The Time is Right: Plant a Veggie Garden

The Time is Right for a Vegetable Garden....

There have always been people who just like to garden. For many, it is relaxing and almost, if not, a spiritual activity. Gardening gets us back in touch with our natural world; it's mysteries and wonders, and yes, even the challenges.
This year more people are turning to vegetable gardens to save some money because of the current economic downturn. Done correctly a lot of money can be saved. Certainly, many of these new gardeners will become more avid after their first time working in the dirt.
There are plenty of great sites to learn more about different techniques and plants. Visit Dan Chapman at Urban Veggies or read some Kathleen Richardson advice and recipes at Helium.
What to do with the extra produce? Food banks are one important option; just placing a sign with Free Veggie in the yard next to a table is another. For others, a small roadside stand is another option and could be a source of some income.
Health is another major factor in growing a home vegetable garden and likely the most important reason. Home grown vegetables picked in the backyard and brought inside and cooked (or eaten raw) are simply packed with higher levels of important nutrients than those which have been shipped from thousands of miles away and then placed on a store shelve for...who wants to guess that one?
Properly done, home canning and freezing vegetables from the backyard, or even your local grower, continue to retain high levels of beneficial vitamins, minerals and fiber (and besides, tasting far superior).
Recently, there have been a number of food health safety recalls and scares. People have become terribly ill and in some cases have died from tainted foods. In some cases, not even properly washing the vegetable can solve the problem; harmful bacteria can be under the skin of a vegetable or fruit and no amount of washing will get rid of it.
Factory farms use a lot of pesticides, some of which are done right deadly. The verdict is still out on many of these and there are some serious questions about them. Pesticides were created to kill.
There are outstanding questions about the solutions sprayed on fruits and vegetables to make them look fresh and shiny. And then there are the concerns about genetically modified foods and their impact on human health and our natural world.
It is common sense to plant a garden for health. Go Green. It is important to you, your family and friends and actually for the world. Thoughts or comments?
For more gardening article I have written on vegetables or click the title.
More articles on gardening can be found at my other Blog, SoloKoyote.