The benefits of growing your own food- and how to get started.
By: Kara Hughes, MPH, CHES®
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener, or this is your first rodeo...
We hope this space provides some tricks and tips for the upcoming growing season.
Growing your own food has many health benefits including increased fruit and vegetable intake, control over fertilizer and pesticide use, and increased nutrient content due to harvest and travel time. While starting a garden can seem intimidating, growing food can be relatively easy. Once you’ve found a space, either in your backyard or at a community garden, decide what foods you’d like to plant. You can purchase seed packets to sow seeds directly into the ground, or you can purchase starters. Starter plants have typically already been hardened and are a great way to save time! If you decide to sow your own seeds, we recommend checking out Seed St. Louis’s tips on reading a seed packet. Seed St. Louis also has a region-specific planting calendar that breaks down the best time to start seedlings, sow seeds, transplant seedlings, and harvest your produce. It’s never too late to start! Greens, peas, beans, asparagus, radish, and herbs are all great plants to start right now. Growing your own food provides a multitude of benefits for your body and the environment and can provide individuals with more power around their food choices. If growing your food isn’t an option this season, consider investing in Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) or shopping from local farmers at a market. Both options still provide hyper-local, nutrient-dense foods, while also supporting the local economy and reducing environmental impacts. To find a CSA near you, visit Local Harvest’s webpage.
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