seeds from a value pack you have bought for the purpose, or cuttings from your garden in exchange for theirs. “See what works for them.”

They may even be willing, on a long-term basis, to regularly provide you with produce from their allotment in exchange for some of your time and labour. “The experienced gardener on an allotment is often from the older generation, and may be unable to lift bags of compost or dig potatoes as easily as they used to,” he says. “Having help with those tasks will keep them going on the allotment.”

If you are keen to do this, but do not feel comfortable approaching a complete stranger directly, email the chair of your local allotment association instead and ask them to introduce you to local allotmenteers who might want some free labour. As well as free food, “almost like an apprentice, you will gain knowledge and experience”, Smith says.

Grow unusual food

“If you have got enough space in your garden or plot, plant a fruit tree,” Perrone says. “If you buy them as a small seedling, they’re really quite cheap – and they really do pay for themselves over the years. You will get lots and lots of fruit.”

But instead of getting, say, an apple tree, she recommends going for a more exotic fruit such as medlar or quince, that you can cook, preserve, turn into delicious jellies or bake into pies. She grows quince herself: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen quince in the supermarket and it’s a lovely fruit that grows really well in this country.”

One advantage of planting a more unusual fruit tree is that your harvest will be more highly valued by other gardeners, making them more keen to swap their produce with you. “Because quince is so desirable, and people always want it, I’ll barter it – and I’ll end up getting fruits I don’t have in my garden,” Perrone says. “It has a kind of cache that apples, for example, don’t have.”

‘I got 95% of my plants from donated or swapped seeds’

Rebecca Searle runs the blog @Sow_much_more on Instagram. A keen gardener for 15 years, she recently moved into a house with a small garden in Devon, where she planted 50% of the food she and her two children now eat. And it cost her almost nothing.

She is a member of a local gardening club and active on gardening social media groups, and told her friends and others she was starting a new garden. “Within days, I received envelopes stuffed with seeds. I even got fantastic cuttings through the post,” she says. “I got 95% of my plants from seeds that were donated or swapped.”

It is very easy to make friends with other gardeners, she says. “I am well-connected – but I built up those connections over the last couple of years, just simply by being enthusiastic and talking to people.”

In her experience, most gardeners will happily give you a cutting from one of their plants if you express enthusiasm for growing it. “Gardening is one of those things that people genuinely want other people to do, and to experience the joy of.”

Her biggest expense has been buying compost: “You can make your own compost but it usually takes a year.”

She has sourced a lot of her equipment cheaply by patiently scouring online neighbourhood Facebook groups and marketplaces for bargains. She got an £800 greenhouse for £50, by offering to dismantle and move it from a neighbour’s garden.

“I took the glass out first and then four of us picked up a corner and walked it round to my garden. It wasn’t difficult.” She got some free scaffolding boards via Facebook Marketplace and used them to build raised beds.

But she did splash out on a brand new hori hori knife. “It’s a blade, so you can use it for harvesting and you can also use it as a trowel and to hoe out weeds.” It cost her £30. “I bought a good brand, Niwaki, to make sure it’s going to last.”

One of her best planting decisions was kale. “I really like kale, it’s super easy to grow and it’s quite expensive to buy.” A single kale plant provides about £20-worth of leaves over the season, she says. “It’s really good value and it’s also healthy.”

She likes growing tomatoes, too. “The taste of fresh, homegrown tomatoes is absolutely unrivalled. And then you can just take the seeds out of the tomatoes as you are eating them, and save them for next year.”

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Cost of living: if you can’t afford as much fresh produce, are canned veggies or frozen fruit just as good?

Program Director of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Accredited Practising Dietitian, University of South Australia

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Evangeline Mantzioris is affiliated with Alliance for Research in Nutrition, Exercise and Activity (ARENA) at the University of South Australia. Evangeline Mantzioris has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has been appointed to the National Health and Medical Research Council Dietary Guideline Expert Committee.

University of South Australia provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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The cost of living crisis is affecting how we spend our money. For many people, this means tightening the budget on the weekly supermarket shop.

One victim may be fresh fruit and vegetables. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) suggests Australians were consuming fewer fruit and vegetables in 2022–23 than the year before.

The cost of living is likely compounding a problem that exists already – on the whole, Australians don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables. Australian dietary guidelines recommend people aged nine and older should consume two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables each day for optimal health. But in 2022 the ABS reported only 4% of Australians met the recommendations for both fruit and vegetable consumption.

Fruit and vegetables are crucial for a healthy, balanced diet, providing a range of vitamins and minerals as well as fibre.

If you can’t afford as much fresh produce at the moment, there are other ways to ensure you still get the benefits of these food groups. You might even be able to increase your intake of fruit and vegetables.

Fresh produce is often touted as being the most nutritious (think of the old adage “fresh is best”). But this is not necessarily true.

Nutrients can decline in transit from the paddock to your kitchen, and while the produce is stored in your fridge. Frozen vegetables may actually be higher in some nutrients such as vitamin C and E as they are snap frozen very close to the time of harvest. Variations in transport and storage can affect this slightly.

Minerals such as calcium, iron and magnesium stay at similar levels in frozen produce compared to fresh.

Another advantage to frozen vegetables and fruit is the potential to reduce food waste, as you can use only what you need at the time.

As well as buying frozen fruit and vegetables from the supermarket, you can freeze produce yourself at home if you have an oversupply from the garden, or when produce may be cheaper.

A quick blanching prior to freezing can improve the safety and quality of the produce. This is when food is briefly submerged in boiling water or steamed for a short time.

Frozen vegetables won’t be suitable for salads but can be eaten roasted or steamed and used for soups, stews, casseroles, curries, pies and quiches. Frozen fruits can be added to breakfast dishes (with cereal or youghurt) or used in cooking for fruit pies and cakes, for example.

Canned vegetables and fruit similarly often offer a cheaper alternative to fresh produce. They’re also very convenient to have on hand. The canning process is the preservation technique, so there’s no need to add any additional preservatives, including salt.

Due to the cooking process, levels of heat-sensitive nutrients such as vitamin C will decline a little compared to fresh produce. When you’re using canned vegetables in a hot dish, you can add them later in the cooking process to reduce the amount of nutrient loss.

To minimise waste, you can freeze the portion you don’t need.

Fermentation has recently come into fashion, but it’s actually one of the oldest food processing and preservation techniques.

Fermentation largely retains the vitamins and minerals in fresh vegetables. But fermentation may also enhance the food’s nutritional profile by creating new nutrients and allowing existing ones to be absorbed more easily .

Further, fermented foods contain probiotics, which are beneficial for our gut microbiome .

5 other tips to get your fresh fix

Although alternatives to fresh such as canned or frozen fruit and vegetables are good substitutes, if you’re looking to get more fresh produce into your diet on a tight budget, here are some things you can do.

1. Buy in season

Based on supply and demand principles, buying local seasonal vegetables and fruit will always be cheaper than those that are imported out of season from other countries.

2. Don’t shun the ugly fruit and vegetables

Most supermarkets now sell “ugly” fruit and vegetables, that are not physically perfect in some way. This does not affect the levels of nutrients in them at all, or their taste.

3. Reduce waste

On average, an Australian household throws out A$2,000–$2,500 worth of food every year. Fruit, vegetables and bagged salad are the three of the top five foods thrown out in our homes. So properly managing fresh produce could help you save money (and benefit the environment ).

To minimise waste, plan your meals and shopping ahead of time. And if you don’t think you’re going to get to eat the fruit and vegetables you have before they go off, freeze them.

4. Swap and share

There are many websites and apps which offer the opportunity to swap or even pick up free fresh produce if people have more than they need. Some local councils are also encouraging swaps on their websites, so dig around and see what you can find in your local area.

5. Gardening

Regardless of how small your garden is you can always plant produce in pots . Herbs, rocket, cherry tomatoes, chillies and strawberries all grow well. In the long run, these will offset some of your cost on fresh produce.

Plus, when you have put the effort in to grow your own produce, you are less likely to waste it .

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Mistakes you're making when growing your own food

Posted: April 20, 2024 | Last updated: April 20, 2024

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You’re a bit too fast

Those first days of warmth in the spring make you super excited to buy new plants and start a garden. But often these plants take a bad hit when the cold snaps back. The problem is that you start the season with plants that are already suffering. The same goes for seeds that are planted too early.

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You think more is always better

When it comes to growing food, this is not always the case. For example, over-composting can add too much organic matter to the soil, causing problems such as disease and poor drainage. Also, overusing fertilizers can cause runoff and impact waterways.

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You’re going too exotic

It can be tempting to grow very exotic and interesting-looking vegetables. But if you're just starting out, it’s best to stick to the basics.

You’re not planning for weeds

Most people don’t think about weeds until they start taking over their garden. But it's important to do so when you're planning and planting your garden. Proper spacing of beds, pathways, and plants will help with the efficiency of your cultivation.

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You’re not interplanting

Mixing plant varieties helps to support the overall health and productivity of any plant and will yield better produce for longer. So make sure you research the best plant combinations to encourage biodiversity.

You're watering too much

Many garden mistakes revolve around watering. It's important to know that different seedlings and plants will require different amounts. If you water too much, plants can become waterlogged and roots can rot.

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You're not watering enough

Not providing enough water can also kill plants. Less extreme water shortage can still be a problem, as it can stunt plant growth and make them less vigorous.

You’re planting everything at once

Overplanting can be a problem, as you will have so much produce in the early summer that you can’t eat it all. Take your time making your garden plan, and plan for succession plantings. Succession planting is the practice of planting crops at intervals of seven to 21 days in order to maintain a consistent supply of produce. It also involves planting a new crop after harvesting the first one.

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You’re not controlling critters

Squirrels, rabbits, or deer can wreak havoc on your garden. To protect your precious plants, observe during dawn and dusk to see who and what is coming and going through your garden, then determine what type of barrier to install.

You’re not planning for your veggies

It’s easy to end up with more (or less) produce than you originally planned, so make sure you know where and how to use it all, so it doesn't go to waste.

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You're choosing wrong seeds/plants for your climate

When people first decide to create a vegetable garden, they often start with a list of the things they enjoy eating. But this doesn't always work in the climate zone they live in. So make sure you choose seeds/plants that will work.

You’re neglecting pollinators

Wild pollinators (native bees, leaf cutter bees, or mason bees) are important because many vegetables, including squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins, require pollinators to produce fruit. Make sure you have flowers in your garden in all seasons to attract them.

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You're growing varieties that don't taste that good

New gardeners often forget that each plant type has a huge number of different varieties to choose from. Watery tomatoes or bland carrots can be a real disappointment, so it's important to do your research and choose seeds that come recommended by experienced gardeners.

You're disturbing the soil

When making a new vegetable garden, many people dig up a new patch in a lawn. But this is actually unnecessary. Instead, go for the ‘no dig gardening’ methodology that protects the soil and keeps it productive.

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You're not making plans for year-round growing and crop rotation

Planning is key for a successful vegetable garden. Think about when crops will be harvested and when gaps will open up. What will you sow and grow there next? Also, rotating certain crops can help keep your soil healthy, reduce disease problems in plants, and spread the wealth of nitrogen fixers. Nitrogen fixers are plants with roots that are colonized by certain bacteria that extract nitrogen from the air for its growth. They have the ability to contribute essential nutrients to the soil.

You're placing the vegetable garden in the wrong location

One common mistake is putting a new vegetable garden in the wrong spot on your property. Keep in mind how far your vegetable plot is from your home and how close it is to other garden elements such as a rainwater harvesting system and your composting system.

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You're choosing the wrong growing medium

Different seeds have different requirements when it comes to moisture or drainage. Make sure you know how to properly sow seeds and the different mediums you can use to germinate them.

You're starting certain seeds too late

Another common issue is starting certain seeds a little too late, which will leave you with immature produce. Knowing when to sow different seeds, and creating a sowing and planting schedule, will save you from a lot of problems.

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Your soil is losing fertility over time

If you always take from your vegetable garden and don’t give back, it will lose fertility over time as nutrients are being removed. One of the most important ways to return nutrients to the system is by composting vegetable scraps and other organic materials and spreading that compost on the beds.

You're spending more than you have to

People who are new to gardening often rush out to buy items without giving it much thought. But don’t make the mistake of spending a lot of money when you don’t necessarily have to spend much at all.

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You're not making the most of your space

Many people who start vegetable gardens don’t make the most of their available space. To do so, consider vertical gardening techniques. This can dramatically increase the number of crops that you'll be able to grow in the space available to you.

You're planting in areas with low fertility

Whenever you're planting in an area where the soil is less than ideal, it's important that you take the time to improve it. Before sowing seeds or planting, you should add plenty of organic matter, as in the 'no dig' techniques.

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You're not harvesting/storing water

Harvesting/storing water for your vegetable garden is extremely important and sustainable. Even if you live in an area where there is plenty of water right now, climate change may alter this in the future. On top of that, rainwater is far better for your plants.

You're damaging seedlings when pricking them out

Many gardeners damage seedlings by handling them incorrectly when pricking them out. So be careful when doing so as to not break off all the roots.

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You're not hardening off plants before moving them to your garden

If you have started seeds indoors or undercover, it is very important to remember to harden them off before you transplant them into your garden. As they're used to indoor conditions, you should gradually introduce them to the outside.

You're making raised beds the wrong size and shape

If you're planning to grow in raised beds, it's important to think not only about their location, but also their shape and size. The shape you choose can have an impact on how much food you can grow.

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You're overestimating how many sees you need

Knowing how many seeds or plants to buy can be challenging if you have never gardened before. Consider how much space you have available. If you're limited in space, research spacing requirements to figure out how many seeds you can use.

You're not providing the right temperatures for germination

A common germination problem revolves around temperature. Make sure you know the optimal temperature range for the seeds you're sowing. Determine whether it's best to sow indoors, undercover, or outdoors.

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You're forgetting to enjoy the fruits of your labor

Gardening can be hard work, but it can also be hugely rewarding and enjoyable. Make sure to smell the flowers, and enjoy the food you have grown.

Sources: (Real Simple) (Rural Sprout)

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When Martin stumbled on “Brett Martin, You a Nice Man, Yes,” he naturally assumed it was about a different, more famous Brett Martin: perhaps Brett Martin, the left-handed reliever who until recently played for the Texas Rangers; or Brett Martin, the legendary Australian squash player; or even Clara Brett Martin, the Canadian who in 1897 became the British Empire’s first female lawyer. Only when the singer began referencing details of stories that he made for public radio’s “This American Life” almost 20 years ago did he realize the song was actually about him. The song ended, “I really like you/Will you be my friend?/Will you call me on the phone?” Then it gave a phone number, with a New Hampshire area code.

So, he called.

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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin picks ex-bodyguard for senior role - fuelling succession rumours

The Russian president has brought Alexei Dyumin, 51, closer to the centre of power since his re-election in March. Meanwhile, the leaders of France and Germany have said Ukraine should be allowed to strike targets in Russia - but on certain conditions.

Wednesday 29 May 2024 17:32, UK

• Putin names ex-bodyguard for senior role - fuelling succession rumours  
• French and German leaders say Ukraine allowed to strike inside Russia
• Russia launches drone attack at three regions
• Sean Bell analysis:  Putin is concerned and he's rattling the nuclear sabre
• The big picture : What you need to know about the war right now
• Eyewitness: Russia producing shells three times faster than Ukraine's allies

We're pausing our live coverage of the conflict for the day, but if you're just joining us, here is a recap of the key moments.

• Vladimir Putin appointed Alexei Dyumin, his former bodyguard, as secretary of the advisory State Council, fuelling speculation about his presidential potential;
• France and Germany's leaders said Ukraine should be allowed to hit military sites inside Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory, but not other targets;
• Police searched the office of a European Parliament employee in Brussels over suspected Russian interference;
• Prisoner of war exchanges between Russia and Ukraine have been suspended for several months, Russia's human rights commissioner said.

A Russian airstrike has hit more than 100 houses in an eastern Ukrainian village, local authorities say.

The high-explosive aerial bomb wounded seven people in the Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian National Police.

The attack took place seven miles from Kramatorsk, a key Ukrainian-held city. 

A four-year-old child was among those injured.

Vladimir Putin has appointed Alexei Dyumin, his former bodyguard, as secretary of the advisory State Council, fuelling speculation about his presidential potential.

The president has brought Mr Dyumin, 51, closer to the centre of power since his re-election in March, having made him an aide overseeing the defence industry this month.

The details of his new role are unknown.

"Russia's elite is abuzz with the appointment of Dyumin," Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser and Putin supporter, said on Telegram.

"This is seen as confirmation that Dyumin is the future president of Russia, Putin's choice," Mr Markov said, adding that this was something that had long been rumoured.

There is no public debate or reliable information about who might eventually succeed Putin, who is 71 and is expected to rule for years, but his appointments are scrutinised for signs of whether he is lining up a potential candidate to one day take over from him.

Being publicly identified as a potential successor carries certain risks attached to being seen as a challenger.

Asked about Dyumin's appointment, the Kremlin said it was part of a rotation - he is taking over the role from Igor Levitin, 72 - and said he would look at how the State Council would function.

A German government spokesperson says agreements on how Ukraine deploys weapons supplied by the West are confidential.

They batted away questions on whether Ukrainian forces could use them to strike into Russian territory. 

The government was pressed on the issue at a news conference after French and German leaders said Kyiv should be allowed to hit military sites inside Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory.

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin tried to frame his invasion across the Kharkiv border, opening up a second front, as a result of the West failing to prevent Kyiv from attacking Russian targets.

Ukrainian drones have the capability of striking a target up to 1,550 miles away, but Moscow has been protected, a senior Russian airforce official has said.

The comments, made by Dmitry Bogdanov, head of the radio-electronic warfare department of the Russian Aerospace Forces, suggest a wide swath of Russian territory bordering Ukraine is vulnerable to attack.

"The enemy is not standing still," Mr Bogdanov was quoted as saying by state news agency Tass. 

"Now unmanned aerial vehicles can traverse an area of up to 2,500 kilometres, and many [Russian] regions are aware of this." 

It comes after a Kyiv source told Reuters on Monday that a Ukrainian drone had attempted its deepest strike yet, targeting a Russian early-warning military radar system in the Orenburg region, almost 1,000 miles away.

Since the start of the year, drone attacks have also struck critical oil refining infrastructure in Russia.

Ukraine does not officially confirm or deny it is attacking refineries inside Russia, but it says such sites are legitimate targets as they aid Moscow's military effort.

A major barrage in May last year saw two drones fly towards the Kremlin complex overlooking Red Square before they were destroyed.

Police have searched the office of a European Parliament employee in Brussels over suspected Russian interference, Belgium's federal prosecutor's office says.

Officers also raided the employee's residence and the EU Parliament's French headquarters.

It comes after an investigation was launched last month by the Belgian prime minister, who said his intelligence service uncovered a network trying to undermine support for Ukraine.

"The searches are part of a case of interference, passive corruption and membership of a criminal organisation and relates to indications of Russian interference, whereby members of the European Parliament were approached and paid to promote Russian propaganda via the Voice of Europe news website," prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said they believe the employee played "a significant role in this".

This comes less than two weeks before polls open on 6-9 June to elect a new EU parliament.

"According to our intelligence service, the objectives of Moscow are very clear," said Belgian leader Alexander De Croo.

"The objective is to help elect more pro-Russian candidates to the European Parliament and to reinforce a certain pro-Russian narrative in that institution."

The Swedish government will donate military aid to Ukraine worth £960m.

It is the largest package of the 16 Sweden has agreed to so far.

"It consists of equipment that is at the top of Ukraine's priority list," deputy prime minister Ebba Busch said. 

This includes air defence, artillery ammunition and armoured vehicles.

Sweden's defence minister Pal Jonsson said the country has ruled out sending any Swedish-built JAS 39 Gripen jets for now, saying Ukrainian is focusing on implementing the F-16 programme. 

Several countries have said they want to donate F-16s, with Belgium pledging 30 yesterday.

Mr Jonsson said Sweden "is still working on possibly being able to contribute with the Gripen system later."

Prisoner of war exchanges between Russia and Ukraine have been suspended for several months, Russia's human rights commissioner says.

Tatyana Moskalova blamed what she called Kyiv's "false demands", the state news agency Tass reported.

It was unclear precisely when swaps ceased. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. 

Moscow and Kyiv have carried out periodic prisoner swaps via intermediaries since Moscow launched its invasion.

Outside Kyiv, manufacturers have been demonstrating their answer to the challenge of rescuing injured soldiers from the battlefield.

Several remote-controlled stretchers were being tested in these pictures taken by Reuters at an undisclosed location.

Russian guided bombs killed two civilians in the eastern Ukrainian city of Toretsk yesterday, Donetsk's regional governor has said.

They heavily damaged two multistorey apartment buildings, said Vadym Filashkin.

Mr Filashkin said Russian forces attacked the city with three bombs, located north of Russian-held Donetsk.

Rescue teams were on site to determine the extent of casualties.

Sky News cannot independently verify these battlefield reports. 

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