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Planting White Pine Seedlings
Planting White Pine Trees White pines. Whenever I think of white
pines, I remember hunting when I was a kid and standing near
trees that were giants. Now every pine tree I...read more on organic gardening
Hydroponics gardening verses organic gardening Which grows the best cannabis
Copy-write 2005 Jan Money.
Hydroponics gardening offers many advantages to the cannabis grower. In fact hydroponics gardening is probably the number one source...read more on organic gardening
Organic Fertilizer Manufacturer in the Agriculture Industry
With today's growing environment concerns, growing plants the organic way seems to be the most logical, not to mention the safest gardening method available. More and more...read more on organic gardening
Maintaining Your Roses
While it is true that you will spend more time on rose
maintenance than most other plants, the care you give them
during the growing season can be done easily while...read more on organic gardening
Chemical Fertilizer Versus Organic Fertilizer
A popular topic among the agriculture specialists and home gardeners these days is the furor on organic fertilizer vs. chemical fertilizer.
Now each fertilizer...read more on organic gardening
Rose Tending In June
"O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June" An extract from the 1794 poem "A red, red rose" by Robert Burns, Scotland’s national bard. Which roses? Do...read more on organic gardening
Fertilizers What you Need to Feed Your Lawn
Just like humans need food, water and shelter to survive, lawns depend on certain elements to live, sixteen to be exact. Most of these elements are already found naturally in...read more on organic gardening
Interior Decorating Themes What s Your Decorating Style
There are a variety of decorating themes from formal to informal and everything in between. Which one best describes your decorating style?
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There are more reasons than ever why anybody with access to a few square feet of the outdoors should grow their own organic vegetables.
You may be shocked at how much of the produce at your local supermarket has been genetically modified. Some estimates now put this at over 50%. While there is no strong evidence that genetically modified foods are immediately harmful to your health, there are no long term studies either. Do you want to take that risk?
Let’s take a look at pesticides and fertilizers. Farmers no longer use crop rotation or natural manures to improve soil fertility, so they are forced to use ever increasing amounts of chemicals to improve yields and multiple pesticides to protect the weakened plants. Pesticides penetrate deeply into the leaves of plants and pestiside residues remain even after you have scrubbed them.
To quote from The Environmental Protection Agency – “Pesticides are designed to kill pests. Many pesticides can also pose risks to people. The health effects of pesticides depend on the type of pesticide. Some, such as the organophosphates and carbamates, affect the nervous system. Others may irritate the skin or eyes. Some pesticides may be carcinogens. Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body.”
Sure you can, and should, buy organic fruit and vegetables but have you seen the prices? Anybody with even a modest vegetable garden can grow healthy organic vegetables at much lower cost than those at the local supermarket. Not only can you grow them at much lower cost, but you can grow them one hundred percent better.
Even the long-keeping vegetables such as potatoes, onions and squash are noticeably tastier picked straight from the home vegetable garden; but when it comes to peas and corn and salad vegetables- well , there is absolutely nothing to compare with the home garden ones, gathered fresh, in the early slanting sunlight, still gemmed with dew, still crisp and tender and juicy, ready to carry every atom of savory quality and taste, without loss, to the dining table.
It is not in price or health alone that home gardening pays. There is another point. Agribusiness has to grow the things that give the biggest yield. They have to sacrifice quality and taste for quantity and long shelf life. You do not. The strawberries on the supermarket shelves may look bright and red and uniform but you will soon find they taste more like the cardboard of their containers when compared to a home grown variety picked straight from the vine.
And this brings us to what may be the most important reason you should garden. It is the cheapest, healthiest pleasure there is. Give me a sunny garden patch in the springtime, give me seeds to watch as they find the light, plants to tend as they take hold in the fine, loose, rich soil, give me succulent and tasty springtime salads. And when you have grown tired of the springtime, come back in summer to even the smallest garden, and you will find in it, every day, a new vista, new pleasures and, yes, new challenges.
Better food, better health, better living -- all these the home vegetable garden offers you in abundance. So, turn off that computer, pull out some old clothes and find a spot to dig.
About the Author
Vince Apps
http://manualofgardening.com
Written by:
Vince Apps
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