A New Year's resolution garden

Can a garden help you keep all your resolutions in 2010?

Tue, Dec 29 2009 at 8:41 AM EST

Burpee conducted a survey about the benefits of gardening. The results are interesting. Here are just a few of the results:

95 percent of respondents say that having a vegetable garden makes it easier for them to make healthy food choices. Among the reasons, respondents cited Easy Access to Fresh Foods, More Affordable than Store-Bought Produce, Better Flavor than Store-Bought Produce.
93 percent of respondents say that children who vegetable garden with their parents more likely to take an interest in eating vegetables compared to children who do not vegetable garden with their parents .
89 percent believe that growing your own produce is better for the environment than purchasing it at the grocery store.
More than three times as many respondents said vegetable gardening was more beneficial to the environment than driving a hybrid and more beneficial than using energy-efficient appliances.

In the same survey, the seed company also asked people what their New Year’s resolutions were and came up with a seed kit that can help people with their resolutions, including going green. Based on the responses to what people resolve to accomplish in 2010, here’s what is in Burpee’s New Year’s Resolution Garden seed kit.

Lose weight – Lettuce Heatwave
Exercise – Pole Bean Blue Lake
Save money – Tomato Supersteak
Reduce stress – Mixed Cutting Flowers
Steward of the environment – Monarda Bergamo
Spend time with family – Sun Forest Sunflowers
Better food choices – Carrot Burpee A#1

According to Burpee this will not be “just an ordinary garden; instead it is one that will inspire positive changes in nearly every area of one's life.” I can’t promise you that buying this seed kit and planting the seeds will inspire you to make all your resolutions stick, but the entire kit is $10 and separately the seeds would cost $29.50. So I can tell you that it’s a good price for four types of vegetable seeds and three types of flowers that has the potential to create a 200 square-foot garden.

This is a fun idea, but one thing to consider before purchasing the New Year’s Resolution Garden is whether or not you want your seeds to be organic. It doesn’t seem that any of the seeds in this mix are organic. If your goal is to have an organic garden, especially an organic vegetable garden, you’ll want to start with organic seeds.

Image: Burpee.com