HelpfulGardener.com

Why do you garden? What motivates you in taking a shovel to the ground and planting some yummy veggies?

I originally started when my 3 year old nephew came to visit for a summer. He lives in the city and I in the "country". I took him with me to the farmers market, and he wanted to know how the vegetables got there from the store. That convinced me to go home and dig up part of my garden to plant some vegetables so that he could, over the summer, learn where his food was really coming from. After that "summer school", I was hooked. I found that I learned just as much as he about what it takes to produce food in an organic and earth-friendly fashion. I also found that instead of having my vegetable garden and my perennial gardens as separate entities, That I could combine them into beautiful but productive things. Adding vegetables (which tend to grow quickly and often produce both colorful flowers and fruits) to a more "static" bed of perennials can yield a thing of beauty.
I could probably ramble on for pages on this topic, so I'll stop there. I'm interested to hear why others do it. Good question!

Why garden... well I wanted to learn how to grow my own food. Be able to actually go out and get food that I grew. My parents used to garden and I always though how wonderful it was to go out into the garden and pick a handful of strawberries or raspberries or whatever my mother happened to be growing. But I really wanted to learn what it would take to grow and all the hows and whys.
You know, in case the world comes to an end, hey at least I know I can grow something and feed myself!

My parents raised on a garden so I a had learned what to do and what not to do.So I thought.Triple fifteen and lime morphed into organic,sustainable vegetable growing garden.I maintain two gardens,one out of state,and one at my girlfriends place.The produce is great and I find the gardening time most enjoyable.At the girlfriends is a 4x10 raised bed with the makings for (her favorite)peco de gallo. Coffee in the morning and iced tea in the evening go hand in hand with bonding with nature and the gardening both states.Just how I chose to exist.Greener

Much like Tiger above, I wanted to learn a useful skillset. That is why I am trying to do everything organic.

Salsa ingredients for canning to include pickling peppers and canning tomatoes appeals to my thrifty side and I also enjoy seeing the direct results of my work.

The process of planning the garden, starting the seeds, developing the layout, and developing the containers and soil has been great and I have learned so much!

This board has also taken the "book smart" to the level of also increasing my "experience" as those experiences are shared freely by the experienced. That was a mouthful!. But I am grateful to avoid mistakes I would have clearly made without reading other's experiences and solutions.

Ahhhhh the plan for next year is steadily being refined!!!

I wanted fresh food. I planted a tomato last year, in a horrible spot, and it didn't do much. I made a garden in the sunny part of the yard, and I've had so much fun planting, and harvesting, and planning what next. I just need to learn layout skills. My garden is a jumble of things. LOL.

When my kids were small, it was not profitable for me to work and pay a babysitter. In my search for ways to stretch the dollars my hubby made and have more money for shoes, jeans, toys etc. Gardening just seemed to fit into my contribution to the family, that didn't require a babysitter.
I sewed, I gardened, I cooked from scratch, I stretched the dollars, and we bought seasons passes to entertainment or let them play baseball, with the money saved by gardening, canning, and milking the goats, plus eggs, and meat home raised. My husband remembers those years, as eating lots of wild foods, canning outside because of the heat, and in general, roughing it. I remember them as an adventure in surviving on one paycheck.

Now I can add that I grow my own tobacco, and am moving into growing grains and cotton, still searching for ways to stretch those dollars.
Yes, the kids grew up and have kids, and they sometimes need a bit of help, so still it helps to stretch.. come on dollar stretch just a bit more! We have another generation to teach those dollars to stretch!

I love nature. I love challenges! And I love learning. Gardening, canning, and sustainability are all parts of me. I never understood what I was looking at when I visited my grandmother and saw free range chickens( in the middle of the city). She grew food, raised rabbits for meat and barter, made quilts from old clothing scraps, and canned food for the winter. My grandfather was a carpenter and made furniture and home repairs....I am the only one...Out of my grandmother nine children, and 30 grandchildren and hundreds of great grandchildren. I am the only one that sees the value of this lifestyle. I could go on. Why do I garden? Because it feed my body, my soul and reminds me of the connection that I have with my grandmother...even while she is away.

I started gardening this year because I was out of work/unemployed a few times this spring. With my landlords consent I have turned quite a few sections of the yard into vegetable baring plots of various kinds. Most are doing quite well and the enjoyment of tending to the various crops and yielding from them have been quite worth it. Many harvest to come!

James

Cheap Organic Food.

The earth made me do it...



HG

I like to eat!
I don't like to eat poison from China and Mexico.
I like to can my own food.
I need stress relief!
I love to learn.
I want a simpler life, one of sustainability.
I come from a farming background and it's in my blood.
It's also a creative outlet for me too, in addition to woodcarving.

I started gardening because it's cheaper to grow food than is to buy it in the store. Than I realized my food is healthier becuase the soil is healthier. Now I'm full on addicted to doing and trying new gardening related things. I love the smell of earth, playing with worms, making compost, watching tiny plants grow, experimenting, and LOOOOOOOVE the smell of tomato plants.

Because I needed a stress reliever when away from work. Having fresh veggies is kinda cool, too!

EG

engineeredgarden wrote:Because I needed a stress reliever when away from work. Having fresh veggies is kinda cool, too!

EG

I'm kinda like EG. I love the fresh vegetables, but I love the pleasure our family and friends get from fresh veggies I grow even more. Because I have a curiosity about everything, gardening gives me a method to satisfy some of my curiosity. I never grow anything the same way I grew it the year before.

Ted

I don't really know, cept to say. It gives me a sense of certainty, control and accomplishment. Nothing is more certain then planting a seed, watch it sprout, and grow. And if you run into any problems, there's always something you can do to solve it, and hard work gurantees bountiful rewards. About what else in life can you say the same?

I'm just amazed that they GROW!

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Because I've never found canned tomatos at the store that tast anything close to what I grew up with. I grew up with home canned tomatos and nothing else tastes as good.

Well, there are as many reasons to garden as there are varieties of tomatoes! I grew up in a family of 18 kids and quite frankly, gardening was survival. I have gardened my "entire" life, well 66 years at this point since I actually don't know what the entire will turn out to be.

Gardening provides wonderful, healthy exercise and nutritious food. It provides a time to commune with nature and God. Once upon a time it provided a great opportunity for me to interact with my three daughters and now, priceless time to interact with my grandson (2 years of age). And, what a delightful feeling to give to friends, family and the needy, both in summer and winter, produce you grew from your own labors.

Perhpas you have already done this but, if not, try it. Bring a big basket of produce to Church for your church friends. There are many senior citizens who can longer grow their own veggies and fruits and would be enormously grateful for your kindness and generosity.

I really like learning how to do things from scratch - bake bread, spin fiber, brew beer, grow food. I think it can be downright revolutionary to reclaim the ability to feed and clothe ourselves.

I think our economy and culture is set up in such a way as to make us think we can't do these things. We believe we must rely on chemicals and complicated processes, but the truth is that it's easier than we think. In the case of gardening, all we really need to do is set the process in motion and nature will do much of the work.

That doesn't mean that I always want to do everything for myself. In most cases I'm happy to pay someone else to do these things for me, but I like to learn these skills as a reminder of their real value.

Plus it's just plain cool to see things grow!

The food tastes great and it's so amazing to know that it all came from enough seeds to cover the palm of your hand. Plus, there's the constant learning experience.....observing and trying new things each year .

Wow these are great responses everybody!
It seems sustainability, freshness, and costs are the main reasons!

Gardening for me evokes a wide range of emotions. When I smell tomato plants it fondly brings me back to the days when my grandparents were still alive and I as a young boy would anxiously peek under the leaves to see if any were ripe. Or perhaps it inspires a sense of independence in a day and age where technology and fast food have robbed us of that independence. Not to mention that it also tastes dam good.