Backyard Eats’ Wish For You

At Backyard Eats, our clients choose to have a home vegetable garden for many reasons. Some want to give their kids the same magical gardening experience they had as children. Others are on a personal health journey, desire to know where their food comes from, or are searching for a new hobby that helps them connect with nature.

Regardless of your “why”, Backyard Eats’ wish is that you find what you are looking for. We exist as your garden gurus, to help guide you past the typical obstacles and frustrations that stand in the way of experiencing the magic of homegrown food.

In the article, we’ll explore how to conquer several gardening fears this new year in order to provide for yourself, your loved ones, and our world with confidence. If these fears resonate with you, we can guide you towards organic success:

1. “I have a busy lifestyle; I don’t have enough time to garden!”

Home gardeners come from all walks of life: busy professionals, parents of young kids, and retirees looking for a new hobby, to name a few. But a hectic schedule doesn’t have to prevent you from a consistent gardening habit. Integrating gardening into your daily routine can become a therapeutic escape and source of creative joy amid life’s many demands.

Rather than winding down with screen time at the end of the day, connect with nature by picking a ripe tomato or admiring the winding travels of a green bean vine. Even in busy households, gardening can create dedicated space for quality family time. Create lasting memories this year through the shared experience of homegrown food!

When life gets too busy, though, the thought of maintaining a garden can be irksome and unappetizing. How to deal with these times? For one, you can let your garden go! It will still be there when you come back, provided you check in often enough to catch any massive blooms of weed seeds taking over, for example. Alternatively, you can tap into the bounty of enthusiasm within the homegrown food movement. Community resources abound, and plenty of folks (young and old) are willing to work for the chance to learn how to grow their own food. Finally, we’ve built a holistic system for maintaining and perfecting your home garden to the degree that works for you. So that’s an option, too!

2. “DIY projects seem so complicated: I don’t know where to start!”

In this age of modern technology, humans can gather information faster than ever. But without a trusted guide, you may still feel anxious about undertaking a complex building project from scratch: What materials to use? Where to put the garden? What about ongoing care?

At Backyard Eats, we empower clients to build confidence in their gardening skills. Our custom garden installation services make starting a garden more accessible for everyone by providing the perfect starting point for clients to demystify the learning process.

Start by choosing your favorite crop varieties for spring and summer. Then, you can experience the joy of learning how to grow fresh produce at home thanks to our convenient step-by-step Harvest Guide tutorials, which are easily available online.

3. “I’ve tried gardening before and failed. Maybe it just isn’t for me.”

We believe that with the right guidance, anyone can successfully grow food at home. That’s why our process is designed to support you at every stage of the garden process: from the initial design consultation, to selecting crop varieties, building a custom garden, and continuing to learn and grow over time.

Maybe your crops struggle to grow under inadequate sunlight, or deer and squirrels always nibble your prized produce. Our list of over 70 crops is updated every year, so you can fill your garden with delicious and productive crops that will thrive in your space’s unique growing conditions. We also recommend and build custom fencing for most of our raised bed gardens, so you can grow your produce and enjoy it too!

Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from experiencing the satisfaction of homegrown success this year!

4. “Homegrown food isn’t worth it. Why spend months growing something I can buy at the store for less?”

Building a backyard garden can be a financial investment in materials and plants. But it’s also a priceless lifetime investment in your family’s well-being, health, and social connection. No generic store-bought vegetable can replace the delight of harvesting a ripe tomato off the vine: or the pride as your children harvest a pepper they helped grow!

Growing your own food also allows you to control the growing conditions. At Backyard Eats, our custom growing medium and natural pest control methods ensure that your garden receives optimal nutrients and care without health concerns. With homegrown produce, you experience the reward of providing for yourself and your loved ones plus the benefits of knowing exactly where it came from.

5. “I wish I could grow my own food, but I have a small urban backyard.”

Whether you have a small urban backyard or a sprawling green landscape, your home garden can reflect your goals. Thankfully, raised bed vegetable gardens make the most of any space with efficient layouts and vertical growing options like fencing and trellises that maximize growing potential. That’s why we recommend raised beds to any edible gardeners!

Functional perennial plants, like fruit trees and berries, can also offer home gardeners more flexibility in terms of their garden layout. Conditions permitting, edible food forests create a more “natural” landscape effect with the same rewards of homegrown produce. Ultimately, you don’t need a rural farm to provide fresh, delicious food for your friends and family. Raised bed vegetables gardens can be adapted to any space, transforming back or front yards into flourishing oases of growth and beauty from spring to fall.

6. “I travel often and worry that I won’t be able to keep a garden alive.”

We all want the flexibility to travel without killing plants or becoming the neighborhood eyesore. Backyard Eats trained garden maintenance team are your year-round gardening partners! Whether you’re interested in seasonal planting or ongoing maintenance, we can suggest and carry out trusted techniques to ensure the health of your garden. This also makes learning how to garden less intimidating than tackling a project alone.

Thanks to convenient technology like drip irrigation, your garden can even be automatically watered the perfect amount every day for a thriving and successful green space! If you travel often, you can rest assured that your well-maintained garden will add value and personality to your home, making it a restful and rewarding place to return to again and again.

According to Carol from nearby Ambler, “The wonderful garden [Backyard Eats] set up for me was superbly built and smart looking. A timed irrigation system was installed so my focus could be on other tasks than watering the plants and seeds. They offer full maintenance to just support functions, or anything in between…They are a joy to work, responsive to my calls for help and I am learning so much!”

7. “I want a pest-free garden, but I’m concerned about the impact of pesticides on my family’s health.”

Many people choose to grow their own food in order to take control of their own health. In our raised bed vegetable gardens, holistic health starts with naturally-treated lumber and a custom organic growing medium full of essential soil nutrients.

We do not treat our client’s gardens with any chemicals that are harmful to human health under trained application, and recently partnered with Consumer Notice to educate our audience on the dangers of commercial pesticides like glyphosate. We are proud to lead the homegrown movement towards balance with nature and human health.

With an organic edible garden in your own backyard, you can revel in the satisfaction of providing your family with fresh homegrown goodness. Home gardener Mary Kay from Glenside, who hired Backyard Eats to transform her existing garden into an organic oasis, says it best: “We believe this is a lifetime investment in healthy eating and we are very pleased!”

8. “There’s so much to learn about gardening; I don’t know where to start!”

Do you want to learn how to garden but don’t know where to start? Are you tired of searching for contractors that only specialize in construction or weeding? Look no further than Backyard Eats’ full-service gardening solutions!

You can overcome your gardening fears and doubts this year with support from Backyard Eats. Our process starts with an initial consultation to discuss your specific growing goals, so you can see if our design, installation, and maintenance services are a good fit for you.

Whether you have a busy lifestyle, small backyard, or no gardening experience at all, we want to help you become a healthy and confident home gardener connected with the magic of homegrown food. Let’s make 2024 a year of learning and growth together!