The Benefits Of Growing Your Own Veg

Overview

When people think about growing their own veg, they often think of the negatives before considering the plethora of benefits. You may be thinking, what are the negatives? To the vast majority of people, there are none, however, some people may be put off by the idea that you actually need to do a bit of work in order to yield results.

Well, first off, most people seriously overestimate the amount of work required. It really doesn’t take much. Further, the ‘work’ required, isn’t really work at all, there’s a reason that so many people do it; it’s relaxing, enjoyable and rewarding! Let’s take a look at some of the benefits in more detail.

Physical and mental health

First and foremost, as far as hobbies go, this is one of the healthiest there is! Not only does growing your own food require some level of physical movement that once part of a daily routine has been shown to reduce mortality and extend life expectancy, but the literal act of dealing with nutrient-rich soil has been shown to have anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory and stress resilience properties due to the presence of the healthy bacteria Mycobacterium vaccae. What’s more, the yield is also almost always going to be a healthy addition to your diet. In addition, the veg that grows in your garden will actually have more nutrients than the mass-produced veg you can buy in a supermarket or grocery store.

You may have heard your parents or grandparents comment on how veg doesn’t taste like it used to, well, they could be right! This is because homegrown veg is grown in homegrown soil whereas mass-produced veg is grown using unnatural growing mechanisms such as hydroponics. Also, they will more often than not be grown using NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) fertilisers which do deliver larger, more substantial vegetables, however, this process is actually just feeding the vegetables more of what makes them grow bigger as opposed to what provides more nutrients. As a result, we’re left with veg that’s larger in size but less concentrated with the healthy nutrients that our bodies crave!

Growing your own veg doesn’t only provide you with physical and nutritional health benefits though. Research has shown time and time again that the act of growing your own has significant mental health benefits too. The act of tending to your crops means you’ll be outside with fresh air in your lungs and the sun on your back, giving us a much-needed break from the stresses of everyday life.

This is just as important for children as it is for adults too. February 6th marked the start of this year’s Children’s Mental Health week and it was reported that 1 in 6 children are feeling the effects of poor mental health. So this year, TreesForCities did something a little different. They partnered with schools in urban areas and built a number of ‘Edible Playgrounds’ for the children to connect with each other and of course, nature! The results of the ‘Edible Playgrounds’ that were built into schools speak for themselves, with 86% of respondents stating that the project had moderate to significant positive effects on pupils’ moods, self-esteem and mental health.

Why not get the kids involved this season with a Vegepod? They're easy to use and fun for the whole family. What's more, they don't need constant attention as they come with built-in reservoirs that allow the plants to take up just as much water as they need!

Environmental

There are several factors that make home-grown veg more environmentally friendly than their commercially grown counterparts, some more obvious than others. We have touched on the use of fertilisers whose main objective is to make the veg larger in size as opposed to richer in nutrients, however, the use of herbicides and pesticides shouldn’t be understated as they both contribute to air and water pollution when used on a mass scale such as commercial growing, something that will be avoided when the veg is grown in your garden. Pollution is reduced further when you grow your own as it doesn’t need to be transported from source to market which usually incurs the use of aeroplanes, ships, lorries or even cars, all of which negatively impact our environment.

Home growing has also been shown to reduce food waste. Often, in the commercial growing world, any foods that don’t meet certain criteria will be thrown away when in fact there was nothing wrong with it. What’s more, you will be less likely to waste food that you’ve grown yourself as you have worked to produce it! A more obvious environmental benefit is that you won’t be packaging your food in endless plastics that would more often than not end up in someone's bin.

Further, if there’s ever a food shortage of a particular food, such as the current shortage of tomatoes in the U.K, you won’t be affected because you’ll have your very own, superior tasting tomatoes in your own back garden!

Financial

Another obvious advantage to growing your own veg is that you don’t have to pay for them anymore. Other than the materials needed to get started, such as your seeds, some compost and a place to grow, you won’t have to pay for your fruits, herbs or vegetables at a supermarket, reducing the size of your shopping list each week and the savings soon amount to a substantial amount over the course of a growing season.

There are so many ways to get started with growing your own produce. You may want your very own greenhouse, we offer a variety of sizes and styles here at GardenSite from spacious 8ft wide varieties, smaller greenhouses such as the innovative & remote-controlled Harvst series and even wooden greenhouses such as the magnificent Swallow range.

Quality is assured

There are some things that have been discussed that will fall under this category of quality. Firstly, we’ve spoken about how commercial fruit and veg will be less dense with nutrients as the focus is more on what makes them look bigger.

We’ve also touched on the use of pesticides in commercial growing. However, if we look at this in some more detail, the results can be quite startling. For example (and this list is not exhaustive): 

All of the above have been found to contain between 45-86 pesticide residues by the time they reach your fridge. Most of the time, these pesticides are harmless, but sometimes they aren’t. Regardless, it’s always a good idea to reduce the consumption of fruits and veg that are high in these residues. When you grow your own, you know exactly what has been used and put on the crops, so you’ll always know and be able to moderate what you’re eating.

Check out our range of planters for even more inspiration to begin your growing adventures! The raised beds in particular should be any grower's go-to when it comes to tending to your own crops.

The freshness of your own yield is, of course, always guaranteed and although supermarket veg may be labelled as fresh, it’s not always as it seems. A large proportion of ‘fresh’ fruit and vegetables come from abroad. This means it’s travelled countless miles, whether by trains, lorries, planes or ships, to reach its final destination, your supermarket. And when you consider, for example, a tomato, it is actually harvested early and then artificially ripened by exposing them to ethylene gas. Hence, they’re bright red but also hard to the touch by the time they’re on the shelf. In contrast, they’ll never be fresher than food grown in your garden, with a taste and texture that’ll be unrivalled by your local supermarkets.

A final word from me

I could talk for hours about the benefits of growing your own compared to buying commercially grown produce, but hopefully, this blog has touched on enough of the more important advantages that I truly believe so many people will benefit from.