Gardening is one fun way to exercise and also get in touch with nature. Many people don’t care much about gardening because they do not know there is much that they can benefit from it. Apart from benefiting your body, making gardening a hobby does so much for your mind.
Remember that every time you are in the garden, you get much closer to nature. The fresh air and sunlight and coolness from the plants in the garden are something that should be enjoyed by everyone, no matter your age.
When you carry out some little activities like shoveling or pruning, you are engaging in some form of exercise and exercise is well-known to improve well-being and even manage some health conditions.
The brain too enjoys it when you are out in the garden. Taking in fresh air and sunshine can make your mood better and help you relieve stress. And don’t forget the fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs that you can get from your garden.
Exercise in the Garden
Each time you are in the garden to carry out some activity, consider it as some form of exercise. Sometimes you may want to warm up a bit before you start your garden activities.
Stretching your hands, legs, and waste for about five minutes should do. Remember that there are many activities waiting for you in the garden.
Visit Your Garden Every Day
Make it a habit to be in your garden every day. Once you get used to going there, you will always want to be in the garden even if you do not carry out any activities. You don’t need to rush your garden activities.
You don’t have to spend so much of your time working in the garden. Do some little activity for about 20 minutes and then you can recline and take in the beauty and ambiance of the garden for another 20 minutes.
Moving Around Your Garden
When you carry out different activities in your garden, you will be moving different parts of your body intermittently. This is really good and healthy for your body.
When you hoe the garden or rake it, you bend a little; when you dig, you bend more, squat, or even kneel, and when you move things around the garden, you move your arms, feet, waste, and other moving parts of the body.
And you get good blood circulation all over your body. When you move things like fertilizer, you get to exert your body more and your spine, muscles, and chest all feel the impact. But you do not need to carry an excessively heavy load at once, to avoid injury to your tissues.
You can also regularly carry out activities such as digging, raking, mowing, weeding, pruning, and other interesting activities. You should try using manual implements instead of powered ones.
Planting in Your Garden
You can enjoy plenty of fruits and vegetables in your garden. You should decide on the fruits and vegetables that grow best in your climate and make your choice of the ones that you would like to plant.
You may choose to go for fruits and vegetables that are fairly easy to manage. There are easy-to-manage vegetables like cucumber, beans, squash, tomatoes lettuce, carrots, or peas. You can also grow herbs and spices like ginger, thyme, hibiscus, or turmeric.
You need to find out what plants perform well in your climate and region and plan your planting accordingly. If you are in an area that does not get much sunlight, then you should go for plants that do not require much sunlight.
Planting for Different Seasons
Every plant has a season that it performs best. You need to take note of these times, so you can plant them at the right time. Understanding your climate and environment is very crucial to successful gardening.
There are vegetables that can withstand a lot of colds while some won’t perform optimally when the weather is cold. Thus, you should take note, so you can get it right. Seasonal planting can ensure that you get enough fresh vegetables and fruits all-year-round.
You can harvest your fruits and vegetables for home use, give some to friends and neighbors, and even sell if they are in excess but it is important that you find a way of preserving some for when they go out of season.
Enjoying Your Healthy Diet of Homegrown Foods
When you harvest from your garden, you can eat many of your harvest fresh. You can have meals of fresh tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, and lettuce. You can easily put some of these together while you relax in your garden.
When you take them indoors, you can add them to your cooking like adding some turmeric and thyme to your cooking, making a glass of ginger juice, or steaming your vegetables as part of your meals.
If you are cooking homegrown foods, avoid getting them overcooked, so much of their nutrients don’t get lost. Try to eat much of them fresh to get most of their nutrients into your body.
Gardening and Your State of Mind
Gardening does not only helps the physical body but also does a lot for mental health too. As you work in your garden, you will feel a sense of satisfaction and affection for your plants.
Each time you accomplish a task, like harvesting from your garden, you feel much happiness, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment.
Working in your garden can release good hormones that will make you feel happy and peaceful. It will also help you release stress and combat mental fatigue. The affection you feel towards your plants can make you lose so much anger and tension as you watch them every day.
Gardening has also been noted to prevent dementia in older people and also improve their mental health.
Conclusion
Gardening is a great way you can keep fit, healthy, and boost your immune system. All the activities that you carry out in your garden will help in some ways to keep you healthy and fit.
You can schedule one or two activities in your garden every day and you will have something to do each time you are in the garden. Always find time to relax after your work in the garden.
The fresh air and sunshine will do you much good and there is always a sense of fulfillment and joy when you eat foods harvested from your garden.
I hope you enjoyed reading these articles and if you have any questions or something to share about these articles, please leave your comments below and I will get back to you.
Thank you so much and happy gardening.
Trevor
I think you are so right that there are some great health benefits to gardening. I certainly recall that it really helped to keep my own Father in shape, and I seem to be following in his footsteps. The points you make in this blog are highly motivational as I am just starting to really improve my own garden, now that I find working from home, saves me a lot of commuting time. Your point about stretching before working in the garden is a particularly good one. I must remember that as it is so easy to pull a muscle with all of the different movements one takes. Your point about “visiting” the garden daily is also a great discipline to follow. I will set a new resolution to do so. Thank you, I really enjoyed this article.
admin
Hi Trevor,
Thank you so much on visiting my website reading my article about great benefit in gardening. Yes, it’s a good exercise in doing a garden and even though you have no work to do in your garden, just go around the surroundings of your garden, it’s already a big pleasure and happiness you get from them. One again, thank so much about you point of view.
Joyce
jpaliskis
Hello,
Gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. I grew up in Northwest Europe; my grandma had a big vegetable garden also, apple and plum trees around the house. I used to help her take weeds out and put it into the compost box. When I moved to the US, I always wanted to have a vegetable garden. I didn’t have a lot of space for the big garden, but I still had tomato, cucumber, red beet, green onion, and dill plants.
A few years ago, I moved from the Northern to Southern states; I bought a house with a big piece of land and decided to start my garden. I began to discover what to garden in the warm winters and hot summers. (It is fun!).
You are very right, saying that gardening is a relaxing exercise for the body and mind.
admin
Hi Jpaliskis,
Thank you so much for visiting my site and reading my articles about gardening. It’s good to know about your experience of having a garden in your place that you enjoy. Yeah, it’s true also that planting is like exercising your body and mind as well. And very enjoyable.
Thanks for dropping by,
Joyce