Across the country, as people look for safe, reliable sources of nutritious food, they’re rediscovering something our grandparents always knew – that having a garden is a good thing. Growing our own food has huge benefits for our health and well-being as well as that of the environment and the community around us.
And it’s a lot easier to get started than you might think. Here, we share some of the benefits of growing a garden at home, and we offer some tips to help you get started.
More Than Food
Beyond the food you get from a garden, numerous research studies have shown that planting and tending a garden has amazing benefits for our physical health and mental well-being. In a 2017 study, researchers compared data from over twenty of these studies and found that, indeed, just being outside and working in a garden has profound positive effects on measures of human physical and psychological health. They divided these benefits into four basic categories.
1. Nature Refreshes Your Mind
Living in an urban environment with its constant need for directed attention – traffic lights, sirens, your phone, your schedule, questions to answer – is mentally tiring. And it’s the kind of tiring that no amount of sleep can fix. To recover from this kind of brain strain, we need environments and activities that capture our attention in a less directed and more relaxing way. Being outdoors and working with fundamental things like soil, plants, sun, and water like we do in a garden is perfect for that kind of mental rest. And studies show that gardening itself leads to increased feelings of contentment with life and fewer feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression. No wonder so many people say that their garden is their “happy place.”
2. Gardening Makes You Move
With modern conveniences, we can get almost everything we need to survive without leaving the couch. But that’s not healthy for our bodies, and studies show that urban life leads to higher-fat diets, more sedentary habits, higher body mass indexes, and higher rates of obesity. In turn, this can lead to negative health outcomes like diabetes, heart disease, and shortened lifespans. Gardening, on the other hand, is impossible to do without getting up. To garden is to walk and bend, stoop and pull, dig and carry – and even moderate amounts of these activities helps to offset the consequences of too much inactivity.
3. Gardens Help Build Community
Another positive effect of gardening is the social connections it fosters among your family, neighbors, and surrounding community. Have extra tomatoes? Swap them for a neighbor’s surplus squash. Need help with a problem pest? Talk to an expert on our team or someone from the local Extension office. Looking for a way to serve your local community? Offer your gardening talents to a local non-profit like The Big Garden or City Sprouts. Growing a garden expands your social network and creates connections, which is good for feelings of satisfaction with life – and we think plant people are pretty fun to be around too.
4. A Garden Means You Eat Better
In addition to the extra physical activity that a garden requires, the fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs that a garden produces are full of the good vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients our bodies need to stay healthy. We can extend that good nutrition beyond harvest time too by canning, freezing, and drying some of the surplus to use throughout the year. And by choosing the cultivating practices we employ in our gardens, we get to decide what types and what amount of fertilizer and pest management we use to grow our food.
And even more immediate than the health benefits of fresh produce is just the irreplaceable experience of eating it. No store-bought jar of dried rosemary can replace the heavenly taste and aroma of fresh herbs in a chicken recipe. That first taste of buttery sweet corn in August is something to look forward to all year. And have you ever popped a cherry tomato in your mouth, warm right off the vine? An experience like no other.
How to Get Started
With all the great benefits that come with gardening, it’s no surprise that more people are creating gardens in their backyards. If you’re new to home gardening, start with something easy, like peas, beans, or cucumbers. Small spaces are no problem either. All you really need is a sunny location with good soil – or containers with good potting mix – and maybe some advice from a few trusted sources.
The Urban Ag School is a great place to get tips on a wide variety of gardening topics. You’ll find all the workshops in this series now available on Facebook Live. Of course if you have any questions, just give us a call – we’re always happy to help.
Stop in our Greenhouse to find all the plants and supplies you need, or shop Mulhall’s To-Go for easy drive-through pickup. If you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for in our online shop, feel free to reach out and let us know how we can help. We have everything you need to grow a healthy and productive garden this year, and our team is ready to help you be successful in any way we can.
