BENEFITS OF GARDENING

Healthy Activity for Children

Gardening is a great chance to get children involved in nature and the outdoors. It will force them to put down the screens and pick up the shovel! Getting children involved in the planning and planting a garden gives them a chance to experience a new and healthier type of entertainment. And most importantly gives everyone a chance to be outside working together uninterrupted by the outside world. (My Granddaughters playing in our garden)

Creativity

Gardening gives you an amazing opportunity for creative freedom. You get to design a specific space that allows to fulfill your vision. If your vision is a garden full of flowers you are allowed to specifically choose what kind and what color. And if you desire to grow fruits and vegetables you are able to plant what you love to have in your kitchen. But most of all a garden is an amazing place that you created to share with your family and friends.

Stress Relief

Gardening helps you to feel calm and content. A study by researchers in the Netherlands found that gardening may reduce the stress hormone cortisol. In the study, the researchers gave two groups a difficult, stressful task. Afterward, to recover, one group gardened for 30 minutes, while the other group read indoors. Not only did the gardening group report better moods than the reading group, but they had measurably lower cortisol levels. (A reward after weeding in the garden - also another type of stress relief!)

Exercise

All the different movements needed for gardening -- bending, twisting, stretching and lifting -- work all the muscles in the body. You can easily get a good work out when you are digging holes or pulling weeds. The movements, the sights, and smells are all part of the health benefits while you tend your patch of paradise. ("Exercising" in my lavender field.)