Why Everyone Should Garden

Have you every tasted garden-fresh food? Did you notice that the taste bears almost no resemblance to store-bought varieties? Peppers from the garden seem to be an entirely new and different vegetable. They are crisp, sweet, and so packed with flavor you wonder that one vegetable can contain it all.

Everyone can garden at home. A garden need not be large, complicated, or a lot of work. A garden can be a single potted tomato plant, a window box, a window farm (more on this in a future post) a few peppers on a balcony, or a small plot of land in your yard. Gardening doesn't have to cost a lot of money - you can get many materials for free or cheaply on craigslist, at thrift stores, or from a local garden club.

The trick is to start small and do your research. By starting a small garden and adding to it gradually, you can learn to take good care of the few plants you have now without getting overwhelmed. You don't need to buy fancy books to learn gardening either. There are many gardening books available at thrift stores and used book stores, or you can take advantage of the huge wealth of information on the internet, on websites like Garden Guides. Many garden clubs, like Tricycle Gardens, offer free or low cost workshops to help you get started. Learn which plants grow well in your area, and in the space and lighting you have available. Vegetables generally need 5+ hours of direct sunlight a day, but if you are growing indoors you can supplement this with fluorescent lights.

Gardening is a relaxing and rewarding hobby, and can be great exercise too. Growing vegetables and herbs can save you money, and can allow you to try different varieties that would otherwise be too costly or simply unavailable in your supermarket. If you grow organically you can have fresh food free of pesticides, preservatives, and artificial appearance enhancers, such as wax on apples. So why not give gardening a try this Spring? Because who wouldn't want their very own produce stand in their own backyard?