Five Good Reasons to Grow Your Own Organic Garden

What are you waiting for?  Sure, you’re busy.  Yes, there’s a little bit of work involved.  Everybody, and we do mean everybody, can grow at least the tiniest bit of their own organic garden.  Here are five good reasons why.

1. Taste — Who’s ready for the summertime ritual of picking tomatoes straight off the vine and slicing them up that instant?  Your tasty garden tomatoes will be far superior to anything you can buy in a grocery store.
2. Convenience — The ultimate convenience food is right outside your kitchen door.  Even if you only grow easy-care garlic and some other favorite herbs like rosemary in your kitchen garden, you’ll savor the convenience of these when you need them.
3. Savings — This is debatable, depending on what you grow and your success rate.  One example of huge savings for us the past couple of years has been organic bell peppers.  When organic peppers cost you $2 each in the store, but one plant supplies more than half-dozen peppers, the math works out to big savings.  We do caution that projects like building raised beds can cost you up front, but they’re good investments in the long run.
4. Pesticide-Free — It’s commonly known that you can’t always rinse all of the pesticide residues off all plants, so why risk it? Pesticides are suspected of causing illness like cancer and disrupting biodiversity.   Genetically modified foods sold in grocery stores are sometimes grown with pesticides engineered into the plant itself, such as GM corn.  Using safer pest alternatives and growing food from heirloom seeds is possible in your garden, where you can be surer about what you’re eating.
5. Education — This generation of kids needs to know about the origins of food, which they understand easier when they can see something grow from seed to harvest.  Even if you choose to not to garden later, you’ll understand what to ask your local farmer about her growing practices and whether she uses organic and sustainable methods.

Join us this and every Saturday through the summer for Saturdays in the Garden with FlourSackMama.com!