5 REASONS EVERYONE SHOULD GROW A GARDEN!

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1. Food grown on your property is fresher and healthier than that which can be purchased at a grocery store. Food is truly fresh when it is picked just before preparing it. We know that it is free of dangerous chemicals and pesticides because we did not use any! Fruit and vegetables taste better than what is generally available from a store because you can pick and eat it at its peak of ripeness. We can grow delicious varieties which are cultivated for taste and not how well they will ship!

2. It is less expensive to grow our own food than to purchase it from a local grocer. A little care, water and compost will turn a dimes worth of seed into pounds of vegetables. Often a tree can be purchased for about the same price one would pay for five pounds of the fruit it will produce, most trees will produce 20 or more pounds of fruit once they have become mature, and will do this year after year while adding shade and beauty to your property.

3. When fruit and vegetables are grown using organic methods it is actually improving the soil much the same way that Mother Nature does. This also contributing to the environment by saving on trips to the store for produce purchases. Think about it, if everyone grew just 25% of their produce, this would not only save the environment from the exhaust fumes of our cars running to the store the recommended three times a week (many fruits and vegetables lose most of their nutritional value two to three days after being purchased) but imagine 25% less produce trucks criss-crossing our country (to say nothing about what is shipped from other countries) and even the resources saved by the need to manufacture 25% fewer produce trucks. It would also save 25% of our farm land from being used as a dumping ground for the many chemicals used in traditional farming.

4. There is a peace and a joy that comes from growing our own food. It allows us to develop a relationship with the earth, as we work and touch the soil, as we plant and water and wait, as we reap the rewards of our efforts, we become aware of your personal dependency on the earth. We become part of our ancestral experience. It makes us aware of the changing seasons as we never were before, to understand the importance of using time correctly. It provides an opportunity for exercise, a chance to breathe fresh air, to listen to the serenade of birds, and feel the temperatures of the weather. To live in the world God created and to learn respect for it.

5. When we grow our own food and work in our gardens we create many opportunities to teach our children and grand children about nature, biology and life. Gardening teaches us the importance of nurturing, the value of being responsible, the necessity of perseverance. The garden is a laboratory where we can study and teach cause and effect, the importance of planning and being watchful so that our proper care will reap our reward. Gardening teaches us to plan and to cultivate our gardens and our lives.

"We must cultivate our gardens" -Voltair's, Candide.