The benefits of a garden.

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

1. The food is right there, waiting to be picked. No need to get in a car and drive to the store.
2. You didn't have to buy it - well, you bought the seeds, but the return is far greater than the cost.
3. The taste is superior.
4. If you keep expanding the garden, you will begin to have a surplus and can sell it at farmers' markets.
5. It's just plain fun.

 

[JAVO]

I like your points and this thread, [MENTION=31569]SurrealisticSlumbers[/MENTION].

Here a some I've thought of, some of them closely-related or just re-stating your points from a slightly different point of view.

1. The food is fresher, and that usually makes it taste better. I wonder if there are nutritional benefits to eating certain fruits and vegetables within a short time of harvest?

2. Tastier, more nutritional or just personally-preferred varieties can be grown. Extra-sweet varieties of sweet corn are great examples of this and the first point.

3. If a large garden, more like a mini-farm, is used for providing a significant amount of food, it can be planned to be very self-sustaining in both resources and finances. This includes providing its own compost and saving seeds for next season. The biointensive method teaches this approach. Much of it isn't practical for the average backyard garden, but some of the principles are. More info: http://www.growbiointensive.org/PDF/FarmersHandbook.pdf

4. There are many approaches to gardening, and there seems to be a least one approach which will suit most people's needs. It's also great for people like me who like to try many approaches! One of these approaches is no-dig gardening, and this contrasts nicely with the "double-dig" approach of the biointensive method. I think many don't garden because they don't like to dig, maybe because they have back problems, or they don't want back problems. No-dig involves just throwing down a bunch of compost, and then topping it off with 1-2 inches every year. I also suspect that it could be combined with the biointensive method for a bit less work-intensive gardening! More info: Why No Dig - No Dig Organic Gardening

5. You control what substances are used on the garden. There's usually a less biologically-alarming alternative to solving most gardening issues.

6. Gardens teach kids and adults about so many aspects of life which have been obscured away by modern life, such as:
Self-reliance
Where food comes from
The work involved in providing that food
How the weather, climate, and environment affect that food and life in general

 

[Agent Washington]

How the weather, climate, and environment affect that food and life in general

There's a specific term for the last point: Nature connectedness - Wikipedia

The lack of it seems, to me, to also be linked to a lot of our urban dysfunctional lifestyle.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

3. If a large garden, more like a mini-farm, is used for providing a significant amount of food, it can be planned to be very self-sustaining in both resources and finances. This includes providing its own compost and saving seeds for next season. The biointensive method teaches this approach. Much of it isn't practical for the average backyard garden, but some of the principles are. More info: http://www.growbiointensive.org/PDF/FarmersHandbook.pdf

4. There are many approaches to gardening, and there seems to be a least one approach which will suit most people's needs. It's also great for people like me who like to try many approaches! One of these approaches is no-dig gardening, and this contrasts nicely with the "double-dig" approach of the biointensive method. I think many don't garden because they don't like to dig, maybe because they have back problems, or they don't want back problems. No-dig involves just throwing down a bunch of compost, and then topping it off with 1-2 inches every year. I also suspect that it could be combined with the biointensive method for a bit less work-intensive gardening! More info: Why No Dig - No Dig Organic Gardening

Thanks for sharing the links; this is fascinating...

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

There's a specific term for the last point: Nature connectedness - Wikipedia

The lack of it seems, to me, to also be linked to a lot of our urban dysfunctional lifestyle.

Yeah, I know what you mean. My small town seems to be getting more and more built up, new neighborhoods built where there used to be forest, bad air pollution from the cars, etc. Both my mom and sister have asthma. When my mom and I went to the Poconos in January, she actually didn't need to reach for a tissue to blow her nose for the whole time we were there, because the air was so fresh. I am planning on saving up as much as I can to move to West Virginia, because it's so clean out there.