Why Grow Your Own Food?
Growing your own food can be a cheaper and healthier way of living than browsing your favourite super market each week. First of all you know exactly where your food has come from and how it was grown.
Once you've taken care of the initial effort to get your food garden started you are left with the potential to grow a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and have a self sustaining garden that produces for you and your family.
Get in touch
Healthier Living
Knowing where your food comes from and what went into the growing process gives a huge amount of peace of mind. When it comes from your garden you know it hasn't been sprayed with chemical pesticides or been genetically modified. On top of that, the care and attention you give to your own crops results in bigger, juicier, more nutricious fruit and vegetables. In late summer / early autumn of 2022 I was harvesting marrow 40cm long and too fat to wrap my hand around. My tomatoes were sweeter than any I can buy from the super market and I had been eating spinach all summer that re-grew every time I picked some.
Lower Costs
Growing your own food is very cost effective and you don't even need much space to do it. For example, 250g of organic tomatoes from Waitrose costs £2.50. In comparison you can pick up a pack of tomato seeds for the tomato of your choice for roughly £1. Each pack contains hundreds of seeds, each seed has the potential to grow into a tomato plant and each plant can grow several dozen tomatoes. They can be grown in pots and the two main things they require are lots of sun and lots of water. Leafy greens like spinach and kale keep growing and producing more and more leaves as you pick and eat them. People could drastically reduce their food bills by learning how to grow their own.
Returning to Nature
Turning your garden into your very own miniature food forrest is fantastic for the local environment and bio-diversity. There is nothing more useless than an empty, finely cut lawn. Everything in your garden is connected. If you keep chickens then chicken poo makes for great compost, as does their soiled bedding. You can use your compost to grow more fruit and vegetables. Your excess or waste fruit and vegetables can go back into the compost pile or feed your chickens. They will even eat your grass cuttings. A green house is a great collector of rain water which can feed straight into your water butt to keep your crops hydrated through the summer. You can grow certain flowers amongst your crops to deter pesky insects that damage your crops. Any spiders that choose to make their home amongst your plants also help protect them from bugs. Bees will enjoy collecting pollen from your flowers and your soil and compost piles will make excellent homes for worms and other insects. You should find that your garden waste bin that the council collect each week will never need to be collected again.
If your a hands on kind of person and want to get out into the garden yourself then being outside in the sunshine has great health benefits. Time in the sun helps your body absorb vitamin D which in turn leads to stronger bones and immune system. Gardening in general is a huge mood booster and eating something that you've just picked from your garden gives great satisfaction. Being amongst plants and animals and making physical contact with them is a great way to reduce stress.
Getting started
Of course finding the time to grow your own food these days can be tough with work, family and other commitments. Gardening is a fantastic opportunity to spend time with the kids and have them learn a very important life skill. I am here to help either get you started on your very own food forrest or take care of it for you completely.
Get in touch