5 Reasons why Veggie Gardening is good for Health!

1. Physical exercise

If we work in a desk job, chances are we don’t get a lot of exercise, unless we specifically aim to do so – like going to the gym. If you’re anything like me you don’t like gyms very much. Personally going to the gym makes me feel a bit like a rat in a cage, and that exercise has no point other than getting exercise. Often we lose self-discipline because our exercise has no reason to exist other than itself. Making a contribution to self-nourishment by getting out there and digging, turning over the compost, planting, weeding, watering and fertilising gives our exercise a reason for being and shows us tangible proof that we’ve been Doing Something.

2. Good food.

The flavour of home grown veggies is absolutely unsurpassable. Many veggies that we buy from supermarkets have been sitting in storage for up to months at a time before they go on the shelf. This means that their nutrients are negligible. Fresh veggies straight from the garden contain far more nutrients than supermarket bought ones, and we also have the choice as to what pesticides and fertilisers we use on them so we know exactly what’s going into us when we eat. It’s also fun and incredibly satisfying to be in the middle of cooking dinner and say, “Hang on, just have to dash out to the garden for __(insert ingredient here)__.”. It’s just outside, it’s really damned fresh and delicious, and it also saves money.

For great mail-order organic fruit and veggie seeds, visit www.diggers.com.au .

They have wonderful seeds and great gardening ideas, plus a pack for those with health care cards to start a backyard food garden for a very reasonable price. If you get the opportunity visit their display gardens at St Erth (Daylesford) or Heronswood (Dromana) – they are both beautiful and educational.

3. Connection with Universe

Seasonal veggies only grow in the right season. That’s why they are *seasonal*. Nowadays with global transport and everything available at supermarkets we take things for granted much more than we should. The point about Seasonal vegetables is that when we eat them at the right time of year, when they are in season, we eat with the seasons and live in accordance with the flow of the Universe, visible to us in observation of seasonal change. This has a positive impact on health and wellbeing and allows us to see, absorb and taste the seasons in our food.

Another plus for health and wellbeing is the development of an understanding of the cycles of death and rebirth inherent in growing one’s own food. Compost is derived from waste. It breaks down and becomes rich, fertile soil in which new life grows, and contributes to the nourishment of future food.

I often ask Fertility clients to get themselves a pot and some seeds, and grow themselves a flower or other kind of plant. This helps them to see several things:

a) Nature will sprout the seed when Nature is ready to and all the right factors are present;

b) You can’t grow a seed in soil that’s not ready to be planted in.

A connection with the Universe and the seasons combined with Seasonal eating can help us to understand the factors in our lives which are constant yet constantly changing. It can allow us to prepare for them in advance and thus protect ourselves from prevalent seasonal energies which may overwhelm us and cause disease (see blog entry “Seasonal Change”).

4. The Health and Wellbeing of the Earth

Importing veggies from other countries burns LOTS of carbon in the form of fuel used to transport it. Asparagus, for example, takes 3 years to be edible from seed to fork. If your household is anything like ours, you probably eat at least 1-2 bunches of asparagus a week. Most of the time, the asparagus we get comes from Peru or Mexico, which are in the Northern hemisphere and have opposite seasonal weather patterns to us here in Oz. Whilst I personally don’t mind supporting the economy of Peruvian or Mexican farmers, the food is not sold here in its proper harvesting season, but all year round. It also leaves an enormous carbon footprint. Think of the truck to transport it from the farm to the airport, the plane to transport it over the sea to Australia, the truck to transport it from the docks to the warehouse, the truck to transport it again from the warehouse to the supermarket and last of all, the plastic bag that the supermarket puts it in so you can take it home in your car!!!! So much carbon for one little bunch of asparagus!

Growing food ourselves in our own gardens reverses that aspect of our carbon footprint not only by reducing the carbon from transportation of goods but also contributes to local greenery and plant growth, giving us more Oxygen in our own back yards.

For more information about the Carbon footprint of imported vegetables, see this article from the Independent, a UK magazine: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/food-miles-the-true-cost-of-putting-imported-food-on-your-plate-451139.html

5. Understanding of nourishment

Throughout history human beings have worked on the land, hunted, gathered and done all else to do with physical labour and since last century, we have been in a position where much of that work is done en masse by agricultural workers. Food arrives at our tables and we have little to do with its production other than going to buy it at the shops. As a result we have very little idea about what sort of energy goes in to nourishing us – is it any wonder so many people are exhausted? When you grow plants you have to water them most days when it doesn’t rain, weed the garden around them so they don’t get overtaken by other plants and fertilise them so they have the right chemicals present. What you are rewarded with is beautiful, fresh veggies which look and taste fantastic. What you are also rewarded with is an understanding of how to give nourishment to receive nourishment. How many of us do all of those things for ourselves? If we develop an understanding of nourishment, perhaps we can learn to provide nourishment to our Selves more effectively.