A garden full of fresh vegetables - that not only enriches the menu with healthy and cheap things, but also has many more advantages for those who wield a hoe and watering can.

Vegetables from your own garden have many more vitamins than from the supermarket

Germany is a hobby gardener country. There is no other way to explain what can be observed across the country every year from late March onwards: droves of people populate the nurseries, gardening shops and farmers' markets. There is hardly a discount supermarket that doesn't have at least one rotating stand with vegetable seeds in the aisles these days. The fact is: Germans love to grow their own greens. Of course, for many, gardening is limited to hanging traffic lights on the balcony. But anyone who owns a "real" garden, perhaps with a three-digit or more square meter area, not only has a hobby for life, but is also doing something good for their health. The following article deals with the exact advantages of such a garden and how to get it.

Garden? Where to take, if not steal?

As advantageous as a garden is, unfortunately very few people have direct access to it behind the house: Germany has an urbanization rate of a good 75 percent - three quarters of all Germans live in cities. However, this does not mean that these people generally have to do without gardens beyond the balcony, because there are several options:

  • Renting in an allotment garden colony (allotment garden). This has the advantage of a manageable total area and fixed costs. The big disadvantage is that most arbor colonies are strictly hierarchically governed by their club leadership - and in case of doubt, they even dictate what can be grown, when, where and how high. Rather nothing for free spirits who do not want to prepare the garden for the "control commission" at fixed times. In addition, however, the places in these colonies are also becoming increasingly rare, because gardening is also becoming increasingly popular with the "20-something generation".
  • Alternatively, many farmers and landowners in the outskirts of cities offer the opportunity to lease some land. The big advantage: size, planting and workload depend solely on the tenant. But this variant also involves a lot of work. Especially since such gardens rarely have an infrastructure: there is no electricity and the plants have to be quenched by collecting rainwater. In addition: Such a secluded garden can always become the target of theft and vandalism.
  • The third option is something for everyone who is toying with the idea of moving out of the city into their own home in the medium to long term: The property can then be purchased now and used as a garden until construction begins. Depending on the location, there may already be neighbors who might keep an eye on the garden and who might even be able to store tools.

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The next question is then automatically: How big does such a garden have to be? Well, that depends not only on what to plant, but also how much work you can and want to do yourself. And last but not least, whether the vegetables grown on it should only be a supplement or should be sufficient for the full supply.

Garden: More than a hobby

As already briefly mentioned, a garden has much more potential than being "just" a hobby - if you jump on this hobby horse, you have to be aware that you will only have real peace in winter. In midsummer, watering the plants every two days is mandatory. Anyway, removing weeds. And even when there is nothing to pluck or water, there is always something to do in your own garden. But what beckons to those who are willing to do so much work?

1. Pure organic

What is grown in one's own garden, perhaps starting from the seed, is the much-touted "controlled cultivation" in perfection: Here the gardener alone decides what goes into his vegetables. At the same time, pests do not have to be fought with "chemical mace" as in large companies for reasons of time and money, but can also be driven out with grandma's recipes. The result: Vegetables that couldn't be cleaner, cleaner and healthier. This is not only reflected in the taste, but also in the consistency and vitamin content. If you have your first lettuce on the cutting board in the kitchen, you will notice it straight away: crispier, firmer and simply "somehow better".

2. Stress Relief

It's a song that has been sung in industrialized countries for years: the sad ballad of the lopsided work/life balance: too much work, too much pressure, too much stress. If this negative stress cannot be reduced, performance suffers, the circulation decreases and blood pressure rises. Having your own garden far away from technology and the pressure of deadlines is the complete opposite of this: no telephone rings here, no boss complains here. In the garden only the gardener exists in total harmony with nature. If there is only green around you and the work that is invested is only done for your own self, stress and its unhealthy consequences disappear almost in a flash.

3.Fitness

How many people go to the gym every day to tone their bodies? They lift, pull and press weights, sit on the exercise bike and quite a few also lie down on the sunbed afterwards. A garden makes all of this superfluous: If you lug a dozen watering cans full to the brim through the beds, you don’t need a weight bench and hours of spading train your endurance better than any rowing machine. The sun is so plentiful that even after planting in early summer, some gardeners look like they've just had a vacation on the equator. And if you save yourself any mechanical support and even mow the grass with the scythe, you will also learn a sense of rhythm that many a boxer would be jealous of in front of the punching ball. Gardening is a full body fitness routine; Anyone who starts their hobby can cancel it at the fitness studio on their way home from signing the contract.

4. Costs

Walk through any supermarket of your choice and see what two corn cobs cost there - uncooked and just wrapped in foil. Usually it is significantly more than two euros. For the same price, the gardener gets a bag of corn seeds from which two or three dozen plants can be grown - each with one or two ears. The cost calculation for almost all other types of vegetables is similarly spectacular. And it is still impressive even if small young plants are bought instead of seeds and simply planted in the ground. The fact is: If you grow your own vegetables, you save a lot of money. And not only because purchases are saved: once the basic tools (see below) have been acquired, there are hardly any other expenses apart from a possible lease.

Getting started

Anyone who has understood the logic behind these points, perhaps even owns a piece of land, can get started almost immediately. Spring is the best time. But the hobby can also be started in autumn - there is no right or wrong here, because there is something to do in the garden all year round. Here are a few first steps

  • Buy a garden calendar that tells the gardener when to plant what.
  • get tools. The maxim here is: It's better to spend a little more and enjoy it for a long time than to replace a cheap device every year.
  • Set up a small wooden shelter in the garden: This not only offers shelter for the gardener, but is also important for collecting rainwater for watering.
  • If not available, the garden should be fenced all around to protect it from thieves and animals.
  • Then the beds have to be dug up. This is immensely exhausting, but essential to loosen up the soil. In the coming years, however, it is usually sufficient to aerate the soil in late winter with a sow tooth, digging up is not necessary every year.

garden rules

Anyone who wants to pursue gardening as a healthy hobby for relaxation and fitness must of course make sure that it stays that way. Therefore, some rules are actually indispensable.

  • In the garden, the mobile phone is only there for emergencies. Neither e-mails nor other work tasks are completed.
  • What is not processed today will be done tomorrow. The garden knows no minute deadline pressure.
  • Earthworms, hedgehogs and moles are not pests, but the gardener's best friends and should not be hindered and driven away by him.
  • Nature gives, nature takes: plant residues belong in the compost so that they can be turned into high-quality soil that would cost a lot of money in the shop.
  • What counts in the garden is dedication and passion, not the ability to throw as much money as possible on equipment and expect the job to do itself.
  • The "green thumb" is a legend. Everyone can achieve the highest results through experience, willingness to learn and hard work.

If you keep to these words, you will ensure that your garden will become a haven of inner contemplation, of peace and relaxation, and thus exist in harmony with nature.

Conclusion

Having your own garden is one of the most multifunctional hobbies there is. He reconciles rest with work, exertion with relaxation and fills his own plate with the most delicious meals. And anyone can start, even if they have lived in a big city so far.

Category:

Vegetable garden