My grandmother was always fascinated by home gardening and I used to watch how she grows vegetables in their home garden. She used to grow tomatoes, cabbages, eggplants, mizuna, lettuces, carrots, pumpkins, and many more.

In the springtime she used to give me homegrown strawberries, In summertime was watermelons and I enjoyed having them a lot. I was calling her garden 'city oasis garden' as the garden was very refreshing for me and where I can connect to nature in the big city that I grew up in.

Since I have worked for an organic company in the past, my interest in home gardening and sustainability grew more. I have noticed that it is much more economical and safer for our health to grow vegetables on our own rather than buying at organic, bio stores. Especially, you do not need to worry about anymore to consider where the vegetables come from, whether it has been grown organically, how they were grown. ( you want to buy vegetables from happy people because your energy also goes into the vegetables that you grow.

According to the ancient teaching of India, especially Ayurveda, it is said that keeping good energy when you grow vegetables is important as plants absorb energy from you when they are in the process of growing. It totally makes sense to me. I remember the meals that my mother or father make were always delicious when they are in a good mood. ( Luckily mostly they are happy persons!) However, it has happened that the meal they made was not so delicious or taste different when they were not in a good mood. But now I know why it was the energy. We often tend to believe things that we can just visually see, but I believe that the world is much more than that. For example, even someone said to you hello with a nice smile, you could somehow feel something different if the person has some tension or the person is stressed. You can just feel it - that is the energy.

So let's go back to the main story, why is growing your own food good for the environment and your health?

Firstly, growing your own food allows you to stop relying on purchasing your produce from a grocery store. When you buy foods from these shops, you should take into consideration that these foods travel miles before ever being consumed. Not only does this impact the freshness and flavor of the food, but more importantly, this emits dangerous amounts of carbon emissions and waste associated with air freight and other transportation methods into the atmosphere.

By growing your own food, you are helping to reduce the high amounts of burning fossil fuels that fill our environment as a direct result of importing foods from commercial farmers.

You also are reducing waste from food packaging materials such as plastics and cardboard, that also travel hundreds and thousands of miles.

Secondly, by growing your own food, you can avoid not only commercial farming harmful chemicals but also harmful chemicals into our soil and water. In addition, some chemicals have even been proven to cause some diseases.

By growing your own garden, you are the one to decide what goes on your plants and into your soil, allowing you to reduce the number of harmful chemicals polluting our environment and waterways.

Organically growing your own food is sustainable and nourishes your soil by using safe and natural fertilizers and products.

Growing your own food, especially for the first time, opens up a great learning opportunity.

This can also be fun, just like I enjoyed picking fruits and vegetables in my grandmother's garden. It is also a great opportunity to teach your children the importance of going green.

With love,

2018.07

Why is growing your own food good for the environment and your health ?