10 Reasons You Need to Grow Your Own

1. You control your own supply - Security + Variety

Growing your own produce allows for more peace of mind around food security. As recent years have shown with natural disasters and pandemics, we can't always rely on the grocery shops to have what we need when we need, by taking control and growing your own produce you can feel safe knowing you have a supply.

You also get to choose what you grow, allowing for more variety than the stock standard selection available at local grocery shops. There is a huge variety of coloured carrots, chard, potatoes, beans and more to bring more variety to your garden and plate!

2. Some crops are cheaper to grow than buy.

Most kitchen herbs are cheaper to grow at home, instead of wasting your money on a bundle of sad limp herbs you can grow a whole plant or multiple if you use lots and have plentiful. Basil, Coriander, Rosemary and Thyme are a few that are easy to get started with and are used regularly in the kitchen. Try your hand at growing Saffron one of the most if not the most expensive spice in the world!

3. Fresh food! There's nothing better!

Have you ever been annoyed after buying fruit and veg from the grocer only for it to go soggy, sad and bad in a day or two? Think about what that apples life was before you picked it up at the shops, it's been picked, put to sleep, gassed and stored, shipped, trucked and unpacked.

Science and technology has given us the ability to eat seasonal fruits and veggies year round, but they're not always in their freshest, tastiest, healthiest state.

Growing your own allows you to harvest when necessary and have much longer storage times compared to their local grocer fruit and veg buddies who are on deaths doorstep by the time you pick it up at the shops.

Watch our video to here Chris talk more about the process of commercially grown food.

 

4. It doesn't matter if you are renting, have no yard space or good lighting!

Growing food allows you year round delicious seasonal fruits and veggies, but growing indoors allows for year round growing regardless of your space, lighting and environmental conditions. If your environment is too cold or you don't have enough yard or balcony space with good lighting, it doesn't mean you are destined to be garden less.

There is a huge range of gardening styles to suit most home or apartments regardless of if you're renting or not. Gardens can be made vertical, brought indoors, automated and more to suit your life style and space.

Book a free meeting with our knowledgable team and we can help find options for your space and bring your gardening dreams to life!

 

 

5. More nutrients than commercial food.

As noted in point 3, the life story of an apple from your local grocery shops has a very different life story to your backyard apple tree apple. The massive reduction in time and processing needed for home grown food allows you to use the produce at its freshest and most nutrient dense point - walking to your garden, picking fresh produce having the ability to eat it immediately - instead of it being picked packed, stored, shipped and trucked around for weeks before it even gets to your local grocer. Fresh is best!

6. No nasty pesticides or chemicals - you control what you eat.

Growing your own food allows you to have complete control over the conditions your food is grown in, giving you the freedom to choose each component and allow for no, or safe organic pesticides if or when required. Often gardeners even order beneficial bugs like Lady beetles, Predatory Mites or Lacewings to keep the bad bug population under control!

 

7. Teaching kids where food comes from and the life cycle of plants

In our years in the gardening industry we have heard a few parents in our community start to grow food after hearing their child say the local supermarkets name when asked where food came from, not knowing how the food got there, where its life started before it got to the shelf of your local.

It's important for kids and adults alike to know a plants life cycle to be able to be truly grateful for the end produce, whether its grown by a local farm or from your backyard. If there isn't any connection back to the source and we naively think things just pop onto the shelves when we require them, we are more at risk when supply issues do happen and our ever-conveniently stocked shelves are left bare.

8. More sustainable

Not only does growing your own produce allow for self sustainability but it also helps reduce your environmental impact. Home grown food is more environmentally friendly as it does not require the massive energy and fuel costs required to pack, store, ship compared to the local supermarket alternative.

We can't all be expected to be able to grow everything single thing for every meal but supplementing is a great start and building a little community of friends and neighbours to swap excess or different types of crops, allows for even more variety while still maintaining a good sustainable system.

9. A great way of connecting to nature

Growing plants can be a great way to connect with nature and reap mental and 'spiritual' (we all know gardening is good for the soul! hehe). As silly as it may sound there is a true joy and magic to seeing plants grow and flourish under your care. Even more so when you when you get to taste the harvest too!

10. Less waste - you eat what you harvest!

Only harvest as you need and help reduce food waste! Instead of letting the bag of spinach go bad in the fridge when you can't be bothered cooking, having a plant means it will just be more luscious when you are ready to harvest!
Supermarket's strict screening criteria also contributes to the huge amounts of food that get wasted each day, often purely because of cosmetic reasons and minor imperfections. To them “eye appeal is buy appeal” – and they demand no obvious disfigurement from Farmers who are forced to follow criteria perpetuating the wasteful cycle.