What home gardening is?

Home gardening means the cultivation of flowers, fruits, vegetables, or ornamental plants for the personal use of the owner or tenants of a lot.

Home gardening

is a hobby that can bring a lot of joy to your life, allow you to exercise for free and bring the whole family together. While it may not sound exciting at first glance, it's something to consider if you enjoy the outdoors and are interested in reaping the fruits of hard work. Home gardening, in simple terms, can be referred to as the process of growing plants and caring for them in your own home for various purposes.

It is considered a rewarding hobby, as it produces benefits both in the form of mental relaxation and homegrown organic fruits and vegetables. Home gardens take many forms, from a few potted plants to large backyard garden plots. Beyond the reward of homegrown produce, the benefits of gardening as a hobby include benefits for health, the environment and gardener's enjoyment. The benefits of a family garden make the physical effort and costs of gardening worthwhile.

Family gardens are maintained to facilitate access to fresh food sources for plants and animals in both rural and urban locations. Overall, the literature review supports the inclusion and promotion of family gardens as a sustainable and ecological agricultural practice to improve food security and increase economic growth. An extensive bibliographic search was carried out through the review of more than 100 publications, reports and book chapters, which covered various aspects of home gardening to develop the theoretical framework. Home gardening with a planter effect consists of caring for a living being and creating a small escape to make your house feel more at home.

The two main national home gardening programs in Sri Lanka are “Api Wavamu”, “Rata Nagamu” (Let's Cultivate to Uplift the Nation) and “Divinaguma” (“Improvement of Livelihoods”). A family garden allows products to be picked when they are ripe, unlike store products that are often harvested before they are fully ripe. The areas of nutrition, access to new technologies, extension and counseling services, economic and non-economic benefits, women's empowerment, and the long-term sustainability of family gardens, specifically in post-conflict situations, require more research. The most fundamental social benefit of family gardens comes from their direct contribution to household food security by increasing the availability, accessibility and use of food products.

As a result, the production of home gardens has increased significantly in the country and has been critical to reducing “hidden hunger” and diseases caused by micronutrient deficiency. Just remember that, whether you're shopping at garden centers or online, it can be easy to get caught up in all the new garden tools you'll see. Food from family gardens substantially increases the family's energy and nutritional needs on an ongoing basis. Consequently, much attention is paid to family gardens as a strategy to improve household food security and nutrition.

The specific size of a family garden varies from household to household and its average size is usually smaller than the average size of the family's arable land. This trend continues and family gardens continue to significantly complement food security and household livelihood.