Walking Off The Weight

The thought of growing your own vegetables is very appealing to people but they often think that they do not have the time to do it. The reality is that if you can spend a bit of time each day maintaining and looking after your veg then you can achieve great results. Often the other concern is the amount of space that grow your own vegetables can take up but there are a number of ways around this. Applying for a local council allotment could be one solution and there are a number of space saving raised garden beds available on the market to fit into the smallest of gardens. If you are thinking of growing your own vegetables then take a look at some of the best reasons to start planting seeds in your garden.

1. To Save Money – When you are able to harvest your own vegetables you will notice that you will save considerable amounts of money on your weekly food shopping. When you buy a packet of salad or a bag of carrots you tend to buy more than you need. This means that you tend to be left with a lot of unused vegetables that get thrown away, with your own vegetables you just use what you need so you don’t end up wasting money.

2. To Keep Healthy – Eating five portions of fruit and vegetables every day is a great way to get everything you need to keep yourself healthy. You will often find that people who grow their own vegetables will tend to eat more of them, more often. There is also the added benefit that digging the garden and spending the time outside will be good exercise and will help to increase your fitness.

3. You Know What Has Been Put On Them – You never really know what chemicals or pesticides may have been used on the plants or the soil your vegetables are growing in. Obviously pesticides are useful for protecting crops from being destroyed by pests and disease but it is unclear as to how much they effect the taste of your food. You will gain peace of mind from growing your own organic vegetables because you know what you have used on the soil and plants.

4. For The Taste – Freshly grown organic vegetables taste so much better than store bought ones. When you buy them from a supermarket they have been picked and transported before they have even been put out on the shelf. This means that you rarely get to taste them when they are truly fresh and a lot of the flavour is lost.

5. To Improve Your Children’s Diet – It can often be a struggle to get children to eat things that are good for them. It is a great idea to get your children involved in growing fruit and vegetables as it helps them learn and also will get them more motivated to try the different things they have helped to grow. Lets face it, anything that can help to prevent your children from becoming salad dodgers has to be worth trying.

Filed under: Recipes on August 11th, 2010