Is a Garden Really Worth It?

When it really comes down to it, is a garden really worth it.  I guess you will have to decide.  

I hear people say quite often, a garden is really not worth the time and effort it takes for what you get out of it.  Really?  What do I get out of a garden?  Here are just a few of my benefits.

The garden is a jungle for Leo or farm cat.

What do I get out of my garden?

•  Since I am married to a farmer that hates weeds, we keep our garden pretty well weed free.  (Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t perfect.  I do have a weed here and there, they grow so fast.)  My husband tells me one year of weeds  is 7 years of seeds.  Sometimes I feel this is a little bit dramatic, but we spend a little time pulling weeds in the garden.  When it is kept up it really isn’t so bad.  Besides there is something really therapeutic about sitting in the dirt and pulling weeds in the peace and quiet.  Here is a post on the benefits of gardening.  
• Because we keep the weeds under control the yield we get off of our garden is amazing.  Weeds take over very quickly choking out vegetable plants, stealing the nutrients, and hogging the water and sunlight.  It is amazing how many pounds of produce can come out of a loved garden. Many families can be fed from a well maintained garden.
• We are lucky enough to have one of our kids and his family living close and get the opportunity to have our other kids stop to visit.  I love sharing the produce out of the garden.  I really enjoyed watching my daughter and daughter-in-law spend time in the kitchen as they bottled pickled beets out of the garden.  The best part was I enjoyed the grandkids and kept them busy and I got pickled beets out of the deal.  This was a really great benefit.  What a great way to bring a family together.  They were productive and had time to visit.
• Teaching our children to work is very important.   Even though we lived on a farm and always had more than enough work to teach our children and keep them busy, a garden was very important.  When growing up the kids all grumbled and complained about pulling weeds and gardening.  But we must have done something right because when possible, they each have planted their own gardens.  I really enjoy the time I get to spend with the grandkids in the garden.  Not only do we enjoy each others company working together, but we are building memories and bonds that will last forever. 
• I like knowing where my food comes from!  At times you probably could buy food cheaper from the store but I like knowing how my food was grown and processed.
• I could go with more and more benefits but this is the last one I will mention.  The knowledge you gain from growing a garden is priceless.  Even though we have been gardening for many years, every year we learn something new.  Every year is a little different from the last.  We have great successes on some things, and it seems every year we have a few setbacks or failures.  But we learn from these failures and try it a little different the next year and hope to have better success.

Sometimes we get weird things from the garden.

So now I have shared with you a few things that I get from my garden.   You tell me is it worth it?  Is it worth the effort to gain knowledge, spend time with your family, build memories and lasting relationships, not to mention the great healthy produce?

I hope you enjoyed my post.  Feel free to share it with others.  I love comments just leave them below.  Until next time.  🙂