Starting a vegetable garden PART 1: The only requirement is not coming from a bag

Starting a vegetable garden PART 1: The only requirement is not coming from a bag

Starting a vegetable garden. Many people want to grow their own tasty and healthy vegetables. Unsprayed organically grown gems that add colour to your plate and pamper your body with vitamins and minerals. Starting a vegetable garden is good for your body, your mind, nature, your wallet, your social life and even the education of your children. But then only a few advantages that come with it are not the prerequisite for success. You can train your body in the gym, you can buy vegetables cheaply in the supermarket and your children learn quite a lot about nature during a walk in the forest. Many media such as supermarket magazines, books, websites and even TV programs show you how to start a vegetable garden. The position of the sun in your garden, the brutal work to clear a first piece of land, crumbly rich vegetable garden soil thanks to a soil improver, subtle sowing actions and endearing images of children nibbling on a fresh carrot. But those media are hiding something. It would also be stupid for them to mention it because it is not for sale. On the contrary, revealing it might cause you not to buy their product, to close the website or stop watching YouTube or TV. The most decisive success factor of your edible garden is not in everything I listed. If you do not have what I describe in this article, I suggest you shelve your plans to start a vegetable garden. There are enough other fun hobbies that are good for your body, mind and offer all the benefits that a vegetable garden offers.

shiny vegetable gardens neglected vegetable gardens and vegetable garden boxes

On the internet you see in countless blogs, vlogs, Facebook pages, Instagram or Pintrest posts shiny vegetables, weed-free vegetable gardens and blushing faces of people who have worked in the vegetable garden for a few hours, tired but satisfied. But be honest, it is not that easy. For every successful vegetable garden or vegetable garden box there are 10 neglected or eaten bare specimens. I see it very often with friends or acquaintances. A vegetable garden (box) in the sun with very good vegetable garden soil but full of thistles, dandelions and some overgrown lettuce plants. Usually the remains of plastic foil are also still fluttering on the frame of a super offer destroyed by the weather and wind. What could have gone wrong? "He wanted a vegetable garden, but he doesn't look at it anymore, too much work". The essential thing that was not present here was not in the brochure, the book and also not on any website. What you don't find in bags is passion. Not for a vegetable garden in itself but for some important aspects in our lives. Therefore not all to the same extent, but something must drive you to grow your own food. The vegetable garden should not be a sales model but a passion. The passions that bring me to my knees every time - literally even - are:

passion for nature

My mother recently told me that when I was little I would stand in puddles of water for minutes looking for life. I also went looking for life in the soil of our garden. I followed the meters long rows of ants that crawled over the sidewalk and was curious about what they did. Later I collected insects. In the lids of the jam jars that my mother saved to make jam herself, I knocked holes with a hammer and a nail. I then filled them with some branches, leaves, some stones and went catching insects. ladybugs , cross spiders, grasshoppers or combinations of ... Then - after my 10 years or so - my passion was fishing. At school I was punished, I stood in the corner, I had to stay after school because I couldn't sit still or couldn't keep my chatter. I didn't fit in a kind of industrial system with classrooms, bells, listening to the boss, years, ... At the water's edge in nature I was quiet, calm and curious whether I could catch a fish. Five years ago I had a bare spot in the garden. I had been given firewood by a friend and left it there for a bit too long. My wife suggested that I make a herb corner on that bare spot. At first I wasn't very enthusiastic, but when I put my spade in the soil, the image of that little boy in the soil of our garden flashed through my mind again. I went looking for life again, only now it wasn't ants but edible plants. I also have 5 chickens in my vegetable garden that eat snails, eggs and weeds in the winter. The vegetable garden is in line with my nature, my passion for nature.

passion for health

Through the vegetable garden I met a woman who told me a very emotional story about her lung problems. Because of her lung problems she could no longer go to public places and her voice was no longer a bit squeaky for a large part of the time. Many people in one room literally suffocated her. Since those problems she and her husband have been growing herbs, vegetables and flowers with medicinal properties in her vegetable garden. Her vegetable garden ensures that she can get out and about more often, that she can almost always speak. She knows crops that I don't know exist. She makes her own medicinal tea and with a towel over her head she hangs over her own brews that make the difference between silence and speaking. Her health is her passion. Since her vegetable garden, which goes hand in hand with exercise, she goes for long walks, takes the train to her favourite places and talks passionately about her vegetable garden when I drop by. My parents are in their mid-seventies. I think it's fantastic that I can deliver 6 fresh eggs, organic potatoes , lettuce, carrots , leeks , ... you name it, to them every week. I feel that they are proud of me. The troublemaker in school has a good job and grows healthy food in his spare time. So not only for physical health but also for mental health it is very powerful. I get satisfaction from the smiling faces of my parents but also my neighbors. And my parents are of course happy too.

passion for the environment

Traditional commercial agriculture must provide millions of Belgians and Dutch people with food. And that food must also be affordable and accessible to every family. To be able to do that, we must use our land very intensively. In ancient times, people moved around as nomads and stopped at fertile places. We grew food there for ourselves, our group and our animals. When the soil was exhausted, we moved on. That is no longer possible now. A farm cannot move around with barns and tractors. The alternative is to impoverish the soil, make it poorer, let it wash away, in short, turn our earth into a 'dust bowl' without organic matter. You can temporarily breathe life back into this dust bowl with artificial fertilizer, which is what many farmers do. There are no natural enemies for pests, so a layer of pesticides and herbicides must also be applied a few times a year. This technique of traditional agriculture motivates me to grow our own vegetables, just like our grandparents did. The environment is also something that feeds and fuels my passion.

passion for taste

Starting a vegetable garden and growing your own organic vegetables simply gives you more flavourful vegetables. You can hardly argue with that. And I have to admit, I am a foodie. I have a passion for food, dining with friends and I also took a wine course for 2 years. Combining flavours from the vegetable garden with a good glass of wine is something I can really immerse myself in. Butternut , pepper , sage, mushrooms, Risotto and an Italian white wine from Soave. I can look forward to that for days. Knowing that part of the flavour on your plate comes from your own garden, you can't afford that.

passion conquers all

My vegetable garden, I can spend hours in it. There is always something to do. Often it is a 'where are you' phone call from my wife that reminds me that it is dinner time or that we have to visit friends. Every time I leave my vegetable garden, I am already thinking of ideas for the next time. Prune a shrub, add some mulch to a bed to prevent weeds, hoe between the onions so that the soil is more airy and weeds do not eat the food that is meant for my onions. I do all this not for the benefits that pure sales sites, department stores or writers want me to believe. I do it because it is my passion to be in nature, to grow healthy food for myself and my family, to make people happy with organically grown vegetables, to be outdoors and to do my bit for our planet. Admit it, the earth gives us a lot in return. Everyone to the vegetable garden, follow your passion. Do you also want to pass on the passion of the vegetable garden to your friends and acquaintances? Then share this article via the buttons at the top and bottom of this message. Do you find this site valuable, then consider buying your vegetable garden supplies here in our webshop . We are always working on even more information and transfer of our passion. Tom