FAQ
Is a bargain meal a bargain if
you pay for it with your health?
3534
DR. EARTH® GARDENING GUIDE DR. EARTH® GARDENING GUIDE
What is vital for life? Your health. To live a long life
full of joy and vitality, your lifestyle choices today
determine the state of your health tomorrow. This
is true, whether we think about those choices or let
ignorance and apathy make them for us.
The great news is you control your own destiny,
because you control every decision in your life. Healthy
eating and living are personal life choices. In your own
backyard, you can find the potential to create a future
of good health for yourself, your family and the entire
planet. This is the start of your journey to a better life.
To create an environment that nurtures you and
provides you with enjoyment and health, you need a
detailed plan similar to a road map. Our mission is to
help you plan and take this wondrous journey.
Being healthy is simple if you understand how to
garden in your own backyard. Growing your own
healthy food right outside your door will make you
look at your home in a new, wonderful way. With so
much excitement running through your veins, your
enthusiasm may push you to act too soon. Before you
grab a piece of paper, scribble many ideas, run down to
your local plant nursery, and buy as many seeds, plants,
soils and fertilizers as you can load up, let us guide
you from our 20 years of experience and leadership in
gardening. We want to teach you what we know that is
true and effective.
Let’s Get Dirty First!
Some people think of soil as nothing more than an
anchor that holds plants in the ground, a dark, dusty
place that critters crawl in that makes our hands dirty.
Soil is not just “dirt” but the basis of all life. Healthy soil
is alive with billions of microbes that feed all living
things on our planet. Your body needs it to be healthy. It
provides you with the sustenance you need to generate
the energy for everything you do. Everyone who is
alive today, and everyone who ever lived, needed the
benefits of soil to survive and prosper.
Soil health is the fundamental basis for the health of all plants,
animals and people. This guide shows you the link between
soil and human health. The connection is simple; healthy soil
creates a healthy garden, which produces healthy plants to
provide nutrients for us as well as for the animals we love and
care for as pets.
Why should you grow a vegetable garden? Food is so cheap
and easily accessible if you live in a modernized country.
Much of what we can buy is more convenient to prepare than
cooking garden produce from scratch. You can run down to a
fast food drive-through and grab a value meal (for about $5) that
is 2,500 calories of deep fried, grease-laden, processed food. You
can get your fill of genetically modified, processed meat and
potatoes for far less than one-tenth of a penny per calorie.
Maybe you do not care if that hamburger came from a cow
fed with genetically modified grains and was shipped 2,500
miles to get to you. Maybe you believe it makes no difference
if your fries are processed and grown with genetically modified
potatoes. Your 32-ounce soda was full of simple sugars that
went down smoothly with those salty fries.
Why you should garden, it’s good for your health, besides
giving you the best nutrients you can get, gardening is healthy
work. You have to cultivate the soil, amend it, plant seeds or
cuttings, fertilize, water, weed and mulch. Finally, you must
harvest and preserve your crop for future use. Is eating healthy
from your own garden worth all that effort? Yes!
If you read this guide with an open mind and the attitude of
caring about your health, the health of others and the well-being
of our only home—the good earth itself—it will open your eyes
to the importance of creating your healthy backyard garden. You
will learn why eating food you nurture and harvest yourself is one
of the most rewarding things you can do. This guide is also unique
in taking the approach of starting from the ground up, explaining
how human health begins in the soil, then providing clear
examples of what to grow, how to grow it, and the nutritional
benefits to you and your family, your friends and your community.
We know thousands of gardeners and have interviewed
hundreds of them over the past 20 years. We have also met
with many medical doctors, soil scientists, plant biologists,
nutritionists and master gardeners. All this involvement and
research has more than convinced us that a healthy garden will
give you joy and bounty.
We live the organic lifestyle, and it all starts in our backyard.
Even the smallest thing you do will make a huge difference
toward living a long and healthy life and raising a healthy
family. A garden can help you to achieve these goals.
Americans are on a new journey, seeking natural and
organic solutions to their health problems. People from all
backgrounds are on a personal quest to be healthy while
making the right environmental decisions in the process.
We hope this guide will inspire and benefit you in the same way.
What is vital for life?
Your Health
HEALTHY LIVING
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
FOOD FOR
THOUGHT
The large corporations that control most of our food supply and our farmland are set up to
produce large quantities of food while making huge commercial prots. Sadly for the health
of our nation, the quality of that food has been left far behind. The quality of the food we
eat, its ability to nourish us and sustain our health, rests simply on the quality of our soil.
IF YOU HAVE
YOUR HEALTH
YOU HAVE WEALTH