Green Fingers = Green Future

Eco-Friendly Green Gardening

First Published Date: November 30, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

It is commonly held that global warming and other environmental concerns are far too big for humans to turn back. Some even believe that global warming is not man-made despite the large amount of evidence to suggest that it very much is. For such reasons, there are many people who decide not to do anything about it, and say “I’m only one person – what can I do, realistically?”. These people are missing the point. If no-one does anything, then there is no question that the problems will get worse. In order to turn back the tide, there are things that we can do. Although many may feel that it isn’t worth bothering, if enough of us take a lead, then at least we can set an example.

Setting a good example can be done in many ways, but the chances of it being taken up depend on several factors. Not least of these is the fact that people can specifically benefit themselves by taking a greener approach. This is best referred to as the “What’s in it for me?” factor. Although there may be little incentive for someone to take a greener approach to life if all it is going to achieve is a lessening in the global problems some years down the line, they will think differently if they feel that it might benefit them in the long term and the short term. One way to do this is to look at planting a vegetable garden.

Although gardening is seen by many as a pastime for older people, there is little doubt that it can benefit us all. Taking it on the most basic level, all of us need to eat in order to live. Inevitably, part of our diet is sure to come from vegetables. Now, we can get in our car and drive to the supermarket to buy veg there. The advantage of this approach is that it is convenient. But aside from that, there is little reason why we should do this. Supermarkets, for all their eye-catching green initiatives, are simply not going to take part in any approach that may hurt their profit margins. And the vegetables they sell will come with a healthy profit for the company – putting us, the consumers, out of pocket.

If we grow our own veg, then we immediately create a saving for ourselves. Instead of having to drive to the supermarket (spending money on fuel as we do so), buying the veg (and thus paying more than we would had we grown it ourselves) and putting it into a bag (we pay for that, too), we could be cutting out these extra costs and helping ourselves. Additionally, we are causing less pollution by cutting out exhaust fumes and unnecessary packaging.

By growing our own veg we will also ensure the utmost freshness, which is always a major factor in terms of taste. And although it takes an initial investment of our time, it saves us a lot more in the long run – how many people do you know who can take care of most of the ingredients for dinner just by popping outside for a few minutes?

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Thegreenlivingblog.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on April 24, 2009.