The concept of growing your own food in a garden is not new. For ancient humans, it was essential to have access to dependable, wholesome foods.
Vegetable gardens used to be more or less necessary. Despite having cheap and convenient access to food at grocery shops, gardening has recently become more and more popular.
According to a study, the COVID-19 pandemic increased people’s interest in gardening. More time was spent at home when people resorted to their gardens for food, stress reduction, and a connection to nature.
I’ve had a big vegetable and flower garden at my house for ten years. Watching the gardens expand and change is both challenging and rewarding for me.
Growing your own food and flowers brings a whole new level of satisfaction and joy. Some people consider gardening to be much more than just a hobby. In addition to helping you decorate your home, it also stabilizes your mood and health.
Humans and nature are interdependent. Our health is impacted by nature. We now understand how to enjoy nature thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. During this lockdown, a lot of individuals started gardening. It is always beneficial to spend time in nature each day.
It brings you great peace and satisfaction. Your physical health will improve as a result of your calm mind. Long used as havens from the stresses of life, gardens, and natural settings.
ADVANTAGES OF GARDENING
Let us now dig into the amazing advantages of gardening.
Gardening helps to enhance your mood
Have you ever engaged in gardening and enjoyed it? The majority of folks shared the same happiness.
Your anxiety may lessen and you may begin to feel less melancholy when you set aside time to work in your garden. Gardening is another activity that can be beneficial to your health because it encourages the release of endorphins, a hormone that makes individuals feel satisfied and at ease.
Additionally, being in direct sunlight can improve your mood.
Perhaps you don’t believe that you have a green thumb, but after tilling, planting, caring for, and harvesting plants, you may notice a slight change in yourself—a person who can grow things and is a little more in touch with the earth.
New jobs are always satisfying to do, and if you can develop a garden, what else is out of your reach?
Quality of life boosts after gardening
You get a sense of fulfillment after naturing and looking after the plants. You eventually lead yourself to a healthy lifestyle by opting to eat only organic and homegrown food. This sure will reduce your junk eating and save you from major lifestyle disorders.
Let’s simplify our lives. Yes, gardening is one of the simple things that can make your life much more beautiful than you might realize. The finest location to notice the minute details that are so significant is in a garden.
Encouragement of mindfulness
Mindfulness aids in focusing on the present moment and calming our minds. Many people practice yoga and meditation to develop this mindfulness. However, one of the best types of meditation that will keep you happy is gardening.
One advantage of gardening is that you may focus entirely on the activity at hand. You can lose yourself in your work and spend hours in your garden making sure everything is in good condition.
Could strengthen the immune system
You and your plants both require sunlight, just like you do. Through the process of photosynthesis, your plants create their food with the help of sunlight. By absorbing vitamin D while gardening, your skin functions in a similar manner. Your body can more easily absorb calcium with vitamin D. It supports good immunological function and strong bones.
If you’re in recovery from addiction, gardening is a useful activity.
You probably won’t be surprised to find that many addiction rehabilitation programs include working with plants because horticultural therapy has been used for thousands of years.
In one study, researchers found that plants were a successful kind of therapy because they made recovering alcoholics feel good.
In a different study, participants in addiction treatment programs had the option to engage in natural recovery, where they may select either gardening or painting as their natural therapy. Compared to those who selected art, individuals who choose gardening finished the rehab program at a higher rate and felt the experience was more gratifying.
Family and neighborhood gardens provide a sense of community
All across, community gardens, family gardens, and school gardens are sprouting. It’s possible that social connection is as important to the success of these modest neighborhood gardens as the quality of the fruit.
Students who took part in school gardens in one study recounted their experiences and took images of their work. The abilities they acquired and the connections they made, according to the students, contributed to their sense of personal well-being.
Working in a garden with others of various ages, abilities, and backgrounds is a method to increase your knowledge and network.
Gardening helps you stay strong, sleep better, and maintain a healthy weight.
Gardening is exercise, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Raking and cutting the grass are examples of light to moderate activity, whereas digging, digging, and cutting wood are examples of hard exercise.
In either case, working in a garden engages all of the body’s primary muscular groups. Anyone who has woken up sore from a day of yardwork won’t be surprised by this information.
According to studies, working in a garden can help prevent both age-related weight gain and childhood obesity through physical activity. Additionally, University of Pennsylvania researchers found that gardeners are more likely to get a full 7 hours of sleep each night.
You can experience agency and empowerment through gardening.
In the past, cultivating your own garden was a method to fight injustice and reclaim your space in a society that wasn’t always responsive to your needs.
Thousands of gardens grew up behind the barbed wire fences while Japanese Americans were forcibly interned in concentration camps in the American West. In order to restore both land and cultural identity, stone gardens, vegetable gardens, and attractive landscapes with waterfalls and ponds have all been created.
According to a study by ecofeminist author Monica White titled “Sisters of the Soil: Urban Gardening as Resistance in Detroit,” eight Black women used gardening to fight against “the social structures that have persisted in inequality in terms of access to healthy food” by “creating outdoor, living, learning, and healing spaces for themselves and for members of the community.”
These gardeners were simultaneously working to improve their own health outcomes, fighting against unresponsive corporate food providers, and fostering a sense of self-determination as they plowed abandoned land and grew crops in the middle of desolate food deserts.
- Use hand tools rather than ones driven by gas.
- Reduce the amount of water you use by using mulch, drip irrigation, and rain barrels.
- Reduce garbage and methane production through composting.
- Become a Certified Wildlife Habitat in your yard, and urge your neighbors to follow suit.
- To absorb carbon dioxide, plant trees.
As you age, gardening can help preserve your memory.
Additionally, doctors have long recognized the benefits of exercise on brain cognition. There is some disagreement over whether gardening alone is sufficient to have an impact on cognitive abilities like remembering. However, recent research suggests that engaging in gardening activities may promote the growth of memory-related brain nerves.
People receiving dementia treatment in an inpatient facility in Korea received 20-minute gardening activities from researchers there. Researchers found elevated levels of several brain nerve growth factors linked to memory in both males and females after the residents had raked and planted in vegetable gardens.
While gardening, you must take care of yourself.
Gardening has some dangers to your health and safety, as is true of practically every pastime. While you’re in the garden, the CDC advises that you take the following precautions:
- Anytime you use chemicals in the garden, pay close attention to the product instructions. If applied improperly, some insecticides, weed killers, and fertilizers can be harmful.
- Wear protective clothing such as gloves, goggles, long pants, closed-toe shoes, and other items when working with sharp objects.
- Apply sunscreen and bug spray.
- To avoid being too hot, consume plenty of water and take regular pauses in the shade.
- Keep an eye out for kids. Children may be more at risk from chemicals, sharp equipment, and the heat outside.
TAKEAWAY
The act of gardening encourages you to spend time outdoors, socialize with other gardeners, and manage your personal needs for physical activity, wholesome food, and lovely surroundings.
Your physical stamina, cardiovascular health, weight, sleep quality, and immune system are all benefited from digging, transporting, and harvesting. These are only the physiological results, though. Additionally, gardening can foster feelings of confidence, community, and calm creativity.
Getting dirty and eating healthy are excellent for you, regardless of how big or little your patch is, whether it’s a raised bed, community garden, or window box.
