Grow Your Garden Radio

Welcome to “Grow Your Garden Radio” where it’s easy to be green!

Gardening is one of the more popular hobbies in the United States with about 55% of American households participating to some extent.

Container gardening was one of the most popular trends in 2022 among 34- to 45-year-olds that particular market has increased tremendously even to this date.

Globally the sale of gardening supplies is expected to be over $120 billion that’s ‘billion’ with a ‘b’ in 2023.

Why is gardening so popular?

first and foremost, you can get a good quality food product from your garden with complete confidence about how your food was grown and processed because you are the one growing it, you are the one processing it and you know exactly what you have put into your garden.

Additionally, you can save money. The average garden produces about $600.00 worth of produce each year. That’s a nice little chunk of change off of your grocery bill.

Of Course, how much of that $120 billion did you spend to get that $600.00 worth of produce?  

we’ll be talking about how to be more  cost effective later on in the series. But you can garden for very little expense if you do it the right way.

You don’t need a lot of fancy tools. A good shovel, a garden rake, a hand trowel, seeds, compost and water are the primary ingredients that you would have to provide. After you get your basic tools you never have to buy them again. They are going to last you for a long, long time.

If you have good quality soil you don’t need to use a lot of amendments such as fertilizer and pesticides.

Cover crops or green manure, and compost from your home or from a local nursery can increase soil health and reduce pest and pathogen activity. Careful crop selection and placement with an appropriate ground cover such a mulch can reduce pesticide use to zero. Remember, even if you use an organic pesticide, it is still a poison to be respected and used as minimally as possible.

I have not used any pesticides to manage pathogens or pests in 10 years of gardening with my current setup.  I also have some exceptional yields of tomatoes, various types of peppers and cabbage, to name a few things, just growing organically.

Add the suns Energy to the mix (which is still free, until someone finds a way to tax it) and you have an inexpensive garden producing for you and your family.

Aside from the economic benefits of having a garden there are a lot of health benefits attributed to gardening.

First of all the average gardener burns about 200 to 600 calories, plus you are outside away from electronics and artificial light and filtered recycled air.

Studies have shown the residents in long term health care facilities experience improved psychological well-being and overall health benefits from engaging in community gardens.

You can also get a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction from starting a seedling from a tiny seed which doesn’t even look like the plant that you’re trying to grow.  Watching it grow to a mature plant which produces food you can use help creates independence and underscores one’s ability to provide for themselves and others. 

Are you looking for an inexpensive way to spend quality time with your children?

Gardening will allow you that time. It will also instill  knowledge and respect for our food, and where it comes from.  Self-reliance, problem solving, physical activity, and the rewards of a harvest which you and your children have created from tiny little seeds, forms an impression which will last a lifetime.

Time in the garden is an investment in one’s health and wellbeing.

Gardening has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.

I’m very excited to be able to share some of my knowledge and enthusiasm for gardening.

If you’re interested in learning more about information presented in this episode, please go to growyourgardenradio.com

There you will find show notes for individual episodes, transcripts, a cumulative bibliography for the series and additional material that you can use for your further exploration.

Comments and questions are always welcome and will help give me an idea where you, my listeners, want to go with your gardening knowledge.

Once again, thank you for listening to “Grow Your Garden Radio” where it’s easy to be green!