Benefits to Organic Gardening

Benefits to organic gardening include healthy food, wise stewardship of your land, and a better world.  Just imagine how much better the world would be if everyone did their part and grew their own food organically. 

By growing your own organic food, you avoid the GMOs and pesticides that linger on much of the produce you find in your nearby grocery store. Plus, organic food has far more nutrients, vitamins, enzymes, and minerals than food raised on commercial farms.

That’s especially true if you grow your own soil through composting. Adding compost regularly to your garden means your soil grows healthier every year. Excellent, healthy soil means your fruit and vegetable plants tap into the excellent nutrition they need so they produce fruits and vegetables your body needs. It’s a wise way to preserve the health of your land. 

And finally, by growing your own healthy produce, you ensure food security for you and your family. Imagine if everyone grew a backyard garden. It would, indeed, be a better world.

Still skeptical about the benefits?  Then read on.  Here are five benefits to organic gardening.

Benefits to Organic Gardening
1.  Healthiest Food Out There

When you buy commercially produced fruits and vegetables, you risk introducing pesticides into your diet. According to one study, industrial agriculture adds more than one billion pounds of pesticides to crops each year. To keep all those pesticides from killing the crops before harvest, industrial farmers use genetically engineered seeds.

Plus, herbicides are now being detected in most of the rivers and even rainfall samples around the world. Our Earth would be better off if more people grew their own food using organic means. 

Wouldn’t it be better to use heirloom seeds and grow your vegetables the healthier and old-fashioned way? 

By growing your own organic produce, you can provide your family with clean, healthy food that improves your health and promotes healing.

With a simple trash barrel and lid you can make your own homemade fertilizer to feed and strengthen the plants in your garden.

The Benefits to Organic Gardening
2.  Wise Stewardship

Nutrient deficiency is a common problem among people around the world. For example, most people don’t get enough magnesium in their diet because farm soil no longer contains vital nutrients such as magnesium.

That’s because commercial farming produces high-yield crops season after season, and the soil has no time to repair itself. By growing an organic garden, you give your own patch of land a chance to heal and produce healthy food. 

With organic gardening, you feed the soil, as well as improve it.

With organic gardening, you improve and heal the soil using natural methods, such as earthworms.

 Just imagine how healed the earth would become if everyone practiced organic gardening?

Benefits to Organic Gardening
3.  It's Frugal, Self-Sufficient Homesteading At Its Best

Learn to save your own seeds, and then start your plants from seeds, and you avoid that costly trip to the greenhouse every year. Collect water in rain barrels, and you’ll reduce your water bill.

Mind you, there is effort involved. You will need to commit to approximately one to two hours each week for every 100 square feet of garden space you have. That includes weeding, watering, and harvesting your plants.

But the money you save will be well worth the effort. We usually grow our tomatoes in a raised garden bed and get enough tomatoes that I can dehydrate them to last all year. In addition, I grow enough zucchinis to freeze to make my favorite soup until the following summer. You can also save money by growing lettuce and other healthy greens. 

Benefits to Organic Gardening
4.  You Save the Environment

Pesticides may get rid of those garden pests, but they also poison other beneficial insects and birds in the process.  Plus, those chemicals you use to feed plants (which do nothing to improve the soil, by the way) eventually seep down into water tables and are washed into streams and rivers, polluting our water. 

According to one report, more than 430,000 tons of pesticides were used in homes and businesses, as well as farms, recreational areas, and livestock. These pesticides often wind up in our drinking water. 

By gardening organically, we can improve the health and fertility of our soil. 

Benefits to Organic Gardening
5.  It's a Healthier, More Satisfying
Way to Live

Gardening is a great way to enjoy being outdoors and exercise on a regular basis.  Yes, it can be hard work sometimes, but it is also satisfying work.  There's nothing more exciting than seeing seedlings bud out and harvesting your own fresh, safe produce. 

Gardening is considered a moderate-intensity exercise, something we should all be doing for at least 150 minutes per week. You can get that excellent exercise by working in your garden for about half an hour a day, six days a week.

Getting Started

Gardening isn’t as complicated as it seems, but following these basic tips will help your gardening efforts be successful. Keep it simple by growing some of the easiest garden vegetables. Here are four of them.

Also, keep these six steps in mind to ensure your gardening effort is a pleasant one. And keep these seven tips in mind if you want self-sufficient gardening. 

The winter months are an excellent time for planning your garden. And if you’re reading this during the winter months, think about buying your seeds in bulk to save time and money. Practical organic gardening methods include finding the right garden spot. Read more about it here. 

If you choose to purchase seeds, read these tips to ensure your starter plants have the best chance of growing strong. Think about buying heirloom seeds so you never have to buy seeds or plants again. Also, read this important article on germinating your seeds for stronger plants.

Give your seedlings the best possible chance to grow by planting them in raised beds.

Do you lack space or don’t have a backyard? You can still have a small garden by growing your vegetables in containers. You can also grow plants indoors using a hydroponic system, or you can grow plants and keep fish using an aquaponics system.

Also, consider keeping an herb garden for self-reliant wellness. And watch out for poison ivy, and keep these tips in mind when you suffer that awful itch.

During the Garden Season

To prevent pests from devouring your plants, follow these simple steps. Also, think about keeping an earthworm farm to build your soil. To protect your plants and retain moisture, consider mulching. Build compost throughout the summer months to strengthen your soil and promote plant health.

Once you’ve built that compost, consider making compost tea as a natural and healthy fertilizer for your plants.

When You’re Ready To Harvest

If you have an abundance of potatoes at the end of the year, learn how to store them (how to store potatoes). Follow these tips to store your garden produce, including your root vegetables. And prolong your garden by protecting them from the frost. 

Consider these plants to make your homestead pretty.

About the Author

My name is Sue Merriam, and I began the journey of self-reliant living more than three decades ago, which enabled me to stay home with my children. Fifteen years ago, I founded Joyful Homesteading to help others save money and face the future without fear. My goal is to give you practical, honest advice so you can save money and experience the joy of simple living. I hope you join me.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.