Last Updated on July 20, 2022 by Griselda M.
Gardens are lovely to behold in their naturally endowed greenery and you can feel a lot better when it’s harvest time and there are plenty of fruits staring at you for grabs. It feels good to get your hands soiled once in a while and wash them off with clean water. It is definitely one of the benefits of gardening.
A couple of times, you could involve friends and family to partake in the gardening and turn it into a fun activity. A fun activity that can ignite happiness and strengthen the love bonds in the family. Kids can be absorbed into the gardening party. They love to get dirty by default.
Assigning minor tasks to them can help them learn a few things about caring. This can also serve as a form of informal education where the kids are exposed to certain basics of gardening. Gardening is capable of adding color to your life, giving you a sense of fulfillment, and saving you some extra cash.
If you’ve been hesitating about starting your own garden, wait no more. It’s time to begin and hopefully, this article will finally get you to take a stand with gardening.
Here Are 10 Amazing Benefits of Gardening
1. Can help you burn calories!
Calories burned from gardening?… Yes! Gardening can pass for an exercise any day and substitute for it. You sweat it out with the weeds, you till, you plant, you make beds and ridges, all these are exercises that can help you burn off some calories. 1 hour spent in the garden can burn up to 330 calories off your body.
On most weekends when you have ample time, you could use gardening to replace your workout sessions. Four hours in the garden can match up to an hour in the gym. With the garden, you are reaping dual benefits; health and fruit production.
Gardening is about the last exercise you can do in futility. For one thing, if you decide to just take the weeds out, after an hour, you can glance back at your work and smirk at your little achievement.
2. Boost a healthy self-esteem
If you’ve been feeling too negative about yourself as an underachiever and that has depleted your self-esteem beyond redemption, here comes a way out. There’s a season of sowing and there’s a season of harvest. There comes this joy of fulfillment in planting a crop on a bed, watching it grow as you tend to it, and seeing it blossom as the months go by.
The height of that happiness sets in when it’s harvest time and you can reap the fruits of your garden. Looking back at the little you’ve achieved can inspire you to believe you aren’t good-for-nothing after all and that you can do greater things. When that sense of fulfillment washes over you, your self-esteem can be elevated and you can spoil yourself silly with a few drinks, brag about your harvest to friends, and take up bigger projects.
3. You get to save more
Your garden is not just meant to color your backyard green and radiate nature’s fresh scent. It’s like your small business. You plant crops and harvest them.
You could decide to sell them and keep the profits or you could use the harvests in your kitchen. From tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, and every other vegetable that your soil can permit, you save yourself the expense of going to the grocery to purchase veggies and you get to save some extra cash too. If you want to really leverage the products of your garden to spend less on vegetables, try planting vegetables you’ve noticed to be high in terms of pricing whenever you go out to shop for them.
It’s better to have them in your garden and you can think of all the money you could save from buying them at the store.
4. Relief from stress
Gardening has its health benefits too beyond working out and burning calories. According to a Dutch study where two groups of persons were assigned different tasks, the group assigned with the task of gardening after about half an hour were noticed to have gotten their cortisol levels reduced, way better than their counterparts who were assigned to another task that has to do with the mind. Cortisol is the hormone responsible for inducing stress in humans.
Gardening also helps release the hormone called endorphin which is also known as the feel-good hormone. This hormone when released in your body, helps you relax better and feel good. So if you find yourself stressed out after a long day at work, find solace with a few minutes of work in your garden.
5. Bonds family better
There’s nothing as sweet as getting the whole family involved in the affairs of your garden. For the better part of the exercise, it will be seen as fun fare. Jokes will be cracked.
People will tease and be teased and laughter will rent the air. The happiness this exercise affords the family can strengthen weakened bonds in hours. Plus the kids too.
They get a sense of belonging. A feeling of not being left out in the activities of grownups. They acquire a small sense of responsibility and a chance to be productive by getting their hands dirty in dark loamy soils.
Early exposure to dirt is even healthier for kids. A family that gardens together stays and the feeling that accompanies the harvest of the collective effort is priceless in the family.
6. Good for hand health
Aging comes with a lot of physical downsides and that is scary for the young ones who dread the idea of growing old like a plague. All your bones will start to grow weak and the muscles in your hands will gradually diminish in strength as you age. However, regular gardening can help you keep those muscles in your hands waxing stronger and stronger regardless of how old and wizened you get.
Your fingers are not left out. Equally, they will be strengthened as you age. Exercises keep the body active and you can become one of those oldies who are still handy well into their eighties.
7. Get more vitamin D
When you start gardening in the morning as the sun is rising, you are exposed to vitamin D which is good for your health. Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because it is sourced from the sun. Your body produces this vitamin as it reacts to being exposed to sunlight.
Vitamin D provides your body with more calcium for strong healthier bones and teeth. It can also regulate insulin levels, and support the immune system and the brain. It also aids the proper functioning of your lungs. Most times you can’t just help but get pissed about the scorching heat of the sun, but always remember it’s for your good.
8. Therapeutics for anger
Are you feeling enraged and you want to just rip the roof apart in frustration? While not take it out on the weeds and remember to be careful not to ruin the lives of your dear plants. Getting a shovel and digging for planting can be a good exercise to ward off pangs of anger.
You can empty all of the grief on the unwanted elements of your garden and feel better afterward instead of slamming objects to the wall that you will most certainly regret when you finally cool off and of course replace broken them. It’s a good way to channel your anger into something more productive and less destructive. Gardening is good for the mind, and emotions and healthy for every human.
There is this unique distraction that tendering to green plants affords you and makes you dump all your pain behind you. It’s one of the healthiest distractions for troubled minds.
9. Cures loneliness
Community gardening can help cure feelings of solitude. In community gardening, you engage with a lot of garden enthusiasts and newbies alike to achieve a common goal. It’s fun and another avenue to socialize while providing society with fruits and vegetables.
It could be in the form of a small project or you can join an organization for gardeners around you, whichever is the case, it cures boredom and loneliness. For the aged and retired, you can offer them this idea so they can find something meaningful to do with the rest of their numbered days instead of idling away at home. Community gardens can improve the quality of life of both the young and elderly as they become catalysts for social change, growth, and development.
10. Good for your heart
The heart is the live wire of every human and if you are still in doubt if gardening is even worth all the stress and time, then kindly close that chapter of doubts because it’s healthy for your heart. As you continue to burn down calories in the process of gardening, you enliven your heart and make it function optimally. In the process also, you limit the risk of having a heart attack and stroke.
Exercise compels the heart to pump blood faster throughout the body and in turn, keeps the heart in a good shape.
FAQs
What are the benefits of gardening?
Gardening is a popular hobby for many people. A garden can increase property value, provide a space to grow fresh produce, or just help you relax. There are many benefits to gardening that go beyond having beautiful flowers and vegetables in your yard.
Gardening has long been known to provide mental wellness. It can help you relieve stress and anxiety, and it has even been shown to improve mental health in people with depression or Alzheimer’s disease.
Also, gardening is a great hobby for physical activity. Even if you don’t have a big yard, container gardening and small garden beds allow you to grow many of the fruits and vegetables that would typically require a larger space.
One of the benefits of gardening is that you can save money on produce. You can grow many fruits and vegetables right in your own backyard, and you don’t need to buy organic produce because you know exactly what has been sprayed or fertilized on your plants.
Lastly, gardening is a great way to connect with nature. Gardening benefits your mental health, helps you stay active, and can even help teach children responsibility.
What are five benefits of growing your own home garden?
Gardening has many benefits, both for the gardener and the plants. Here are five benefits of growing your own home garden:
1. You'll get fresh, nutritious food.
When you grow your own vegetables, you know exactly where they came from and what's in them. You can also choose to grow organic vegetables, which are free of pesticides and other chemicals.
2. You'll save money.
Home gardens are a great way to save money on groceries. Even a small garden can provide enough vegetables to supplement your diet.
3. You'll get exercise.
Gardening is a great way to get some exercise, especially if you choose to grow crops that don't require a lot of weeding, such as lettuce or tomatoes.
4. You'll reduce your carbon footprint.
Home gardens may be small, but growing your own food means you won't have to truck it in from miles away. Not only does this help the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but it also supports your local economy.
5. You'll enjoy nature.
Gardening is a great way to connect with nature. Watching plants grow and thrive is a rewarding experience that can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home.
Also, when you grow your own garden, you have control over the types of plants that are grown and the quality of your produce.
What are the economic benefits of gardening?
It is estimated that home grown produce can be 20 to 100 percent less expensive than store bought fruits and veggies. Many communities have local farmer's markets where fresh produce can be purchased for reasonable prices. For example, farmer's markets are set up in New York City on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Broadway Bites , Saturdays at The Greenmarket under the Brooklyn Bridge , Sundays at Union Square Farmer's Market .
It is also estimated that the economic benefits of growing your own vegetables can save between $20 to $50 per month. That's a lot of savings over the course of a year! Gardening also has the potential to create jobs. In 2010, The National Gardening Association reported that home gardening created more than 827,000 jobs in the United States.
By growing your own fruits and vegetables, you can reduce the amount of money you spend on groceries each month. Not only that, but you can also stock up on produce when it is in season and freeze or can it for later use. This allows you to enjoy the fruits of your labor all year long!
Another economic benefit to gardening is that you can reduce the carbon footprint. Growing your own produce requires no transportation, so you are not contributing to the carbon emissions that come with transporting food long distances. Additionally, home-grown produce does not contain any of the pesticides or herbicides that are often used in commercial agriculture. Pesticides and herbicides have been linked to a variety of health problems, so by avoiding them, you are also protecting your health.
Learn more about Best Decorative Lights For Your Plants.
Tony Manhart is a passionate gardener who has been tending to gardens for over 20 years. He takes pride in creating beautiful outdoor spaces with plants, trees, and shrubs that can thrive in any environment. He loves to share his knowledge with others and has taught classes on gardening basics and advanced techniques. He is committed to sustainability, using natural and organic methods to create and maintain gardens. He also works with local organizations to create green spaces for communities. When he’s not gardening, Tony enjoys hiking, reading, and spending time with his family.
