Home gardening has many benefits beyond the reward of freshly picked produce. The rewards of a home garden create financial savings, creating a feeling of “buying” more, and providing exercise and mental stimulation. The benefits of a home garden create the additional satisfaction and mental relaxation that make gardening so worthwhile. Gardening is a wonderful activity to share with family and friends. Gardening can be an exercise in patience, relaxation and responsibility.
One of the greatest benefits of a home garden is the fresh produce it provides. A garden not only provides the produce needed for sustenance, it also offers the experience of working outdoors. Working outside in the sun, under the shade, gathering and preserving fruits and vegetables is a rewarding pastime. The time spent gathering and storing fresh produce will be reflected in the quality of the produce. The gardener who stores and harvests their own produce has a deeper, richer understanding of how their produce reacts to different environments.
Another benefit of home gardening is the opportunity to add soil additives, fertilizers and compost to the mix. These products aid in the growth of garden plants by adding organic matter and nutrients to the soil and make it healthier for the plants. Fertilizer, on the other hand, helps to increase the number of garden plants as well as the crops they can produce.
In addition to the financial and health benefits, there are also a playfulness and enjoyment that come with growing your own vegetables. Gardening creates a sense of gratification when the harvest is in full swing. This gives gardeners the opportunity to gather their produce and share it with friends and family. When planning a vegetable garden, many gardeners find that the big-intensive approach is not the best for their particular situation; instead, they find that a more relaxed, slow-moving approach to vegetable gardening is more satisfying for them.
Vegetables are an easy crop to grow at home, compared to many other food crops. The gardener does not have to worry about pesticides, weed killers or fungicides to get the yield they want. They do not have to fight over a scarce supply of produce nor concern themselves with how the produce is stored or shipped to the table. For these reasons, many home gardeners welcome the chance to grow their own vegetables.
One of the biggest worries new gardeners have is the timing of their first crops. They have no control over when they plant seeds, but they do have some influence over the timing of the next harvest. Since vegetables are planted in rows, their best time to be sown is in the spring. However, if the garden has already produced some fruits or vegetables, waiting until the fruit or vegetable is ripe before sowing it will maximize the yield. If a gardeners’ plan is to avoid the weeds in the future, they should also avoid sowing their seedlings and harvested produce in the same season.