When I was hunting for my first home more than 10 years ago, I didn’t know exactly what features will suit my needs best. I flip flopped between buying a condo and a house, and between a couple of suburbs around the Great Toronto Area (GTA) a few times. In the end, I settled for a small three bedroom house in Markham, Ontario with a sizeable backyard, 45 minutes from downtown Toronto. Once I moved into that house, I developed a love for growing my own fruits and vegetables organically. At the time, it was just a hobby. Ten years later, that hobby resulted in great financial rewards and had brought some tranquility to my chaotic daily life. In this post, I’ll share with you, the financial benefits of growing your own food.
Food Without Pesticide
One of the most obvious benefits of growing your own food organically is the lack of harmful pesticides in your food. Based on EWG.org, an organization that provides shoppers with guides to pesticides in produce, people are exposed to harmful pesticides through the consumption of every produces regularly. I noticed that I started to develop an allergic reaction (itchy throat) to some of the pesticides on the fruits such as peaches and cherries a few years back. To my surprise, peaches and cherries are on top of EWG’s dirty dozen of produce with the most exposure to pesticides. After obtaining this dirty list, I was fortunate enough to have successfully planted six (strawberries, spinach, apples, pears, cherries, and tomatoes) of the ten most exposed pesticide produces in my backyard. I don’t know the long-term cost of consuming produce with pesticides on your health, but I am comforted knowing that some of my produce have no pesticides in it now. Good health is something that you can’t put a price on.
Investments That Pays Dividend
When people think of dividends, they automatically associate it with stocks. That’s true, but there is also another type of dividend, fruits from the trees or shrubs that you planted. After planting my fruit trees (apples, pears, and cherries) and shrubs (strawberries), they started to produce fruit starting from the third year. They’ll produce more and more fruit after three years and with minimal maintenance, and additional investment. With the price of non-organic cherries that can cost up to $11.99 per pound in the supermarket recently, my trees will be paying for itself in a year or two as it cost me about $70 per tree. After that, it’s just like my tree is paying a dividend every year by bearing more and more fruits.
Beautification Of Your Home
When I first planted the trees, they were just a couple of sticks on the ground. After three years, the trees had grown to about 10 feet in height with a circumference of about seven feet. The growth of the trees created more privacy around my deck and made my backyard more secluded. On top of that, the blossom from the trees made it a wonderful sight in the middle of spring every year. For a couple hundreds of dollars of investment, the trees had provided quite a bit of beautification to the outside of my home that will definitely increase the value when I sell it in the future.
Learning Opportunity
Did you know that fruit trees such as cherries, apples, pears, and peaches are not grown using the seeds from the fruit that you eat? Also, most of the fruit trees mentioned earlier do not bear fruit if you only planted one variety. They are normally grown by cutting branches of existing trees and grafted onto a root and a stem. By having two variety of apples grafted on the same stem, for example, the grafted tree will have two variety of apples that will cross pollinate each other and bear fruit.
In addition, some fruit varieties are more disease resistant and climate hardy than others. The climate zone that you live in will determine which variety of fruit that you can plant in order to survive the harsh winter climate. These are just some of the knowledge that you need to acquire in order to successfully plant the right variety of fruits that you’ll enjoy for years to come. By learning something new you’ll keep your brain young and healthy. Tasting the organic fruits that you planted, priceless.
Gardening Relieves Stress
According to Linda Wasmer Andrews on Psychology Today, gardening is an activity that can cultivate a calmer mind. In her article, Nine Ways to Relieve Stress by Gardening, I find it to be very true. To me gardening is not a chore, it’s a very relaxing activity that provides some physical exercise and lots of satisfaction when it comes time to harvest your produce. I may be spending hours working in my backyard during some weekends, but the tranquility and stress relieve that I received from these activities are better than any other activities that I do around the house. The less stress that you have, the fewer your health care cost.
Opportunity To Teach Your Kids
In today’s busy commercialized world, most of our produce are grown either in greenhouses or from another country. Kids often only get to see the final product on grocery store shelves and rarely get to see the actual trees or shrubs that produce the fruits or vegetables. Recently, I showed my son strawberries from the bushes and the cherries, pears, and apples from the trees, he was so excited to know where those fruits come from. He now requests me to bring him out to the garden almost every day to see the fruits on the trees. I really relish to opportunity to teach him where the fruits come from. I can wait to see his reaction when he gets to pick the ripe fruits from our trees. Something money just can’t buy.
Great To Share
I must admit that I get a bit of an ego boost when I host my annual Midsummer BBQ with my friends and get lots of compliments on how delicious my signature BBQ Zucchini tasted. It’s usually the first item that disappears after it leaves the grill. My friends love the aroma and sweetness of my freshly picked strawberries from the garden that store bought, greenhouse grown strawberries lacked. The bright red cherry tomatoes are also a hit as snacks or part of a salad. The produce from my backyard provided great joys to share with family and friends that normal grocery bought produce just can’t provide.
My Two Cents
In today’s commercialized world with a population of 7+ billion people, producers need to use pesticides to increase the yield of their products in order to feed the world’s population. Without a doubt, being able to purchase any produce in the grocery store is very convenient. Not everyone has access to a large backyard or the passion for growing their own food. However, with all those pesticides being used and the long-term implication of that chemical on your health is unknown, the physical and financial health benefit is becoming very clear. You have a choice to chose what you put in your mouth and how much to save when it comes to your grocery bills.
Would you consider growing your own food to reap the physical and financial health benefits? What would you grow?
About Leo
+1 for growing my own fruit & veggies, although here in the GTA we have a limited time frame due to climate conditions. If we lived in the Oakanagan in BC or the Southern or western US states, we’d be doing it almost all year round.
If folks have the space investing for a greenhouse or a small climate controlled barn to maybe growing hydroponic items would work to feed your immediate family++. It’s not always about cost – it’s quality first.
We currently do a small ‘grow our own’ (bottle & freeze also) and fill in during the winter with organic produce, bit pricey but it works for us.
@John, I’ve heard of hydroponic before. It’s like an all in one solution where you have both fish and produce growing at the same time. It’s an interesting idea. I would consider exploring that once I reach FIRE and have more time in my hands :).
This is so great! We are in a tiny suite and starting to get into some very urban homesteading and food growing. All the reasons you stated here are the ones that motivate our family to do so as well 🙂
@Mandi, growing you food is really fun, especially when it comes to harvest time. Nothing tastes better than your own home grown fruits and veggies.
I’ve tried, and tried, and tried. Everything I’ve attempted to grow (food-wise) in my backyard always dies. Tomatoes? Fail. Peppers? Fail. Cukes? Fail again. Not sure what my problem is. I love the idea but seem not to have a green thumb.
@FinancialCoachBrad, one of my friends has this problem too. I think maybe it’s something in the soil. From my experience, tomatoes are some of the easiest plants to grow. I would buy a soil kit to test the soil to see if the ph level is too high or too low.
Hey Leo I agree. We love to grow our own vegetables a d some raspberries. Its great with our son. Tomatos tend to do the best for us. I have a automatic dripline on them all. To keep it easy. Cheers man
If I had any sort of a yard I would love to grow a garden with some amazing fruit/vegetables. But unfortunately I live on a postage stamp for a yard so we try to enjoy the small piece of grass that we own 🙂 But in the future we definitely would love to have a plot for a garden. There’s something to be said for growing your own food. It just tastes better.
Aside from the financial benefit, home-grown food tastes so much better. We grow all our own produce.
Sharing with my husband. Hoping to grow our own food soon. Very thorough, thank you.
I agree that you can’t put a price on your health. You only get to live once! I love home-grown food too. It’s very satisfying knowing that you grew the food you eat.
That is such a helpful article. I get your points and you make a good article. I’ve never thought about it but you opened my eyes and have some great tips. Thanks for sharing.
I wish I had the patience and the yard to do such things, but I don’t – so Whole Foods it is! ha ha ha!
I had never thought about it but there are fair points! I would love to have a garden and grow my own veggies. Not for the financial benefit though but more for the fun of it! xx corinne
We have always wanted to grow our own veggies , but were unsure if it was worth it. I definitely need to give it a try after reading this!
I grew up in Nevada, where it’s kind of a joke to garden. There’s no rain or soil for it. But once I moved to the south I gave it a try and it turned out I love it! You are so right about the benefits, and I’m hoping it’ll make my kids enjoy veggies more once they can participate.
I should start doing this, but I am TERRIBLE at growing things. I have a black thumb, so I don’t bother anymore.
I love farming. I am planning to buy my own farm when I retire. I just enjoy the freedom and joy from growing your own vegs and fruits!
I absolutely love gardening (eventhough I really don’t have a green thumb!). I find it therapeutic/stress relieving, and any fresh veggies are just a bonus! 😀
In Greece we are big on growing our own vegetables in our gardens. My worry is finding the right seeds to begin with.
I could not agree more! We grow a few things at home, but I’d love to be able to grow enough food for my whole family.
Amazing to see others feel the same way about growing their own food. I have two raised gardens in my backyard for fruits, veggies and hops (as a homebrewer). So much fun and rewarding.
I generally don’t think of this in terms of financial benefits as I usually just focus on the taste and the health benefits of home grown food.. But this is such a great way to look at this. We need to think in terms of financial benefits to us. And so often we ignore those to our detriment.
I wish we could grow our own food! Living in a condo has very limited space!
It’s amazing to grow your own food in the comfort of your home. Imagine the nutrients that you’ll be getting without the pesticides or chemicals that are normally used in mass produced fruits and veggies. I think it’s not just going to help you save money but also keep you healthier.
We used to grow our own pas, strawberries and gooseberries when I was little. Mum used to freeze them and we had fruit all winter long.
Katja xxx
My mom had us all garden when I was younger, but it ended after a few months – it wasn’t the most fun thing in the world for us kids haha. But knowing what I do about health now, I’d consider it if I ever have a yard to grow one in.
I think it’s fantastic to grow our own foods when possible. My father came from farming stock and I love gardening but my suburban village is overrun by small wildlife that eat or destroy everything.
I think it would be great to grow your own food. Then you’ll really know what goes into it the moment it’s planted. I hope we can also do that here in the city.
I believe there is benefits financially and mentally in growing your own foods. Organic fruits and veggies cost a bit more but if you grow them you save money. Gardening does indeed help relax you and it is very rewarding to yourself when can eat what you have grown with your own hands. Thanks for sharing the information.
I am absolutely enthralled by this article, as I have been wanting to do research on how to grow your own food. This post took that idea and ran with it, you have given me so much to think about. Thank you for sharing this!
Wow!! It is my first time to know about growing your own at home. Growing food without pesticide will prevent families from getting any risk of having sicknesses coming from the pesticide chemicals. Thank you so much for sharing!! I appreciate this. 🙂