The current pandemic has affected many people in so many different ways. While most of it seems negative, there are a few positive things that came up because of the pandemic.
For instance, many people today are now more conscious about their health and wellbeing. They come to know the importance of having good nutrition, which strengthens the immune system.
With the virus still spreading in most countries, many people are stuck inside their homes. While restrictions are loosened up a bit, many smart people still choose to avoid any unnecessary risks.
With that said, you don’t have to rely on unhealthy takeaways and processed foods or take the risk by buying healthy food on the local market. Instead, you can grow them yourselves by starting your very own nutrition garden.
What is a nutrition garden? Why should you consider growing one? How can you convert your backyard into a nutrition garden? This write-up addresses all these questions.
Nutrition Garden – What and Why
A nutrition garden is a garden where you cultivate and harvest nutritional vegetables and crops. It gives you access to healthy produce without the need of buying them from outside sources.
Your backyard can be transformed into a nutrition garden, whether you have a big backyard or small. So, the question is, why plant a nutrition garden?
As mentioned, you will have your very own produce in your backyard. You don’t need to buy from the local markets. Some vegetables and fruits in the markets are often tainted with preservatives and other chemicals.
It makes the vegetable or fruit unhealthy. Devouring such vegetables will cause serious health hazards. Aside from the health benefits that a nutrition garden offers, you can save some money. You see, when you have one in your yard, you don’t have to go out to buy fruit or vegetables from a grocery store.
All you should do is move to your backyard and pluck any nutritious fruit you want. Another reason to turn your backyard into a nutrition garden is that it gives you control. Control means that you and only you control when you harvest your food.
Most of those vegetables that are sold in the grocery stores are usually picked before they are ripe. This implies that the fruits ripen artificially with chemicals. But your own vegetables will ripen by itself.
The good side of this is that vegetables that ripen in the garden have more nutrients than those that are picked early. So, the crucial question now is, how can you transform your backyard into a nutrition garden? Start converting your backyard into garden hire a tree service in Colorado Springs.
Turn Your Backyard into a Nutrition Garden
Before you can start planting vegetables and crops, you will need some preparation. Here are the steps to transforming your backyard into a suitable nutrition garden.
- Understand Your Needs – Before anything else, you must first determine what you need the most. What vitamins and minerals do you need which the local markets can’t supply? For instance, do you need calcium or iron? Maybe you need some protein? Discerning your needs will help you decide which types of crops to plant in your garden.
- Get the Necessary Tools – Before you can start gardening, you’ll need some basic tools. Some of the things that you may want to get are spades, hoes, trowels, watering cans, and twines and stakes. If you’ve been gardening before, it’s very likely that you already have most of what you need.
- Prepare the land – Preparing the land is something you must do with care. You should pick a spot in your backyard that has access to at least six hours of sunlight and to water. To be able to grow crops in your garden, you must prepare the soil. For best results, you may also want to replace topsoil with high-quality soil. You can also get your soil tested, whether it’s suitable for growing crops or not. If you don’t want to go through the process of testing, you can talk to folks around you. Folks can provide valuable information about what grows well in your area. To maximize the space, you may also need to consider removing any installed garden decking or other features in your backyard.
- Start Preparing the Garden Bed – First thing you want to do is to remove as much grass and weeds as possible. You can use a shovel to help you pull them out easier.
- Add Some edging to your Garden Bed – You not only want to remove grass and weeds, but you also want to keep them from coming back. With some edging, you can protect your garden bed from unwanted weeds. Many people use black plastic for edging. You can also use bricks or concrete edgers.
- Amend the Soil – Next, you will need to mix the soil with materials to improve its physical condition, which gardeners called soil amendments. Some examples of amendments that you can use are compost, sawdust, and wood ash.
- Add the Fertilizers – Next up, you’ll need to add fertilizers to your garden bed. While amending the soil improves the physical condition of the soil, fertilizers, on the other hand, improve the nutrients in the soil. It creates a thriving environment from the plant you will grow in your yard.
- Cultivate the Soil – As an optional step, you can till or cultivate your soil. Tilling mixes the amendments and the fertilizer into the garden soil. It also helps loosen up the garden bed, making it easier for your crops’ roots to grow.
- Put Mulch in Your Garden – Finally, put mulch on the soil. Not only does it protect your garden from weeds, but organic mulches can also provide nourishment to your plants as they break down. It also helps lock moisture into the garden bed. After this step, you are now ready to plant.
- Plant the Seeds – You should plant seeds directly into the soil. After seeding, you should water it. Note that you must water your seed regularly. Do it early in the morning and at dusk so that less water will evaporate.
- Maintain Your Plants – Maintaining the plants means you should weed regularly and you should make sure that your plant gets water, sunlight, and all the nutrients that they need.
Conclusion
Turning your backyard into a home nutrition garden is easy if you follow the steps outlined in this article.
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