The Benefits of Growing Your Own Food: Why Your Backyard Could Be the Best Grocery Store

In a world where grocery bills seem to climb higher every season and food recalls feel all too common, more and more people are turning to an age-old solution: growing their own food.

Whether you’ve got a sprawling homestead, a suburban backyard, or just a few pots on a balcony, producing even a small portion of your own food can bring huge rewards for your health, your wallet, and your peace of mind.

Here’s why growing your own food is one of the best decisions you can make

1. Healthier, Fresher Food

Imagine a juicy strawberry, freshly picked from the vine. The flavours are fresh, sweet and satisfying! Store-bought strawberries are good, but they won’t match those freshly picked ones!

Food starts losing nutrients the moment it’s harvested. When you grow your own fruits and vegetables, you can pick them at peak ripeness, ensuring maximum flavour and nutrition. No more guessing how long those greens have been sitting in a truck or on a shelf — when you grow your own, fresh means really fresh.

2. Saves You Money

Seeds, soil, and a little sweat can go a long way toward reducing your grocery bill. Even a small garden can produce hundreds of dollars' worth of fresh produce over the season. Herbs, salad greens, tomatoes, peppers — these are expensive to buy, but cheap and easy to grow. Plus, with each growing season, your soil and setup get better, making your harvests more abundant.

Choose produce varieties that you know your family will eat, but maybe try different varieties to lengthen your harvest! And get those perennials in the ground first so you know you will be set up each year, even if you can’t get into the garden.

3. Reduces Your Environmental Impact

When you grow your own food, you cut out the miles your groceries would otherwise travel — along with the packaging waste, refrigeration, and fuel use. (Check out our blog post about eating local for more on this!)

On a small scale, you’re reducing emissions and plastic waste; on a larger scale, you’re part of a global shift toward more sustainable, local food systems. While you may think you are just one person, if we each start doing our part, that one person turns into hundreds and thousands!

4. Supports Biodiversity and Healthy Ecosystems

A home garden is more than a food source — it’s a mini ecosystem. Planting flowers alongside your veggies invites pollinators like bees and butterflies, while growing a variety of crops supports soil health and biodiversity. This small patch of land can make a big difference in helping local wildlife and native plant life thrive.

Teach your children about respecting this natural diversity, too. While bees and bugs can sometimes seem scary, explain how we need them so we can continue to have food.

5. Builds Skills & Self-Sufficiency

Every season teaches you something new: how to read the weather, work with the soil, manage pests naturally, and preserve food for the off-season. These are real, lifelong skills — the kind that build confidence and resilience, especially when the unexpected happens (like supply chain disruptions or rising prices).

It’s also a great family activity. Kids love digging in the dirt, and they can learn about weed identification and how to pick produce when it is at its ripest. This hands-on experience can be invaluable!

Check out the available classes at Generations Marketplace to learn more about gardening and so much more!

6. Better-Tasting Food

Once you’ve tasted a sun-warmed tomato from your own garden, it’s hard to go back to store-bought. Homegrown fruits and vegetables are picked at their prime, which means richer flavours and a superior texture compared to the mass-produced varieties that are bred for shelf-life, not taste.

7. Screen-Free Activity for the Family

Stop playing the Farm Simulator game and get outside to make your own! We know sitting for too long isn’t good for our bodies, and we definitely don’t want our kids getting too much screen time, so make it a family activity to get out into the garden. As kids learn how to care for plants, they will develop a sense of pride and accomplishment. They learn skills they can use later on, and you all get some much-needed vitamin D (don’t forget your hat)

Final Thoughts

Growing your own food doesn’t have to mean living off-grid or managing a massive homestead. Even a few raised beds, containers on a balcony, or a windowsill herb garden can make a meaningful difference in your life. Whether you're aiming for self-sufficiency or just want better-tasting tomatoes, the benefits are real and lasting.

So why not start with one plant, one patch of soil, or one packet of seeds? You might be surprised how far that first step will take you.

Stop in at Generations Marketplace with all your questions and ideas about gardening! Don't forget to pick up some homemade bread or fresh-picked produce while you're there!