By Stacey Gliniewicz

Several months ago, I wrote an article about how to container garden.  I would like to mention a couple of benefits to container gardening, like that fact that you know where your fruits and vegetables are coming from, pesticides or chemicals are highly controlled, and it eases the grocery bill. Let’s take a closer look at the controlled pesticides and chemicals on our produce. We have known for quite some time that pesticides are proving to be dangerous to our bodies, which is why we have the organic produce movement.

For those of us on a budget that need to make every purchase count, purchasing all organic produce is not always feasible and could bust the budget. All the more reason to consider container gardening.  Some of us are bound by time, poor growing environments, or just a plain lack of a green thumb. In this case, when you find yourself in a pinch and need to purchase fresh produce check this article, “The Dirty Dozen” by organic.org. The article shares a list of fruits and vegetables that showed high levels of pesticide residue in a recent study.  Steering away from eating high amounts of the fresh produce on the dirty dozen list can lower your pesticide intake. Additionally, you will find a list of the twelve that contained the least amounts of pesticides to help replace the offenders.  Good luck and I hope this information is helpful to you.