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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

5 Reasons To Garden During The Global Economic Crisis

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With the economy doing so poorly and people losing their jobs right and left, lots of folks are being forced to give up their hobbies. I mean who can justify 18 holes of golf at a time when those of us who still have jobs are being told we should just be thankful we've got jobs?

Well to heck with the bad economy!

Top 5 reasons to start a gardening hobby now:

  1. It's cheap - you can buy a pack of seeds for a couple of bucks. Think about teaming up with one or two other people to split seeds or look for seed swaps on the Internet.
  2. It's healthy - especially in a time where our finances are so unstable it's important to stay healthy to minimize healthcare expense costs. While you'll pay out the wazoo for conventionally grown (and especially organic) fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, you can grow your own for next to nothing. Eating lots of fruits and veggies will boost your immune system which should help you stay healthy.
  3. It's good for the environment. When money is tight, it is virtually impossible to justify buying sustainable, environmentally friendly products. Let gardening be your contribution to the planet.
  4. It'll encourage you to compost, which means less garbage going to the landfill and rich natural fertilizer for your garden to boot.
  5. It's relaxing and in high stress times like these, we all need more relaxation outlets. Remember, stress contributes to illness.

Can you think of more reasons why it makes sense to start a garden hobby in the global economic crisis?

11 comments:

  1. For those who will be unable to take a trip this summer, a garden can be a mini-retreat. It's also a good place for entertaining instead of going out to eat.

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  2. If you plant a little more than you need, planting a vegetable garden will also give you some extra vegetables to share with neighbors, homeless shelters or soup kitchens, who would appreciate them, too.

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

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  3. And gardening can go beyond summer too if you learn how to can. Remember "ma" canning all those fruits and vegetables?

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  4. Good post, Gina. Gardening helps me keep my sanity. :-) When I tried to access your post on winter interest it was blank. ??

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  5. Don't forget about making friends. Everybody loves a gardener bearing fresh produce!

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  6. Yeah: gives you something else to think about while your life's collapsing about your ears :-)

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  7. I love the tires! I'm out here in Oklahoma looking for old feed bins for containers (Can't dig in the clay in some spots) and recycled tires never occured to me. Great idea. I've got some old metal breadboxes I'm looking forward to using, but tires.. My mom used those in Mich. I can't believe I forgot!

    I grew up in Michigan - I can grow things in Michigan, but here - I have sandy loam and clay - this is a fascinating challenge

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  9. All great additions, especially the canning one!

    Soilman - where have you been? I missed you!

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  10. Love this post! One of my great rationalizations for gardening (I'll do nearly anything fun if I can rationalize that it's good for me) is that it's great exercise. Also, it's a great entertainment value (who needs the movies?) and ... did I mention it's fun???

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  11. Absolutely - I couldn't agree more!

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