The Importance of Gardening

AHHH, SPRING!!!

It's time for me and my family to get outside more and work in our garden. A garden is a fantastic way to save money on groceries (evnetually), reduce stress, teahc the kids valuable lessons, and stay green. Even more green than a garden in your back yard?? A garden in your front yard!! Grass requires a lot of water, it's tough to get much biodiversity (diversity in insects and other good creatures living in the dirt), and the chemicals required to keep a green lawn without weeds are pretty harsh to the environment (see biodiversity of grass).

The benefits of grass?? Well, it's pretty, you can walk across it without shoes, and on a hill it can prevent erosion.

The benefits of a garden instead?? You can eat what grows, it's much more colorful, more forgiving of mistakes, more motivation to working in it, and your dogs that live in the backyard can't destroy it!

Here's a picture of my garden just before planting for the spring. As you can see there are still lots of plants there that have stuck around over the winter.

Here's the same garden with a tiny bit of snow (a rarity around here).

And here is the same garden today (3 weeks post planting)

Okay, so maybe I just wanted to post pictures today, but there are some serious advantages to having a garden out front, as mentioned before.

One advantage is that gardens are more forgiving than lawns. If you plant multiple fruits and vegetables in your garden, your bound to get something out of it. If your soil is missing something you may have a problem growing some things but others may thrive. If your soil is missing something that the lawn needs it will all look bad. If you have a dead patch in the garden, just pull up the plants, add some compost and plant something else. If you have a dead patch in your lawn your going to have a harder time digging it up and replacing and it will be awhile before it blends in to the rest of the grass.

Another advantage is that it's easier to go organic with a garden than with a lawn (see more forgiving). While it is possible to go organic with a lawn, it is less forgiving and if you don't get your fertilizer ratios right (ie you'll most likely need store bought ) then it won't be the image of perfection that most want and the use of herbicides to get rid of weeds are generally used by most.

Let's face it, I'm lazy! I LOVE gardening, but if I don't see my gardening daily (even multiple times a day) then I just won't take care of it. It just won't be at the forefront of my mind, and I suspect it's the reason so many others fail at their back yard gardens, as well. I need to see the weeds as they pop up to pull it or they'll grow out of control. I need to see the ripe plump tomatoes and other veggies to realize that I need to pick them or they'll wither and rot on the plant. But most of all, I just need the reminder to go out and enjoy the garden and my children playing in it.

The last advantage that I'd like to discuss is the wonderful circle of life it creates. When you grow a garden you appreciate your fruits and vegetables more (even the ones you buy), in turn you are more likely to eat them helping to create a more healthy habit. After eating your produce you typically need to do something with the waste left behind and a common sense move is to start a compost (free fertilizer, who doesn't love that?) and that in turn will give you a bigger healthier garden.