Many of us are passionate about growing our own food. Promoting self-sufficiency and our health is a no-brainer for those with the time and space, right? What’s rarer and more untapped is the idea of crafting gardens to provide us with specific nutrients, such as vitamin A or C. When it comes to healing horticulture, we tend to think of herbal remedies. But common everyday food plants also have powerful therapeutic attributes due to their nutrient stores — and the fact we consume them regularly and in much higher amounts.
About 47 per cent of women and 34 per cent of men in Australia use nutritional supplements, suggests an article in the journal Nutrients. Popular supplements in our cupboards include vitamins C and D, zinc, omega-3, iron, magnesium, creatine, natal blends and multivitamins. Why not source some of them direct from your own garden? The benefits of living nutrients, fresh from the garden, include the fact that they come packaged with helpful plant enzymes, fibre and cofactors.
Obtaining specific vitamins and
