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There’s nothing better than knowing where your food comes from! These days, you never know what sort of chemicals, pesticides and other junk make it to your meal, especially your fruits and vegetables. While you can spend extra money buying from local farmers markets or opting for the organic selection at your local grocery store, you can save money by growing your own fruits and vegetables in your backyard!
Backyard, or “urban,” farming is really taking off with many families who choose to grow their own food in the comforts of their yard. Not only does it allow them to provide fresh ingredients for their favorite meals, but it also allows them to learn how to garden as a family. Those with children can make it a family affair, which practically teaches children hard work and how to appreciate gardening and growing foods. It’s truly an empowering way to reconnect with nature and nourish healthy habits. Not only is it fun, it’s also a fascinating process that will make your family proud to see the results! From planting to care and finally harvesting, the entire process is a beautiful and humbling experience.
And it doesn’t matter if you have a small backyard or a huge one; all that matters is your setup! People in apartments are even growing their own food on their balconies, further proving that you can literally do it anywhere. You can start off small with a raised planter box filled with simple items like lettuce or kale, or go big and start growing all your favorite fruits and vegetables!
Interesting Things in this Post
What are Some Benefits of Backyard Farming?
Health Benefits of Growing your own Vegetables
The biggest one is foods with less or no chemicals. When you buy fruits and vegetables at grocery stores, you don’t know what’s been done to them. Most likely they were grown using pesticides or other chemicals, but the ones in your garden will be free of harmful things, making them much healthier for your entire family.
Also, fruits and vegetables that are grown in your garden are usually higher in nutrients than those that have traveled thousands of miles to get to your grocery store. They’ll also benefit your family’s health because they’ll be rich in nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin A, folate, antioxidants and more.
For kids who are resisted in eating vegetables or fruits, planting their own could stimulate their interest in trying. In fact, there is a success story where a lady from Denver, Colorado successfully heal her eating disorder by growing foods in the garden. [1]http://www.loveselfmagazine.com/a-womans-journey-to-heal-an-eating-disorder-by-growing-organic-vegetables/
How does Planting a Garden Help the Environment?
And since they’re organic, you’ll be saving yourself lots of money! Buying organic or fresh from local farmers markets can get pricey, so if you grow your own in your backyard, you will make less purchase from these places. Also, since less is consumed from commercial stores, there’s less pollution produced transporting from farms to retailers.
Plus, your backyard will look beautiful with all the different colors of the fruits and vegetables you’ve planted! Neighbors, friends, and family will come over and relish at your beautiful garden, and if you have extras, you can also share the wealth and give some of your bounties to them. If you’re growing tall fruit trees, your backyard will benefit from the shade.
Once you start your backyard farm, you’ll have a new appreciation for nature and hard work. Seeing something grow from a seed to something you can eat is a fantastic experience. And who knows, now that you’re growing your own vegetables and fruits, you’ll want to up the ante in the kitchen! Being able to come into your kitchen from your yard with loads of fresh items will inspire your culinary skills and help make you a better cook. Plus, the meals will taste even better thanks to all the fresh ingredients that came directly from your own backyard. You might even realize you love gardening and venture out to plants and flowers, helping your garden look even more beautiful than ever before!
What do You Learn from Gardening?
Children love helping out in your backyard farm. You can take the opportunity to show them how hard work pays off and mold their minds by teaching them how plants grow. A lot of scientific concepts happen when you plant and tend to a garden. For example, they could have a more profound understanding of how do plants absorb water? Why is sunshine essential to the plants? What are the benefits of having worms in the soil?
By including your kids, you’re actually giving them hands-on lessons on the cycle of plants, composition, insects and so much more!
Plus, if you also make your compost, you’ll be able to educate them on recycling. >> Here’s a post on how to make compost in a backyard
Furthermore, you can teach basic math and words to younger children who are lending a hand, too, making it a great project for young and older children. You’ll be stimulating their brain as you teach them about eating healthy since they’ll be more willing to try the foods they helped grow.
Not only is backyard farming stimulating for your child’s mind, but it will also get them active. These days, too many kids are stuck on their iPad inside. Gardening will get them out in the yard working for their food. They’ll get in some physical activity as they pull out weeds and more, plus get more vitamin D while being out in the sun for a few hours.
Your kids will love to get their hands and feet dirty, as they help mom and dad tend to the garden to grow what’s later going into their dinner. Plus, getting dirty while gardening is known to strengthen a child’s immunity and overall health since they’ll be exposed to healthy germs.
Overall, you’ll be showing your kids how to work with their hands and finish through with projects as they start out helping you seed the garden, tend it and finally harvest it. They’ll learn that hard work pays off, which will benefit them in the future.
But most importantly, tending to a backyard farm will bring your family closer together. It’ll give parents a chance to reconnect with their kids no matter what age they are. Think of it as a time to get in some fresh air and bond as a family, with no technology or outside distractions. You’ll soon see how much your kids will look forward to their time in the garden with you! It’ll leave them with amazing memories when they are older and will be inspired to do the same with their kids one day.
Easy Things to Grow in a Garden
The possibilities of what you can grow in your backyard are endless. It all depends on your personal preferences as what you’d like to feature in your garden. If you’re a novice, you’ll most likely want to start out with some easy fruits or vegetables and can then progress to more challenging ones once you’ve gained more experience. Other factors that might influence your decision as to what to grow could be the size of your garden and where you live since climate and weather can also play a significant factor on if something will grow or not. But typically, fruits like strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and Goji berry are relatively easy to test out your green thumb.
Tools for Backyard Gardening
Once you figure out what sort of fruits and vegetables you’ll grow in your backyard, you’ll need the necessary tools to make it all happen. If you have limited space to start a backyard farm, you can use containers, but if you have ample space, raised beds would work well. Or if you have the room, you can simply section off a side of your backyard and plant the seeds straight into the yard’s dirt (however, you may need to add some soil to since it is an active ecosystem of fungi, bacteria, and micro-organisms that are perfect for fruits and vegetables.
Tools you need for your first garden include a rake, shovel, some irrigation in the form of a sprinkler or hose, and a hoe or hand wedding tool. You might also want to get gloves for you and the family to keep your hands clean (but kids will love getting them dirty). Gardening boots and a hat might also be great additions so that you can keep the sun out of your face and your other stylish shoes clean!
>> Here’s our list of “15 Best Products for Gardening and Planting with Kids”
Finally, you’ll need all the different seeds of each of the fruits and vegetables you plan on growing, which can be bought at online or at home and garden stores. From there, a simple Internet search can help give you more information on planting and tending to certain types of fruits and vegetables so that your backyard farm is bountiful with nutritious and fresh ingredients for you and your family.
So now that you’re inspired, it’s time to go out and begin your family’s journey with backyard farming!
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A freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA with more than 7 years of experience, writing for magazines and blogs. She is also a social media maven and communications specialist. Parenting is one of her favored topics. She is a happy mom with two boys and due with her little girl in May.