Ten Reasons to Create Edible Deck Gardens
If you’re like 81% of the country, you live in a city or a suburb of a city. Chances are good you don’t have space to grow your own food unless you do it on your deck. Or maybe gardening hasn’t really occurred to you as a way to use your deck, but consider these ten reasons edible deck gardens will help maximize your deck use.
- Fresh, tasty, “fast” food. If you’re a foodie, you know you won’t ever find anything fresher than what you grow outside your own door, and how nice is it not to have to wait in line at the local drive-thru?
- Health. There’s nothing better for your health than fresh, organic produce. Fill 50% of your plate with it.
- Safety. The dog won’t wreck your deck gardens, Maybe the squirrels won’t either!
- Aesthetics. What if you don’t have a tree in sight? An edible garden on your deck will give you the beauty you lack in the rest of your environment. A garden defines your space with greenery.
- Economy. Food you grow is more economical, especially if you’d like organic food or specialty items that aren’t regularly available in your local grocery store.
- Maximizing your investment. A deck is an investment. Consider how many hours that investment is sitting, unused, while you’re at work. If you plant a garden on your deck, your plants will work while you’re away and bring you a return on your investment when you get home.
- Environment. You’re doing your part for the environment when you grow at least some of your own food, because it doesn’t have to travel to you.
- Social. Picture yourself sitting in your deck garden with friends and family in an evening, sipping a glass of wine, surrounded by lush tomato plants, beds of micro-greens, potato bags, hanging baskets of strawberries, climbing poles of beans and peas, vertical pallet gardens and more.
- Retreat. Or picture yourself sitting in your deck garden, quietly by yourself, taking a break from the day’s activity and contemplating your beautiful fruits and veggies and lush greens.
- Laziness. One of the best reasons to design a deck food garden! You don’t have to drive to the store for ingredients. You don’t even have to walk out to a garden in the yard. Everything is there at your fingertips. You won’t have to rototill. You probably won’t even have to dig with much more than a trowel. Just plant, watch it grow and harvest.
Your edible deck garden can have a life after summer too! Some plants do well until late in the fall (broccoli). You can plant spinach in the fall, cover it with hay or mulch for some warmth, and it will sprout very early in the spring. Your trays of micro-greens can move inside. And best of all, you can dream about how to tweak your garden next year to make it even more luxurious and nutritious.
The best foundation for your edible deck garden is a clean, well-maintained deck. Contact us to talk about which of our natural and sustainable, plant-based products will work best for you.
