Gardening is good for you, and so is growing your own food. But growing anything yourself gives an inordinate amount of pleasure, doesn’t it? Whether it’s runner beans or sunflowers with the kids, flowers to brighten up your space or fruit and veg to eat, the process is enthralling each time.
But it’s also beneficial to our health and wellbeing. It’s rewarding and productive, provides exercise, and if you’re growing edibles eating freshly picked, homegrown, organically grown produce is a way of keeping healthy and saving money too, not to mention the complete lack of air miles.
This is my new monthly linkup, where you can share your gardens and/or gardening posts (old or new) that complement the month’s theme. For May, that’s Get Set Grow.
The linkup will stay open all month, so pop back if your post isn’t published yet, and remember you can link up an old post too.
MAY: GET SET GROW
Get the harvesting high!
Researchers have found that seeing, smelling and picking fruits and berries can release dopamine from the brain’s reward centre, resulting in a feeling of mild euphoria and wellbeing. So there’s the perfect excuse to hit the PYO farms when they open later in the month!
Eat the rainbow
We know that we should be eating five a day, or up to ten a day depending on what advice is flavour of the day, but there’s also benefits to eating different coloured fruits and vegetables as they contain varying beneficial ingredients:
Red: Tomatoes, red onions, rhubarb chard, peppers, chillies, strawberries and rhubarbs
Orange: Carrots, squash and pumpkin
Yellow: Golden courgettes and tomatoes, sweetcorn, yellow beans and peppers
Green: Asparagus, spinach, peas, beans, mangetout, rocket, lettuce and salad leaves, kale, cabbage, cucumber and pak choi
Blue: Blueberries
Purple: Beetroot, broccoli, aubergine, purple beans and asparagus, red cabbage, radish and plums
White: Cauliflower, celery, leeks, onions, garlic, shallots, spring onions, potatoes.
Plants of the moment for summer displays and crops
Flowers: Nemesia - I’m sure you’ll know what these look like if you google them, Poppy varieties, Pinks, shrubs including Berberis, choisya, ceanothus with its lilac blue flowers, weigela, lilac and many viburnum.
Young seedling plants: tomatoes, peppers, chillies, cucumbers, strawberries, courgettes and squash.
But there’s dozens of other crops such as salad leaves, beans, rocket, spinach, beetroot and carrots which can be grown from seed, which is even better value.
I now have some seed compost, and I’ve got plenty of seeds, all I need to do is put them together and let the magic happen, what about you?
