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Advantages Of Planting Vegetable Gardens

Is there a patch of land in your backyard that’s been left useless all this time? If you’re still undecided to what to make out of it, maybe it’s high time you consider planting vegetables in it. Read on to learn some of the advantages of planting vegetable gardens.


Yummier veggie treats


Many people attest that vegetables grown in their own backyard tastes much better than those bought at grocery stores. They remark how much flavorful their harvests are, whether used as ingredients in a fresh veggie salad or cooked dishes. Be it because of the extra amount of love and care these home-grown vegetables got or the person taking pride in growing crops in his or her backyard, it doesn’t rally matter. What matters is what you serve on the table is fresh right off your vegetable garden and more scrumptious for every member of the family to enjoy. You are also assured that what you put on the table is fresh and free from harmful chemicals like preservatives.


Guaranteed no harmful chemicals


Chances are you might not fully know whether the vegetables you buy at the supermarket are free of pesticides. Some vendors claim that their vegetables are free from harmful chemicals. What about if the soil where those crops grew was exposed to pesticides before or they were planted next to crops sprayed with pesticides? Prolonged dietary exposure to pesticides is linked to various adverse reproductive and developmental effects, although there is little data to support this. Your children are at higher risk to the dangers of such chemicals on the vegetables they consume. Their bodies are not yet fully developed to properly metabolize or excrete such substances.


A great way to workout


If you got little or no time to go to the gym or health spa to workout, then let gardening provide your daily dose of exercise. Tending your vegetable garden for at least 30 minutes a day is a great way to burn those excess calories and lose weight. You are able to work several major muscle groups in the body, like the legs, arms, back, buttocks and many others. Gardening is also improves your flexibility each time you stretch to reach for weeds or bend to plant a seedling.


By the time your crops are ready for harvest, you will notice a change in your body, especially if you look after your garden on a regular basis. Picking the car key that fell on the floor or reaching for a book at the top of a tall shelf will be a lot easier for you to do. Unlike jogging, playing basketball and others, gardening has less impact on your joints. Gardening is best were vigorous exercises is not applicable, such as for people with high blood pressure, heart diseases, bone joint disorders and many others.


Help save the environment


If commercially grown vegetables receive little demand from consumers, then commercial farmers will find no reason to expand their plantations. So there’s no need to cut down rain forests and devastate habitats of wild animals. Also, if demand is lowered farmers will use less pesticide and other harmful chemicals that pollute our rivers and the rest of the environment. You might feel that you as a concerned citizen cannot contribute that much positive impact on the environment by planting vegetable gardens. But imagine the difference made if a lot of people started to plant their vegetables in their own backyard.

Soil Texture In Growing Vegetables

The texture of the soil in growing vegetables, should not be so open as to leave air pockets, because the roots have minute hairs through which they absorb moisture and dissolved plant foods. These foods are needed in addition to carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. Chief of these is nitrogen, supplemented by phosphorus, potassium, calcium, sulphur and a long list of other minerals usually known as the minor elements. Only the merest trace of some of them may be necessary, but if, for example, beets are grown in a soil completely devoid of boron, the plants are apt to be stunted and blotched and the roots discolored and watery. The absence of an iron fraction in the soil may mean yellowed leaves and inefficient growth.

When some corn plants were analyzed, it was found that 70 per cent of their weight was water. They were then dried and the remainder was found to be as follows:

Oxygen 44.57% Carbon 43.70 Hydrogen 6.26 _____ 94.53%

Nitrogen 1.46 Silicon 1.17 Potassium .92 Calcium .23 Phosphorus .20 Magnesium .18 Sulphur .17 Chlorine .14 Aluminum .11 Iron .08 Manganese .03 Sodium and other elements .78 _____ 5.47%

*The magnesium in this analysis would amount to less than 3 ounces in 100 pounds. Other plants would show different ratios of the constituents, but the range would be equally wide.

Is the soil then a mass of minerals? By no means. Nor can the rootlets absorb raw rpineral elements. Of the fertile top soil, on which plants chiefly depend, disintegrated rock forms 65 to 95 per cent of the mass, and organic matter 2 to 5 per cent. The rest is soil air and soil water, which holds salts of the minerals in solution. Nor is the soil an inert mass; there are more plants and animals in it than there are above it. Except for the industrious earthworms and insects, they are microscopic, mostly bacteria.

As organic matter breaks down, with the aid of all of these, ammonia is released. It is turned into acid which unites with mineral bases to form nitrates which in solution, can be taken up by the roots as plant food. The beneficial bacteria in the soil require oxygen, which is another reason for tillage. Conversely, there are other bacteria which attack the nitrates and waste the nitrogen (from the gardener’s point of view) by releasing it into the air. These bacteria operate only in soils deficient of oxygen, usually wet soils from which the proper supply of plant food is missing. Therefore, a wet soil is to be avoided or drained when a garden is planned.