10 Health Benefits of Gardening and why you should try it out

Health Benefits of Gardening

Besides the joy of harvesting organic juicy fruits and vegetables from your home garden, there are several health benefits of gardening for your body, mind, and soul.

1. Gardening gives healthier food straight out of your garden.

The demand for garden produce is enormous; large-scale production comes with so many shortcuts to optimize the quantity of output. These gardens are heavy on fertilizers and nutrients, not to mention the high prices of these products in grocery stores.

Having your backyard garden not only saves you these ever-rising prices but ensures these fruits and vegetables are readily available to add color to your dinner table and provide a balanced diet to your family necessary for healthy growth.

2. Provides a tremendous work-out session

Are your gym membership fees draining your pocket? Welcome to gardening. You are lifting water to water your garden, pushing a wheelbarrow, carrying a bag of fertilizers, pulling weeds, hoeing rows, moving pot pats; the list is endless.

All this is physical activity on your body for free.

Talking of exercise

3. Gardening controls your body weight.

Are you on a weight loss journey but not the type that can keep up with an exercising routine? Honestly, I feel the same way. For me, it’s now a cycle of trying, and one week down the road m out, then I try again.

Try gardening. Gardening is love at first sight that won’t need alarms or routines to remind you what to do.

One look at your plants and listening to what they are telling you is enough to get you to work; you are pulling weeds, reaching out for tools moving around your garden to inspect it, and before you know it, you are sweating from burning calories.

If this does not exercise, then tell me what does! You are experiencing weight loss of approximately 11 pounds in females and 16 pounds in males.

There is no discrimination in age and yields; you achieve the results.

4. Gardening is suitable for a healthy heart.

Physicians recommend at least 150 minutes weekly of cardiovascular activities for a healthy heart. For example, physical activities during gardening burn down more than 300 calories in an hour of light gardening work, which is good for your heart.

5. Improves mental health

Mental health is a state of well-being. If not handled properly, daily life pressures can throw one in a pit of stress, depression, and anxiety. Other people find themselves in the claw of drugs and end up addicted.

These take a toll on you and leave you on the verge of helplessness. You need help to crawl out of this pit to live a whole life as you should. Unfortunately, so many people in society are dealing with mental disorders, and those who realize they need help end up paying handsomely for these services.

Horticultural therapy; the professional interaction with plants to improve mental and physical health. How?

Tending and taking care of plants gets you off your couch and gives you something to occupy yourself. As you take care of these plants, you connect with them in a more spiritual way than you can imagine.

They give you an escape in the process because you make their well-being a priority instead of your problems. With time, you realize your issues don’t deserve the attention you invested in them; you open your mind to more solutions and see your world positively.

Terpenes from particular plants give off aromatic scents that are therapeutic and that good feeling, which relieves you of stress, anxiety, and depression.

6. Gardening nourishes your spirit.

Call it the “gardening glow,” you’re in a place where you are free from all stress and worry. It doesn’t mean that you stop facing challenges. Instead, it means you react to them differently now that you know better.

You don’t let your problems or insecurities consume you, and in all things, you seek to find solutions instead of soaking in your worries. As a result, you live life with a positive attitude. As a result, you become a happy person.

It helps with memory loss for older people and sharpens the brain, even for young people.

Gardening spurs the growth of memory-related nerves because the brain is triggered to think faster even in life situations instead of letting it lie dormant, which improves the brain’s cognitive functioning.

7. Gardening builds your self-esteem.

Do you remember how you felt when you accomplished a task?  How did you think?

Relate that to gardening and imagine what it feels like to harvest the fully grown plants you planted as seeds.

Relating with nature and transforming a seed into a plant can change your perspective about life.

You take up the challenges you face head-on instead of backing down from them. As a result, you discover your abilities in a place where you are confident in who you are, and no one can tell you otherwise.

8. Gardening improves your hand strength and coordination

Digging, planting, and pulling weeds keep your hand tight and firm, giving you a powerful grip essential for everyday tasks like carrying children and opening jars.

9. Gardening is a boost for Vitamin D.

Exposure to sunlight gives you a healthy dose of Vitamin D, which increases your calcium levels good for strong bones and the immune system.

It thus decreases possibilities of diseases like Osteoporosis because you have solid and stable bones (even from the exercise)

10. Gardening can be your family bonding session.

Early exposure to dirt has the health benefits of reducing allergies and stimulating auto-immunity to diseases suitable for children.

Take your family out to your backyard garden tend to your crops together as you bond and spend quality time together.

Cautions to heed while gardening.

You cannot talk of the health benefits of gardening when you are not taking precautions to stay healthy in the process of gardening.

Here are a few tips to protect yourself from injury and harm to reap the most health benefits from gardening.

  • Stretch your body before, during, and after gardening so you don’t experience muscle pulls.
  • Take regular breaks and change positions so you don’t strain yourself
  • Drink plenty of water to keep hydrated
  • Store garden tools safely to avoid accidents
  • Follow safety instructions when mixing sprays or fertilizers
  • Ensure to wear personal protective gear like gumboots, gloves, shades, long clothing to protect yourself from injury.
  • Protect your skin from cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. You can use sunscreen, cover as much skin as possible in long aerated fabric, wear sunglasses and hats.

Final Thoughts on Health Benefits of Gardening

Gardening for health reasons starts with keeping your garden as organic as possible.

Our Organic Super Soil contains all the organic nutrients and vitamins your plants need.

Grow what you can eat and ensure to wash everything you pick before eating it.

Not all flowers in your garden are edible. Some are toxic, so know what is in your garden.

Only eat flowers that are organically grown and free from pesticides in salads.