Home gardens were always a popular hobby. Starting slowly fro rural or suburban areas, or your occasional patio-garden-design, today home gardening is becoming trendy. There were people turning their back yards into a beautiful fairytale places with exotic plants. There are people growing their own bio-vegies in the home garden. Some were actually transforming the roofs of urban buildings into fruitful botanical enterprises. Some are turning even dark indoor basements into green oases. Here are the main reasons why home gardens are becoming so popular:
1. Eco-friendly
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Most of us want to minimize or totally eradicate our carbon footprint. What better way than grow your own vegetables? Picking your own produce from your garden is way better than importing them from across the globe. The carbon footprint of a home-grown tomato is virtually zero.
2. Health and Beauty
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We usually associate home gardens either with flowers or with vegetables. However, they can give us precious herbs. These herbs mixed with the exercise for growing them will help us stay health and look good in a natural way.
3. Showing off
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Social media has turned showing off into an art. It seems that we are all into a competition of achievements. Then how can we participate if we are not great photographers, singers, artists, businessmen or athletes? Well, gardening provides a wonderful chance to do just that. It is difficult not to be engulphed by the beauty of even the simplest of flower. Or to marvel at a one-meter-pumpkin. Or appreciate the intricate curves of a Wisteria. The bigger our garden, the more variety we have – the more “likes” and “thumbs up” we will get.
Be honest. We all love that.
4. Social
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The home garden, if worked on by a family, can give this family precious time together – meeting challenges and overcoming them. If not with the family, we can still socialize via our gardens with our neighbors, friends of like-minded folk.
5. Bio-gardening
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Back in the day we never gave it a second thought whether the potatoes in McDonalds came from GMO farms. All of this is changed today. Now we are careful what we buy, what we eat and where it comes from. The “eco” and “bio” produce offered in the supermarket is gaining ground. However, irrespective of all the “eco” certificates, we may still have our doubts on the cleanliness of the plants we eat. Well, the home garden provides an easy solution. If we have the place, the time, and yes … the will, we can easily grow our own produce. Now we will know exactly what went into the soil and what came out as a result.
6. Preppers
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Ever since the days of the Cold War humanity has been on edge of some sort of holocaust hitting Earth. For most of us “whatever will be, will be”. However for some of us, being prepared for the next catastrophic event is a way of life. Building a bunker and arming yourself is only the beginning. What about food, after the canned provisions run out? Every prepper is ready with her wide variety of seeds for the “world after”. However, prepping also requires that one knows how to take care of these seeds. Hence many preppers are gradually becoming great gardeners as well. Sure, they do not have many flowers in their home gardens, but the fruits and vegetables they grow are great. Preppers even go one step further and work on their skills on preserving the home-garden-produce – be it dried, canned or frozen.
It never hurt anyone to be prepared.
7. Creativity
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We all have a creative gene in our veins. Gardening provides a wonderful opportunity to be creative. We are making a work of art using living organisms. More-over, these organisms will change with every season. Across the world gardeners are expressing themselves through their gardens – contemplative cherry blossom in Japan, serene elevated gardens in China, colorful roses from Bulgaria, rich rustic gardens of Tuscany, stern lawns in Britain or passionate tulips in the Netherlands.
8. Linking with Earth
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Linking with the Mother Earth has been popular from ancient times. It is brought to life from various esoteric schools. It used to be trendy with the hippies from the 20th century. Linking with the Earth is still popular today. The home garden provides a great way to link with the Earth and with the plants which grow in it.
Linking with the Earth has been proven to relieve stress, and is hence a good idea.
9. Subsistence farming
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The home garden need not always be an expense on the family budget (though initially they seem more like a drain). Actually many families around the world are turning their home gardens into income-generating enterprises. The income may be just a small supplement from selling your excess apples, it may be a major source of food for the family and, of course, it sometimes becomes a money-generating “cash cow”. Subsistence farming is also becoming trending in its own right.
Having a hobby which generates income has always been a great idea.
10. Just a hobby
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Gardening has always been a fulfilling hobby. The varieties are many. Some people keep it simple, and just focus on getting the perfect lawn in the back yard, with maybe a couple of focus plants. Some focus on just one plant variety – say roses. They specialize in getting the right stock, providing the perfect conditions and achieving unique prize-winning flowering. Other hobby-gardeners focus on variety. They may have all the major vegetables growing in just one raised bed. This raised bed, however will have the perfect lighting, irrigation, plant varieties, and compost. Yet some others focus on sustainability, creating whole jungle-environments within their greenhouse with orchids growing on the ceiling. In all cases home gardens provide a wonderful and fulfilling hobby.
Just make sure that you do not use the word “just a hobby” in front of a bonsai-gardener. The “just” part will certainly be offending.
The reasons why home gardening is becoming trendy are many. All of them are positive and provide both personal satisfaction, benefits to the communities and an easy way to link with Nature.
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