Digging in the dirt, lifting plants, carrying pots, gathering tools – gardening sounds and looks like a lot of hard work. While it does take a fair amount of effort and sometimes years of patience to put the perfect garden together, the fact is that it has been proven time and time again that gardening is healthy. This favorite pastime to many and profession to some is chock full of health benefits, both for the body and the mind.
First and foremost, gardening requires patience and time, much more so than physical strain. Anyone can adapt gardening to their physical condition and space available for breeding lovely plants. Whether it’s on a terrace, a windowsill, your front yard or across acres of your country estate, there’s a choice of plants and tools ideal for you to begin your gardening adventures – and improve your health.
Gardening also requires lots of time spent among plants and fresh air. Regardless of whether you decide to take up this activities on your front porch, a yard or a small greenhouse, plants need fresh air, moisture, and sunlight to grow. This means you’ll be spending plenty of time among them in the same conditions that are also beneficial to your breathing, heart rate, metabolism and various other bodily functions. The British National Gardens Scheme even went so far in 2016 to commission a study regarding the health benefits of gardening and the results of this study confirmed that by any measure, gardening improves overall health and prolongs life.
Other studies have found that the various relatively light physical movements we make while gardening, combined with the time spent outdoors and among various plants, also improves concentration and sleep, as well as significantly contributing to lowering blood pressure and blood sugar levels. A little gardening seems to do the body and soul a lot of good.
There’s also the social aspect of gardening. If you include your family members in helping out in your garden, you’ll strengthen your relationships, and share in something wonderful together. You may also be interested in joining a community garden. If all the community gardens near you are full and have wait-lists, you can consider signing up at YardYum and finding a local garden plot to rent.
If you’re planning on devoting some more time to gardening, you may also want to consider the health benefits of growing some of your own fruit and vegetables. Some vegetables regularly consumed by humans are extremely easy to grow and don’t require very much space at all. Another thing that makes this activity healthy in the long term is the obligation to tend to your garden on an almost daily basis, making this an activity that is tough to give up, unlike a gym membership or Pilates class. Especially if you’ve decided to grow your own food, you’ll need no reminders other than a few weeds that have appeared among your veggies to tell you that it’s time to step outside and get to work.
Now get out there and reap the benefits of gardening 🙂
