Why You Should Grow

You should grow food because fresh local produce tastes so much better than store bought produce. Seeds are cheaper than fruit. Homegrown produce is a necessary part of a healthy diet.

You should grow food because gardening is sexy. Digging and weeding counts as exercise. There’s lots of cool stuff to see in the garden.

It just feels awesome to grow your own food.

There is an incomparable joy in watching a tiny plant emerge from the soil and grow steadily larger and healthier until it produces something delicious and healthy.  It requires patience, some planning, and a little work, but it is immensely rewarding.

Do you see the tiny seedling coming out of the soil? It’s a little blurry, but still kind of precious, isn’t it?

We start our plants in the greenhouse six to eight weeks before the last frost. All we have to do is water and keep the greenhouse at the right temperature, and the plants are lush and ready to be planted by spring.

And, of course, then there comes fruit.

I haven’t felt this passionate about growing food my whole life.

In fact, it was only about five years ago that I discovered the joy in growing food.   In hindsight, it seems ridiculous that I spent so many years buying food at the grocery store with no consideration about how it got there.

It honestly never occurred to me to think about it.  Even more honestly, I rarely ever cooked at home so I had even less knowledge about the food I was eating.

Growing food used to intimidate me. I used to think it was too much work to take care of plants. But the truth is that the plants do all the hard part.

I just have to water and wait. The one downside is that it takes kind of a long time to get fruit from a seed, and I have the patience of a flea. But now I love every aspect gardening including the work and the waiting.

Gardening is cheaper than therapy, and you get tomatoes.

I love this saying. It resonates with a lot of people because so many have found healing in their garden.

The garden is the perfect place for self-reflection. If the work in the garden doesn’t distract me from my thoughts, then at least I have some quiet time to sort them out.

Sweat gets the bad stuff out of your body.

This is my son’s theory, and I love it. Weeding and digging in the garden are excellent tasks to complete when I am angry, frustrated, or worried.

It refocuses my energy on the work, and I get a little break from my brain (not to mention a good workout). Often, by the time I am done, I am over it or have resolved whatever issue I was worked up about.

Stop and smell the roses.

Instead of sitting inside online or watching television, I can go out to the garden and pull weeds, sample tomatoes, squish caterpillars, or just walk around. But I don’t have to do a lot of work every time I’m in the garden.

It’s a great habit just to walk around and take notes about how things are growing. But if you’re like me, you’ll just get out your phone and take a crap ton of pictures.

Have you ever seen okra flowers? Okra has the most beautiful flowers! It is actually a relative of the hibiscus, can you tell? 😉

What about a squash flower?

Squash flowers are giant yellow beauties! Imagine your garden full of these edible blooms!

How about peppers? Have you ever paid attention to their flowers?

I could go on, but I won’t. I’ve experienced such a big change in my mindset since I started gardening. It’s a mindset that I think we all probably eventually get to…a need to slow down.

Slow way, way down

I’d love to be able to live off of our farm, spend pretty much all day every day on my farm, and be almost off grid. This is a huge difference from the girl who used to dream of owning a McMansion in a fancy golf neighborhood.

People in my everyday life probably get annoyed with how excited I am about everyone growing some of their own food.

I’m always trying to get other people to grow with me. You should grow this or you should grow that. But the truth is, you should just grow something. Whatever you want to grow, just grow it.

So, now you know why you should grow. It just takes some sunshine and some water.  It is something we should be doing in every country, state, and neighborhood.  Wherever you live and however you do it, you should grow.

Get your garden growing:

The direction your garden faces has a lot of impact on what will grow well there. Find out more

Does starting from seed seem intimidating? Don’t worry, you’ve got this. Step by step guide here