Backyard Vegetable Gardens: Change Your Diet and Improve Your Health

PROSPER, Texas (AP) -- As the weather warms and the brown landscape turns green, Stephanie Weyenberg's thoughts turn to planting for her family's early spring garden.

Gardening is more than just a hobby: She and her husband, Matt, grow most of the fruit and vegetables they eat.

They also rely on a half dozen chickens roaming their backyard, for eggs and to entertain their kids, ages 11, 9 and 6. The family gets beef, chicken and raw milk from farms.

``At some point it snowballed into, `Oh wow, now we're grinding our own wheat and have a garden and try to eat from that,'' said Weyenberg, 37, who home-schools her children.

Inspired to turn away from processed foods after their two younger children had stomach troubles, the Weyenbergs started with small changes. Those led to a move about three years ago from a big house with a tiny yard to a smaller home on an acre lot farther out in the countryside, in Prosper, about 45 miles north of Dallas.

Matt Weyenberg, a doctor at a family medical practice called Village Health Partners in Plano, said his family's experiences serve as a way for him to talk to patients about healthy eating. He said he'll tell them: ``You don't have to go crazy like we are at my house and grind your own wheat and have chickens and a big garden, but try to eat less processed foods, try to get more organic food, locally grown, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables.''

``There's hardly a day goes by that I don't -- all of us -- don't see patients who could literally get off several of their medications potentially if they just ate better,'' said Matt Weyenberg, 36. ``Some people are very receptive to that. Of course some people aren't: They don't feel like they are at a place where they can.''

The Weyenbergs might have taken gardening a step further than many, but a growing number of American households are doing some vegetable gardening, according to the National Gardening Association _ up from about 27 million households in 2005 to about 31 million households last year. The nonprofit group said the main reasons are to have better-tasting and higher quality food, and to save money on groceries.

That might involve just putting some tomato plants out on a city patio, or it might be as involved as what the Weyenbergs are doing, said Susan Littlefield, horticulture editor for the gardening association.

Brett L. Markham, author of ``Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre'' (Skyhorse, 2010), said he raises chickens and has fruit trees and a garden, producing about 80 percent of the food his family eats. They began backyard farming on a half-acre lot in New Ipswich, N.H., after developing an interest in organic foods about eight years ago.

``I do have a sense that my situation is becoming less and less unique. A lot of people are trying to grow something, no matter how small,'' Markham said.

He said that often people who contact him say they developed an interest in backyard farming because of economic concerns, but other reasons include wanting to feel a connection to the soil.

``It's a lot easier than people think it is,'' he said. ``People look at the stuff involved and initially they get intimidated. You can build into having full self-sufficiency.''

The Weyenbergs occasionally supplement their garden by buying from farmer's markets, Stephanie said.

And they still make the occasional trip to the grocery store, estimating they get about 25 percent of their food there. For instance, Stephanie said, when they make tortilla soup, they pick up chips and sour cream from the store. And every now and then, they get some ice cream as well.

``I don't want it to ever be so `rule our lives' that my kids have no idea what chips taste like: the forbidden fruit that they're going to run right out and gorge on,'' she said.

Both Weyenbergs said the key is making the changes one step at a time.

``The way that we're living now seems so extreme, and I never in a million years would have imagined us being here,'' said Stephanie.

For her early spring garden this year, Weyenberg is planning spinach, lettuce and beets. Throughout the year, she also grows onions, a couple varieties of beans, tomatoes, squash, blackberries and Swiss chard. That's besides the fruit trees bearing apples, plums, pears and peaches, and the herb garden that includes basil, thyme and sage.

The backyard operation isn't as time consuming as it might seem, she said. The chickens, for instance, are hardly any work, and also eat bugs and fertilize the yard. An automated irrigation system saves a lot of time. And after several hours of work at the beginning of the season to clean and plant the beds, Weyenberg estimates that she probably only spends about an hour a week in the garden.

``Once it's in, it's not that much,'' she said.

The Weyenbergs said the whole family has noticed how much better they feel with their new diet. And when they stray, they can tell the difference. A recent stop for shakes at a fast food restaurant, for instance, gave them all stomachaches.

``I truly can say I have kids who would choose a sandwich or a salad over a hamburger pretty much any day,'' Stephanie Weyenberg said.