Written by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
If you’re inspired to eat more veggies, a new gardening hobby can help you keep your plant based resolutions.
Starting a veggie garden is a fun way to provide yourself with a homegrown supply of produce. And since Square Foot Gardening is the perfect system for beginners, it can help you keep your commitment to eat more fresh produce!
Choose From a Spectrum of Motivations
There are many reasons and ways to adopt a plant based diet.
Salad made from a SFG harvest.
Perhaps you want to add more produce to your diet because you’re ready for a fresh start after the holidays.
Or maybe you’re trying out Veganuary, the 31 day challenge to adopt a vegan diet in January.
Maybe you specifically want to adopt a heart-healthy lifestyle and are ready to go fully plant-based, leaving animal based foods in the past.
Or perhaps you have heard that the best way to bolster your gut microbiome is with a diverse selection of colorful fruits and veggies and you simply want to supplement your current omnivorous diet.
Whatever your reason – you’re not wrong. Eating more food from plants will help you live a longer, healthier life.
Commit Yourself With a Garden
Broccoli grown in an SFG.
If you want to increase your odds of sticking with your resolution to eat more fresh produce, grow your own food!
Studies show that those who garden eat more vegetables – but we don’t really need a study to convince us. It just makes sense. With a source of homegrown produce, choosing fresh, unprocessed foods is an easy choice.
Fresh, homegrown vegetables and herbs can be picked just minutes before preparation, making them tastier and even more nutritious.
And once you have learned the joy of tasty homegrown tomatoes and incredibly crisp carrots, it’s hard to go back to storebought.
Add in the benefits of fresh air and exercise enjoyed while practicing your food growing hobby, and it’s not hard to understand why people get hooked on gardening!
Grow Plant Based Meals Easily in an SFG
But the type of garden that will make your resolutions really stick is a Square Foot Garden.
Boy showing a cabbage he grew in a SFG.
By far the easiest food growing system to implement for beginners, this Method takes the guess work out of the process.
Involving a four-by-four foot raised bed divided by a grid into 16 square feet sections, each plant has its recommended planting density.
As soon as radishes are plucked from the Mel’s Mix, the growing medium used in this system, more seeds can be sown or transplants set in, keeping the raised beds at an efficient “no vacancy.”
In this system, since soil is replaced with Mel’s Mix, weeds are minimal or even non-existent, and harvesting is a breeze.
Plus, this method is easy for kids to learn. And when kids grow their own food, they are more likely to eat vegetables too, making it a great way to get the whole family involved.
Ready to bolster your dedication to eating fresh produce?
