Gardening has many benefits you may not be aware of, once you hear about these benefits you’ll want to plot the best spot for sunlight and shade, pick your produce or flowers to plant, then get to work building a beautiful and fruitful garden.
Benefits of Gardening
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced gardener, there are many benefits to be gained from spending time in the garden:
Gardening is great for burning calories
Heavy gardening is a great way to help with weight management, racking, digging, watering, mulching, and pulling weeds count as a high-intensity physical activity. Studies show just an hour in the garden can burn up to 320 calories.
Improves your mood
The flowers you plant in and around the garden will help aid your mood. The calming colors of different flowers along with the scents of the flowers can help lift your mood and you’ll find yourself smiling.
While planting and enjoying the fruits of your manual labor you feel a sense of connection, abundance, and gratitude.
While digging around in the soil has mood-boosting benefits. Research also suggests that breathing in certain soil bacteria is great for a mood boost, studies show we are no longer getting enough microorganisms that evolved alongside us. Being in this fast-paced life with cell phones, hectic schedules, and office meetings has deprived us of getting our hands dirty.
Gardening can help reduce stress and anxiety
Gardening is great for helping bust stress by reducing the levels of cortisol that are released into your body and you get extra amounts of fresh air and sunlight while helping reduce symptoms of depression.
Gardening also helps to strengthen the immune system
The friendly microbes found in dirt and soil can help your immune system by knowing which viruses to fight off essentially storing that information to help us throughout our life.
You’ll eat more vegetables and fruits
If you’ve decided to grow fruits and vegetables rather than a flower garden you’ll know exactly where the produce you are eating comes from and take pride in knowing you cultivate the crop.
Gardening can help improve your overall health and wellbeing
Helps improve your heart health reducing your risk of a stroke. You’re also decreasing the risk of osteoporosis by working the major muscle groups when you plant, weed, and dig on a regular basis.
You can lower your risk of dementia by over 30% when you garden every day. Increasing sunlight helps increase bone density, improving mood, and sleep cycles. Gardening helps to increase attention spans and gives the role of a caregiver to the plants and flowers, increasing physical activity also helps reduce injury and fall risks.
There are a number of studies that have been conducted to prove the fact that gardening is in your best interest especially if you’re looking for a lifestyle change by moving more, feeling better about your mental health, and eating more fruits and vegetables.
Gardening is therapeutic and relatively inexpensive to start and maintain so why not start one today.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced gardener, there are many benefits to be gained from spending time in the garden.
From reducing stress and anxiety to boosting your immune system, gardening can have a positive impact on all aspects of your health.
So why not start growing your own veggies, flowers, or herbs today? Your mind, body, and soul will thank you for it!
