You know that herb gardens and home grown vegetables can provide you with a wide array of nutritional benefits.

When you grow your own food and herbs you can control what types of pesticides are used on your foods, and whether any pesticides are used at all. You will also always know where your foods and herbs were grown, under what conditions they were grown and harvested and who handled your foods during planting, care, harvest and delivery to the cutting board on your kitchen island.

But you probably don’t realize that growing your own food at home has many other benefits besides living a healthy lifestyle such as cost benefits, mental and emotional wellness and the benefit of knowing you can always say that your meals, the vegetarian ones at least, are 100% made from scratch. Not to mention having your own small gardens in windows boxes is one of the first steps to making an eco-friendly kitchen.

The cost benefits of growing your own vegetables and keeping your own herb garden at home are endless and varied. You won’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on organic vegetables to avoid the unknown and unidentified pesticides that growers use all over the world. And you won’t have to worry about your vegetables and herbs coming from countries that have had recent pandemics and are increasing the costs of their exported goods and foods to fix their current economic problems and rise to a higher economic status. In addition the fluctuation of the economy at home won’t be able to affect you either since none of your vegetables and herbs will be purchased at the grocery store or Farmer’s Market.

Herb gardening and vegetable gardening also provide an outlet for stress, depression and a variety of other debilitating emotions and mental stressors that keep you from feeling happy. But it’s not just the mental and emotional relief that makes growing herbs and vegetables such a great idea. It’s the physical outlet as well. To you, it takes very little movement to have a window box of herbs or a small vegetable garden right outside your kitchen door or right next to your outdoor kitchen—imagine the relief of stress you’ll have when cooking in your outdoor kitchen if you can just pluck tomatoes and corn, or thyme and parsley right out of your garden and not have to worry about going to the store or to your kitchen for the things you need on the grill! But to your body, this physical activity is especially important because it helps get your heart rate up, even just a little bit, which helps you burn fat and fight off cholesterol. Not to mention the fact that eating all of those organic herbs and vegetables will help turn your metabolism around and keep your body healthier for years to come.

Growing herbs and vegetables can help you deal with the stress of a hard day at work, the fight you had with your spouse or significant other, the loss of a loved one or a pet and a variety of other upsetting and stressing life events.

Self-satisfaction is also a huge part of having an herb garden or a vegetable garden. You are responsible for the plants you are growing and you know when you eat them that you worked hard to bring them to a ripe, edible status—you cared for them from the time they were seedlings and your body will benefit from the nutrients you grew with your own two hands.

And for those who think herb gardening and growing vegetables takes far too much time away from other activities—you know you think that and that you could just use those minutes to read a book—remember that it usually takes more time to go to the store and pick out ripe, fresh vegetables than it does to grow them in your own garden. Not to mention the fact that you usually have to go to three or four stores to find all of the vegetables you want at the price you can afford. Imagine being able to run into the grocery store just to grab a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and a bag of apples—although, if you plant an apple tree you won’t have to worry about that either—wouldn’t that make life great?

And think about it? Have you ever tried to buy fresh herbs at the grocery store? You’re lucky if you can find what you’re looking for and even more lucky if it doesn’t cost you two arms and two legs to buy enough Thyme to season one night’s chicken dinner.

Usually when you buy herbs you have to buy dried herbs in little jars. These herbs have lost a great portion of their flavoring and their nutritional value—that goes away with the moisture.

But with an herb garden, you can keep the nutritional value and the fresh, fabulous taste of each herb you throw into your meal.

And don’t forget that an herb and small vegetable garden can be grown in your kitchen—you can either keep it on your counter near a window, or you can create a window box for your herb garden and your vegetables. Certain manufacturers even make herb gardens with their own natural light source that can be placed on any of your kitchen countertops, even those far away from the window.

You can use any of your empty countertops to house as many of these herb gardens as you’d like and you don’t have to throw them away once you have harvested all of your herbs. You just plant new seeds and start growing herbs again.

Whether you choose to grow your herbs and vegetables in your kitchen, in a window box or in your garden, always remember that herb gardening and growing vegetables is supposed to be fun and relaxing!

 

Tags: eco-friendly kitchen | eco-friendly kitchen | outdoor kitchen | kitchen island | kitchen island | herb garden | countertops | countertops

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