Growing your own food is honestly life-changing. If you haven’t tried it yet, what’s holding you back? You can grow so many delicious things in a vegetable garden here in Bismarck, even if you’re a beginner. Don’t believe us? We’ll prove it!
Growing Your Own Food vs. Buying It From the Store
Once you start growing food in your own garden, the benefits will be hard to ignore. Edible gardening is a hobby that’s definitely worth exploring—you’ll gain so much in the process! Here’s why we think you should start growing your own food in 2022.
1. It Saves Money
You’ve seen the prices of food these days! A pint of cherry tomatoes can cost $5.00, but a single tomato plant can produce up to 30 pounds of fruit in one growing season! While you may need to invest in a few startup costs like soil, fertilizer, seeds and starter plants, or planters, the long-term cost savings are staggering!
2. It’s Convenient
Skip the long lineups and crowded grocery stores and visit the fresh produce aisle located in your very own garden. It’s an introvert’s dream!
3. It’s Healthier
Fruits, vegetables, and herbs contain the most vitamins and minerals as soon as you pick them. The longer they’re off the plant, the more those nutrients deplete. When your food is fresh off the vine, you’re getting the healthiest, highest quality crops possible!
4. You’ll Know Exactly How It Was Cultivated
If you want to go spray-free and organic, you can control everything that goes into your food when you grow it at home. You can’t always be confident in what’s been sprayed on your veggies when they’re shipped here from the other side of the planet. No need to worry about mystery chemicals when you’re growing your own food!
5. It’s Better for the Environment
Speaking of food getting shipped across the world, all the carbon emissions from global importing is pretty harmful to the environment. Reduce your carbon footprint with edible gardening, so you won’t have to rely on food that’s traveled farther than you ever have!
6. You’ll Be More Self-Sufficient
Food prices and availability aren’t always predictable due to global supply chain issues, droughts, floods, and other factors. A huge step towards self-sufficiency is learning to grow your own food. When you’ve got a steady supply of food at home and continue to build on your skills every gardening season, you gain food security, peace of mind, and a huge sense of accomplishment!
7. It’s an Opportunity to Try New Foods
Kohlrabi, cucamelons, banana mint, purple carrots—there’s no shortage of interesting fruits, vegetables, and herbs to grow here in North Dakota! Diversifying your diet is great for your health because every plant has its own unique composition of antioxidants and nutrients, often indicated by its color. For example, purple cauliflower and carrots have cancer-fighting antioxidants, and golden beets and tomatoes have higher Vitamin A.
8. It Supports Local Pollinators
Vegetable plants and fruit trees need to be pollinated, and the pollinators need food to survive. Everybody wins! Bees and butterflies will happily visit your blooming plants, and the birds will be grateful for the extra berries and other fruits to help them get through the upcoming winter.
9. It Gets Young Kids Interested in Vegetables
Trust us: get your kids to plant a seed, watch it sprout, and develop into a huge thing they can eat. It will blow their minds! It’s the magic of science in action, and kids love discovering the mysteries of nature. They also love having a sense of ownership, so letting them grow a bean plant they can claim as their own will make them much more inclined to eat them!
10. It Makes Your Yard Prettier
Vegetable plants and fruit trees have plenty of ornamental impact—especially if you’re growing lots of colorful varieties! Blooms always precede fruits, so you’ll get pretty flowers as well as tasty edibles. Vining plants like cucumbers and hardy kiwis look gorgeous on obelisks and trellises. Fruiting shrubs and trees bring shade, privacy, and structure.
Ready to start growing your own food in Bismarck? Visit Plant Perfect and get stocked up on all the startup supplies, seeds, and plants to begin cultivating delicious, healthy food for years to come.