Diet Food From Your Backyard

If there is a way you can control the source from which you get your food, do it. Relying on sources that are hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of miles away just doesn't seem very safe. For those who have gardens, chickens, or other sources of sustenance in or around their backyard, the quality and nutrition is certain to be better than if your food has traveled a couple of days, on a few tracks, and a truck to get to the shelves from which you buy it.

There have been estimates that more individuals would start being self-reliant when it comes to getting food by growing, raising, picking, and preparing all because of the costs associated with food prices today, as well as a possible threat of missing deliveries. Here's what the AP reports on this growing trend.

Tidy lawns have been replaced by a jumble of hot peppers, tomatoes, peas, peaches, berries and plums in the front yards of two next-door neighbors.

And that's just a sampling.

"What aren't we growing?" said Kelly Sandman, who along with her neighbors dug up their front lawns in April and planted fruits and vegetables.

An increasing, albeit small, number of people are trying edible landscaping -- growing fruits and vegetables mixed in with traditional, ornamental flowers -- to save money on food, eat healthier and ensure their fresh food is safe.

It goes beyond the traditional garden. Broccoli and cabbage plants are popping up in flower beds once occupied by tulips and daisies.

Some are using fruit trees or edible plants as fences, replacing hedges with raspberry bushes or screening backyard pools with towering stalks of sweet corn.

Bottom line: Why not take an interest in one of the most important aspects mankind - our individual health and the health of the planet? Taking time to plant fruit trees and vegetables is not only rewarding, but also may provide a better quality of nutrition for your body, not to mention the benefits that having more plants and trees has for the Earth! Live healthy, eat healthy.