To save money, for taste and health, to share with others, and just because I can. It's therapeutic, it's in my blood, it's who I am. I can't not garden.

Diane

I have to agree with what Diane said. I will also add that I have spent most of my life pleasing someone else, I am retired now and I like pleasing me, and gardening does that very well.

Larry

My reasons are much the same as yours, Momfryhover. I love food fresh from the garden and it is hard for any grocery store to match the freshness. Not only is fresh food tastier, but it is more nutritious too because the longer fresh veggies sit in a shipping crate, warehouse, grocery store, etc., the more their nutritional components degrade.

While the start-up costs of gardening can be high during the period you're spending a lot on building raised beds, amending soil, fencing, putting in an irrigation system, etc., I think it pays off in the end. Not only are you not spending as much money on fresh produce, but you don't have to buy a gym membership because you can get your workout right there in the garden every day. The odds are you aren't going out and spending a lot of money on "entertainment" because you can entertain yourself at home in the garden.

It also bothers me a great deal that the average food in a supermarket has traveled 1500 miles from where it was grown to where it is sold. As a nation, or in fact, as a world, we cannot keep using up fossil fuel endlessly to ship food across the country or around the world. It just doesn't make sense to do that, and the higher fuel prices go, the less sense it makes.

I like growing our food right here and knowing exactly how it is raised. I know our food isn't treated with chemicals, it isn't planted in contaminated soil, it isn't being harvested by farm workers who aren't even being paid a fair, living wage, and it isn't going to be recalled because it has salmonella or listeria or E. coli or whatever.

Gardening isn't something I do. It isn't a hobby. It isn't even a conscious choice I make any more. It is who I am. I grew up doing it and can't remember a time when we didn't grow veggies, fruits and flowers when I was a kid. It is our lifestyle. I have gardening in my blood and could no more stop gardening that I could stop breathing.

Gardening doesn't just feed my body, it feeds my soul. I can't even comprehend a life without it.

People who make a decision to start a vegetable garden based purely on the idea that they'll save money just don't "get it". It isn't about money, it is about living a real, authentic, healthy lifestyle where you take on some of the responsibility of raising healthy, nourishing food that you will not only grow but also prepare, preserve and eat. The rewards of growing your own food go far beyond the economics of it all.

Raising your own veggies, fruits, herbs and flowers helps you reconnect with nature. You get to see a miracle of some kind every single day. If seeing a tiny tomato seed sprout, grow, turn into a massive monster plant and produce dozens of tomatoes isn't a miracle, then what is?

Gardening is life.

Dawn

Simply cannot find a purple or white sweet potato or a tomato that does not taste like red cardboard in the grocery store.

The answer to this question for me is relatively the same as Dawn's. I am very new to gardening (only 1 year now) and it is slowly becoming just "who I am". I started gardening as a way to keep from having to purchase corporate produce, for the same reasons Dawn gave. The more I garden the more I discover a connection with this life, this earth, the passing seasons. Something a lot of people don't connect with this day and age, I fear. It feeds the soul in a way I cannot describe with words very well.

(and sticking to the man by not paying the jacked up prices for nasty jacked up produced sprayed with god knows what don't hurt :) )

my garden drives my husband batty. LOL bacause i go from winter Kaity- which is the cooking cleaning in the house lovey Kaity to SUMMER KAITY! who i greatly like more. i love getting up as the sun comes up and turning on the sprinkler then riding one horse, moving the sprinkler, pulling weeds watching my chickens and just being outside. which results in No hot breakfast, most days no lunch of significance or dinner till about 9pm. it also results in me canning endlessly, losing 20 lbs, and being excessivly happy. its my happy place I love the rewards i get and the challenges it brings me and the fun, laughing and head shaking that i recieve from my friends. the food tastes better, costs less, and is more healthy for my family. and the size of my pants. I think that it is great for my kids to get out there and work and learn and get dirty... Running thru the tilled dirt is the favorite i think and picking tomatoes is 2nd.

its just a way of life that i love. it means that winter is over and summer has arrived. And that my Husband is going to starve. LOL

Just Because Gardening is;
1.FUN- its fun to see plants growing, its fun to see bees, bugs, buffereflies roaming around them;
2.HEALTHY- it help get healthier in a number of ways, not just eating more vegetables, but get free exercise. I heard that gardening burn more calories than aerobics, and one of the most important thing I experienced is working in the garden reduces stress;
3.LIVING TOYS- garden can be a living toys for kids, they love to run in garden, love to follow butterflies, treat for their curious minds, they learn where their food actually comes from...;
4.LIVING THEATER- gardening is like living theater for all ages, my daughter and I run to garden soon after coming from office/school, its like an interesting movie/serial playing every evening... nothing can beat a morning walk in the garden with cup of coffee...;
5.ECO-FRIENDLY- gardening support local wildlife, acts as air cleanser, reduce carbon foot-print, tons of intangible benefits;
6.VARIETY-great choice of favorite vegetables, colors, shape, taste, organics, etc which cannot be possible without your own garden;
7.LOCAL-There is nothing more local than food grown in own garden... nothing can beat grilling/cooking fresh vegetable within few minutes from the harvest....next to where they grown....

...many more good thing about gardening... I keep discovering new things every day... never compare cost of vegetables brought from supermarket with home-grown. I feel home-grown food is much much cheaper when we add add all those tangible benefits...

Have fun gardening-Chandra

Well, I certainly agree with Chandra, Kaity, Dawn, and Ezzirah. Gardening is more than just food to me, though, altho that is very important. It is the cycle of life, a spiritual journey, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, a spider (last year we hosted Charlotte, the orb weaver, and her egg sacs are still hanging on the house), a tiny ladybug feasting on aphids, a hummingbird tasting the flowers and defending its territory, the homeless cats stretching and sleeping in a sunny corner of the yard, the birds whistling and chattering in the trees, the old warty toad living under the water hose box, the lacy-winged dragonflies perching on the trellis, the Cardinals pecking and pulling the last blueberries off, the colorful caterpillars winding and twining and munching at their host plants, the beautiful gold-trimmed, jade chrysalis of the Monarch waiting to emerge, the Gulf Fritillary butterflies mating, laying eggs, nectaring, and repeating the cycle over and over with their orange wings fluttering and their brilliant silver undersides glittering in the sun, the banana-filled suet feeder covered with the feeding Emperors, Question Marks, and Red Admiral butterflies, the smell of tomato foliage, lavendar, sages, basil, when you brush against them, the big-bottomed bumblebees lumbering from flower to flower, the perfume of good dirt sifting through your fingers, the sweet smell of rain on the winds of a coming storm....

I take a break and sit and glory in it all. I don't need to pass the time dreaming of a better scenario because what else could it be? No, I just soak in it.....

Susan

Yeah, all of that, and the fact that there is nothing else in the world like the taste of a SUN-WARMED, FULLY-RIPE strawberry, or tomato, or peach, or ear of corn eaten standing in the garden. You have to feel sorry for people who've never experienced those flavors. If people only knew, every suburban back yard in America would have a garden.

Dorothy,

I agree. Once you're used to being able to pick a peach from the tree and stand there in the yard with peach juice dripping down your chin while you eat it, then a grocery store peach just can't compare.

With the way food prices have risen and continue to rise, I suspect that edible gardening will continue to grow in popularity. Even if people start growing their own fruits, veggies, herbs and nuts to save money, I suspect that they'll continue doing it for all the reasons we've all described here not just in this thread but in many previous ones on the same subject over the years. Gardening is so addictive!

I've linked an article I read today about the continuing rise worldwide in food prices.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Rise In Food Prices Permanent Worldwide

My number one reason is the wonderful, unmatched flavor of homegrown tomatoes. Everything else is a bonus, but those tomatoes ..... mmmmmm, they are the best and I sure do miss them right now. Our favorite dinner in the summer is thick-sliced tomatoes, fried okra, and hard boiled eggs. My mouth is watering.

Suzie

Among the many reason previously posted, one reason for me is convenience. For example, just yesterday while we are all snowed in I was able to go out to the greenhouse and pick some lettuce for my sandwich, how cool is that!

mike

My parents always grew a garden when I was growing up. I didn't appreciate it then. After not having access to the good tasting home grown veggies for several years, we finally moved someplace where I can have sort of a garden if I keep it nice looking and am not too in your face with it. I love the taste of fresh veggies. Gardening is also a skill. It's something along with food storage I can teach my kids in case we or they ever need to rely on it for food.

Oklahoma is a different growing scenerio than what I grew up with in Arkansas. We didn't have clay soil and I don't remember vine borers. I didn't realize things could change in such a short distance. Ii'm learning a lot by following these threads. It had never occured to me to plant things to attract good bugs for pollination or even to attract butterflies or hummingbirds. We may end up moving again this year, so I may not get to garden like I like. If not, I've learned a few things.