But any food you can produce for yourself increases your independence and reduces strain on the traditional food supply chain. You might also find that you have a bumper crop of certain vegetables or fruits, allowing you to extend your harvest through canning, freezing or drying. You can also use your harvest to share with friends and neighbors. And some food pantries may accept surplus home-grown produce, giving you the chance to help meet the needs of food-insecure people in your own community.
And keep in mind: Some produce can take far longer than seven days to go from field to grocery store! The health benefits of consuming fresh fruits and vegetables every day are fairly common knowledge.
Our bodies need vitamins, minerals, proteins and more to:. But if you want a refresher or additional motivation to eat healthier, check out this article from the Harvard School of Public Health or this scientific research study. The more people we have growing and eating nutrient-dense food, the healthier the population in general becomes. In time, this can help reduce strain on our health care system and lead to overall better quality of life for many.
To protect their genetically narrow crops, corporate farms have no choice but to use artificial fertilizers and harsh chemicals to control insects and weeds. These chemical treatments certainly do the trick, but concerns remain about the possible long-term effects on people and the surrounding environment. When you manage your own independent garden, you have the freedom to choose which chemicals you use, or none at all.
You have the time to explore natural alternatives if you want, perhaps trying a few different remedies until you find that one that works. To supply the food that the world needs through large-scale growing, you need to convert massive amounts of land from its natural state into farm-friendly bare soil. This often means the devastation of countless creature habitats. While many larger animals have also felt the negative effects of corporate farming, the insect population seems to have taken the largest hit.
According to Yale School of the Environment , scientists estimate that insect populations have decreased by almost half in the 40 years. Many of these insects are responsible for pollen transfer between plants, which is critical for seed reproduction.
And the U. National Park Service lists habitat loss as one of the key factors in pollinator decline. You have the opportunity to create a new mini-habitat for bees, butterflies, bats and other friendly pollinators right in your own yard! These little creatures need plenty of flower nectar to feed on, and nooks and crannies to hide and build their nests in.
If space and local regulations allow, you may even want to start your own beehives. This way there are various benefits of gardening. This is a great way to work out along with nature and enjoy its fruits for a long time. It is not that we need a vast area to start gardening. There are various procedures to do it using minimum spaces as well. We can do it in our terrace or in pots in the balcony in our apartments. So you don't have many excuses to procrastinate this time.
This is the right time to act and do some good to protect our own environment and gardening is one of the easiest ways. News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism. Special Projects Highline.
HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. Part of HuffPost Environment. All rights reserved. Oscillating Sprinklers are not a great option always. You can use soaker hoses so that you do not waste any water. You can try to store rain water so that you can use them for gardening. Rain water harvesting is a great sustainable measure.
Try use less energy driven devices for gardening and if you use any like a lawn mower, try to have it serviced on a regular basis. Avoid using plastics in any form while gardening. Plastics are not good for us and our environment.
Select your plants smartly. Instead, learn as much as you can, take in basic tips and tricks and take baby steps. You will find that when given proper attention, a garden can soothe your soul and gardening can calm and centre you. The 21 st century is the era of instant everything — instant coffee, instant meals, instant orders, instant mails, instant communication and, most importantly, instant results.
Theoretically, all these instant things are meant to free up your time. However, in reality, the more time you free up, the more chores you have to do. As a result, not only do you have to have everything done in an instant but also add more things that need to be done instantly. It is no wonder people burn out relatively fast these days.
We are setting a pace that is impossible to keep up without negative consequences. Not only does our body protest through various conditions and syndromes but also our mind through mental illnesses and strain. Gardening requires quite a bit of physical labour, a factor that makes many people reject it as too much on top of everything else. However, that is only one aspect of gardening. The other lesser known aspect, or rather the aspect that only becomes obvious when you actually garden, is the immense restfulness your mind can experience while gardening.
By its very nature, gardening is a slow process. There is no instant gratification here. Instead, it yields its best results when you take time over it and pay attention to details.
More importantly, the manual labour exercises your body while leaving your mind free to ruminate over anything and everything — something that is becoming increasingly rare in the frenetic pace of life.
It also teaches you the value of waiting for some things; they are better for the wait and you enjoy them more. Think of the fragile begonia plant that you have babied into blooming. The attempt takes time and energy on your part, but the end result is beautiful to the senses. Gardening also allows you to be in the presence of nature even if that presence is a small potted plant.
As the plant grows and thrives, you feel satisfaction from a job well done. The hours that you put into your garden yield beautiful results that please and satisfy your mind, lowering stress and allowing your mind to relax. In a life that is increasingly fast-paced, frenetic and stressful, your garden becomes an oasis of calm and tranquillity.
Spending even an hour working on your garden can help you relax, lower your stress levels and allow your mind to rejoice in the peace that your garden offers. There can be no better recreation for your mind. Gardening is often seen as too slow an activity in a modern fast-paced world.
People wonder why they should spend time on something as leisurely as gardening when every free moment is taken up with doing more chores. As you continue down the gardening path, you will learn more and become more proficient.
As you know more, you will also be able to contemplate more possibilities for your garden. In addition, it allows you to contribute to environmental health and even your own table. Although gardening yields relatively slow results, those results leave a deeper impact and are much more long-lasting.
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