All that talk about working in my own vegetable garden inspired me to write a new article today for Hub Pages on Tips for Starting a New Vegetable Garden. If you’re new to gardening or you’ve just moved into a new house, these tips may help you start your very own home vegetable garden. I’ve shared with you how my little investment in seeds and starter plants yields big harvest. Not only does the garden produce food that saves me money, but I know exactly what went into growing my food, where it came from, and how it was harvested and stored. Think about it for a minute.
While I am not in a position to raise my own beef cattle, I can certainly raise my own lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, peppers and a bunch of other vegetables. I know that my vegetables haven’t been doused with a bunch of chemicals because I take care of them. I’m fairly certain that the soil is mineral-rich thanks to the compost added to it over the years. More importantly, I know that it is fresh – and the fresher the vegetables, the higher the nutrient content. Important vitamins such as vitamin C degrade with time and yes, vegetables contain vitamin C. It’s not just your oranges and orange juice that contains vitamin C!
So think about growing a few vegetables if you can. Most people can grow a tomato plant in a pot, a few lettuce plants or some herbs on a sunny kitchen windowsill. Whatever you can grow, I encourage you to do so. It adds so much enjoyment to your life – and frankly, tastes so much better than store bought food – that you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
