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Vegetable patch: 8 great reasons to start your own kitchen garden

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Vegetable patch: 8 great reasons to start your own kitchen garden
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An increasing number of urban dwellers are changing lifestyles and investing in countryside property.  A great opportunity to start growing your own fruit and vegetables.  If you are fortunate enough to have access to a little plot of land why not create your own vegetable patch by planting some tomatoes or even some strawberries.  Read on to find out why you should get started.  Nature can only do you good! 

There is a long list of produce that you can grow in your vegetable patch from vegetables, pulses and fruit.  Although vegetables form the staple part of our meals they are less commonly found at the core of our lives. In general we buy our vegetables in the supermarket or at farmer markets without paying attention to where they come from or how they were farmed.  Gardening has great benefits for you and your family.  Here are 8 reasons why you should invest in a watering can and a pair of wellington boots!

1. Maintaining a vegetable patch in good for your well-being

Creating your own vegetable patch allows you to focus on something else and forget about any stresses at work. Instead each night you can concentrate on the plants you have sown and watch them gradually grow.

Not only is gardening good for your well-being but it is also an opportunity to spend time outside, get close to nature and breath in fresh air.  You can also feel proud of your efforts.  According to a  British study carried out in 2016, daily gardening improves self esteem and mood levels while lowering the risk of depression or anxiety. These result were gathered from the opinions of 136 gardeners and 133 non-gardener volunteers who took part in the study.

Another study carried out in the heart of Tokyo discovered that in urban environments gardening can also be seen as a moral booster and maintaining a better mental health.

2. Gardening is good for measuring our progress

If planted at the right period, parsley, leeks, aubergines, tomatoes and lettuce seeds can start to push through the ground after a few weeks.  Seeing the quick progress of the seeds you have planted can boost your self esteem.

3.Sharing good practices with your children

Gardening is first and foremost an experiment.  From one year to the next, you have to change your tactics to improve your crop.  To pick up good gardening habits, you gather tips from your neighbours or tease out information from the internet or online forums but it is also an opportunity to be creative.  Above all you can share special moments with your children.  They also want to join in picking fruit and cropping vegetables that they have decided to plant.

Shared garden initiatives and social gardens created in the big cities allow amateur gardeners to build social bonds with other like-minded people breaking down the anonymity and loneliness sometimes associated with city life.

4. Gardening can burn calories

Surprisingly energetic, maintaining a vegetable patch requires you to move and be physically active. Carrying tools, watering plants, bending down to sow seeds, digging or hoeing are just some examples.  Gardening is great for staying healthy.  In fact it is estimated that:

  • One hour of weeding could make you lose between 300 and 400 calories.
  • Pruning a rose bush for 45 minutes or digging for 25 minutes is the equivalent of burning 150 calories.
  • Half an hour of watering can burn around 90 calories