Viva Vitality: Benefits of Gardening
By Pat MacIntosh
I always look forward to planting season. When I am working in the garden, I am in my happy place! Gardening is a great way to stay physically active and helps reduce stress and anxiety. There are so many benefits to gardening.
Growing your own food can help you spend less money at the grocery store. Even small garden plots or container gardens can grow plants such as tomatoes, lettuce, or cucumbers. Did you know a single tomato plant can produce about 30 pounds of fruit in one season? Climbing vegetables like squash, peas, and pole beans are well suited to small spaces as you can grow them upwards on supports. Herbs are a great addition to your garden or pots as they take up very little room and can be planted alongside vegetables. My favourite herbs to grow are basil, rosemary, mint, and cilantro. If you have garden space you will not be using, perhaps offer your space to someone for a share of whatever they grow.
Another benefit of gardening is having control over how you grow your food. I prefer to avoid pesticides and use natural products where I can. Rather than chemical fertilizer, I compost year-round and mix my compost back into my soil. I also alternate the plants I grow to help replace nitrogen. This year I am going to grow a Three Sisters Garden of corn, beans, and squash. (Google these three words to find plenty of information about this Indigenous way of growing). The corn will provide stalks for the beans to climb; the squash protects the sisters by providing shade to the soil and helping to prevent weeds; and the beans wind their way up keeping the sisters all together, while fixing nitrogen in the soil to feed all three. Plants such as beans, peas, and sweat peas add nitrogen back into the soil. Other nitrogen fixers I am trying this year are red clover and chickpeas.
Gardening fosters a connection with nature and with others. Tending a garden with your family is an opportunity to teach skills to children. Sharing a backyard spot or community garden space may give you a chance to connect with other gardeners. I have never met a gardener who couldn’t talk for hours about plants. If you grow more than you need, you can foster more connections by sharing the surplus with family and friends or local organizations (Google ‘Grow a Row’).
And gardening is good for the environment in many ways, including:
Less food waste. You can eat a lot of the plant parts that don’t make it to the store such as broccoli or radish leaves. Imperfect vegetables such as those weirdly shaped carrots and potatoes don’t always make it to the store but taste just as good. Composting scraps helps reduce landfill waste.
Locally grown food does not have to travel far. Whether it’s grown in your own backyard or by a local producer, less transportation means less carbon emissions.
Replacing lawn with perennials, fruits, and vegetables means less water and fertilizer use.
And finally, growing plants supports local pollinators such as bees and butterflies!
Whatever your benefits are, I wish you happy gardening.
Pat MacIntosh is a Registered Dietitian with Alberta Health Services South Zone Nutrition Services.