Environmental Benefits of Growing a Kitchen Garden
Have you been mulling on starting your own kitchen garden? Or perhaps, you’re ready to get to work but you doubt if the time is right. Newsflash: there is no better time to grow your greens than right now. It’s time to put seed to soil and watch your vegetables grow.In recent times, having a personal kitchen garden has become a priority on people’s wishlist. Owning a kitchen garden reduces food expenses and carbon footprints. Also, you will have control over the amount of plant food applied to boost yield. This helps to promote natural plant life. However, if you’re in doubt on the advantages of growing a kitchen garden, here are some of the environmental benefits and practical tips on how to begin.
What you stand to gain growing your kitchen garden
Less carbon footprint
Buying vegetable products from grocery stores, in a certain way, has an adverse impact on the environment. The sad truth is foods purchased from stores are transported from different places at about 1,500 miles distance before they are consumed. As a result, the food loses its original freshness and quality but the bigger issue lies in the burning of fossil fuels and other transport associated waste released into the environment in the course of transport.Reduces damage caused by using chemicals
According to data obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency, commercial food producers in the US purchase pesticides at an average $15 billion and fertilizers at an average of $19 billion every year. This shows that the food we eat contains synthetic chemicals in no small measure. According to plant research, chemical treatments in food production are dangerous to the bacteria and fungal that aid the growth of plants. In effect, pesticides and fertilizer reduce soil quality.By starting your own kitchen garden, you can choose to protect the green life by not applying pesticides and fertilizer. If you choose to do so, you’ll be rewarded with organic harvest rather than synthetic.
Better Taste
Do you want your vegetable fresh and ripe? Then, plant it yourself. Most of the fruits and vegetables purchased from grocery stores have been adapted for commercial production and sale. These plants are usually taken through a selection and breeding process. This is done to increase output from each plant, ensure that the plants can be harvested at once, increase shelf life and to achieve uniformity in shape and size. This process also ensures that the products complete the ripening period in transit. In consequence, however, this process reduces the quality of the vegetable produced.However, if you grow on your own, you’ll treat the vegetable with original freshness and flavor. You would also eliminate the hassle of going to the grocery store for fresh vegetables every now and then.
Less waste
In the United States, organic waste makes up a great portion of landfills and it is also the major cause of methane emissions. Similarly, in the United Kingdom, about 7.2 million tonnes of food and drinks are discarded every year. Imagine throwing away 7.2 million tonnes of food. That's enough to feed the hungry population of Haiti for a whole year! These stats are quite outrageous and must not be allowed to continue. By growing your own kitchen garden, you can produce enough for your family consumption without contributing any wastage. The effort involved in growing a kitchen garden also helps you to value the produce.More Nutrients
By growing your own food, your nutrient intake becomes more varied. That is, your food becomes enriched with nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Also, research has shown that food in its freshly harvested state is the most satisfying and highly nutritional. For instance, vitamin C in vegetables begins to reduce immediately after harvesting and the decline continues during storage. This is not the case for goods purchased in stores due to the length of time they must have spent in transit and storage. Thus, their nutritional value cannot be compared to food taken in their fresh state.Strengthens relationship
Enough of what a kitchen garden can do to your body and the environment. Your relationships can also benefit from growing your own food. You can do this by ensuring that all hands, in the family, are on deck in carrying out this project. By involving family, relationships blossom as the plant grows. Most kids will jump at the opportunity of helping adults to grow a garden and as parents, you can supervise and pass your knowledge on planting to the younger ones.This generation is quite notorious about spending so much time with phones, gardening is an outdoor activity that involves everyone. As such, putting effort to grow a kitchen garden strengthens the bond in familial relationships.
Practical Tips on Growing a Kitchen Garden
Select a site
The first thing to do is choose a good site for your kitchen garden. The best site would be a place where a part is exposed to sunlight and the other part is shaded. The shaded part is necessary for plants that prefer to grow under shade. Your site should also have a good drainage system and good soil. Select a flat land surface without rocks. This makes it a lot easier for you to prepare the soil for planting.If you don't have a garden space in your home, balconies, patios, windowsill or rooftops are good sites as well, especially for vegetables that grow in pots like tomatoes.