Part 1: Benefits of vegetable gardening

1. Great taste:

  • you get to choose varieties for their taste, aesthetics and variety rather than transportability, shelf life and compatibility with farming machinery.
  • you get to pick them when they are fully mature rather than veggies maturing in the back of a truck, and eat them when they are fresh-picked
  • I can’t emphasize enough: taste-wise there is NO COMPARISON between vegetables in a supermarket, and vegetables picked that day from your garden.

2. Nutrition:

  • vegetables start to lose their nutritional value as soon as they are picked, so the sooner you can eat them the more they are doing for you.
  • you are guaranteed not to have any chemical residues from fertilizers, pesticides etc.
  • you are encouraged to eat more fresh veggies because they are growing in your garden

3. Environmental impact

  • your “zero kilometer diet” eliminates fuel consumption because your aren’t using transport trucks or heavy farm equipment
  • you aren’t contributing to pollution through potash runoff, or chemical products
  • increasing biodiversity. You are encouraging healthy ecosystems in your environment by providing food and habitat for insects and birds and preserving heirloom and heritage varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables.
  • there is an economy of resources (water, soil, amendments) because of the small space required for intensive gardening for the same yield as a traditional row garden.
  • You will be better equipped to deal with the apocalypse because you will know how to produce your own food. (in all seriousness, food security is a great reason for urban agriculture)
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