Looking for a fun hobby to help you relax? Get outside and get to work in a garden. Gardening has a variety of benefits for your mental, physical and spiritual health. Wondering how tending to plants can help you tend to your health? Here are seven ways gardening can be good for your mind, body, and soul.
Good for the Mind
Research has shown that gardens can have a positive impact on mental health. Spending time tending to a garden can calm those with anxiety issues and help boost patients who are struggling with depression. Tending to plants is a much healthier way to maintain mental well-being without turning to unhealthy coping strategies and addiction.
Relieve Stress
We all have stress in our lives and need to find healthy ways to deal with it. Hobbies, like gardening, are a good way to relax without worrying about negative consequences to your health and well-being. Keeping yourself busy and creating something beautiful is a wonderful way to decompress after a tough day.
Connect to Nature
Nature has a way of nourishing the soul and putting our minds at ease. Getting into gardening is a simple and safe way to bond with your environment. Aside from the plants, you may find yourself marveling at the beautiful insects, birds, and animals that are attracted to your garden.
You’ll feel a part of the ecosystem and connected to other living things around you. This connection to nature can improve your health in a variety of ways.
Lift Your Spirits
Gardens can bring such immense beauty into your life. And research shows that flowers have the power to lift your mood. Brightly colored petals can energize you while more somber shades can put you at ease. Some flowers have the added benefit of fragrance as well, which can have an impact on the way you feel.
Flower Power
Finding peace in your life may be as simple as staying present. Mindfulness has a way of connecting you to each moment, making life more meaningful. As you care for the plants in your garden, you are forced to focus on the little details and stay present as you garden.
Taking in the look, feel, and smell of a flower, or the taste of an herb, will give you an appreciation of how special these little details in the world are.
Improve Your Energy Levels
Like plants, humans need sunlight to thrive. Sunlight can help lower your blood pressure and improve your sleep, among other benefits. Gardening is a great way to get in some quality time with the sun but just be sure to not overdo it.
Give yourself 15 minutes to absorb those rays and health benefits and then take a break to slather on some sunscreen. Be sure to wear a hat as well, to protect the sensitive skin on your face, scalp, and ears from getting burned.
Starting Your Garden is Simple
So many hobbies require expensive equipment or lengthy lessons, but gardening isn’t one of them. All you need to garden are a few simple tools, some dirt, and plants. You can spruce up a small space in your yard or build up some raised beds in just a few hours.
Even if you don’t have a yard, you can still get into gardening. You can create a container garden with some inexpensive supplies or a few items around your home.
If you want to boost your spiritual and mental health, gardening could be a good way to start. Getting outside and caring for plants is a guaranteed way to settle your mind, soothe stress and boost your overall well-being. So grab your garden gloves and shovel and give gardening a try!
Start Shopping for Gardening Supplies!
4 Steps to Get Your Garden Ready for Spring
After being cooped up all winter, you may be dreaming about harvesting from a lush summer garden. But before you get there, there’s a lot of work to be done to get the garden ready. Spring garden prep can be intimidating, especially if your garden beds have been left...
What Not To Compost
Composting has many excellent benefits. It allows you to recycle organic material which can then be used to help to enhance your soil. And of course, it’s an environmentally friendly way to reduce trash. But before you get started you’ll need to know what not to...
How To Build A Vegetable Garden That Is Both Tasty And Attractive
A healthy vegetable garden can provide you with hours of stress-busting, mental health-boosting fun and give you and your family healthy, organic produce to eat for months. If you have even a few square feet of yard space, planting a vegetable garden is easy and...
Using Eggs Shells In The Compost
There are many food scraps that people use in their compost. However, there is one that is often overlooked. Using egg shells in compost is not just a great way to help reduce waste but also boosts the nutrient content of the soil you are creating for your plants....
Using Egg Shells In The Garden
Once you learn how you can use egg shells in the garden you won’t just think about eggs solely as food. Their shells are a free way to add to the health of your soil and plants, but they also have quite a few other helpful benefits as well. Here are the best ways to...
Using Orange Peels In The Garden
Oranges are a healthy snack and ingredient but you’re most likely wasting one of the most beneficial parts, the peel. While we can’t eat them, using orange peels in the garden has many surprising advantages. Here are the top ways you can put your peels to work....
Can You Compost Orange Peels?
If you’ve ever wondered, "can you compost orange peels?" the answer is yes. Although there are a few things you should know when doing so. So here’s your fast guide! Composting Basics When composting, you’ll need to include a mix of both carbon and nitrogen-rich...
Using Urine As Fertilizer
While urine is waste, it also contains nutrients that our bodies can’t use. But your garden can! Using urine as fertilizer is free and as organic as it gets! Here’s what you’ll need to know when thinking about using it. There have actually been multiple studies that...
The Urine-Compost Connection
Composting is all about re-using organic materials. And like the majority of us, you probably have been flushing away one of the most natural ways of all to condition your compost. By adding urine compost can be given a huge boost and that is passed on to whatever...
Using Banana Peels In Compost
Can you put banana peels in compost? You bet you can! While bananas offer us some extremely important nutritional benefits that help us to stay healthy, their peels can be used to add to the health of your compost pile as well. Bananas are one of the most popular...
Using Banana Peels In The Garden
Bananas are both delicious and healthy. And you may have wondered after finishing your morning shake or afternoon snack whether those peels you’ve been throwing away for years could be used for other things. What can you do with banana peels? It turns out quite a lot,...
Common Gardening Injuries And How to Avoid Them
While gardening isn’t necessarily the most dangerous pastime one can think of, injuries do occur. Recent data suggests that in the US alone, over 300,000 gardening injuries occur annually. So whether you are a seasoned gardener or are just beginning, it’s important to...
Just Moved? How To Safely Transport Your Plants Into Your New Garden
It can take years of planting and care to create a magnificent garden. That’s why the prospect of relocating or moving houses can induce anxiety in gardeners. Whether you plant ornamentals, or if you grow your own vegetables, having to start over can be a daunting...
Filling Those Window Boxes: Flower Species That Thrive With Container Gardening
Those traditional window boxes overflowing with flowers may remind you of summer cottages or childhood dreams. This particular feature is one that you want at your home all year-round. Container gardening for window boxes takes a certain flair for picking out the...
Why You’ll Want To Revamp Your Garden with Artificial Grass
Installing an artificial lawn is an easy and attractive way to improve and revamp your garden. This is because an artificial lawn is like a real lawn, only much better! Artificial grass has been developed to such a high-quality standard that it looks and feels as...
The Best Grass Types For Creating A Drought Tolerant Lawn
Many of us live in dry and arid places. There are many locations around the world that unfortunately for your lawn don’t get much rain throughout the year. For people who live in these places, a green, healthy-looking lawn can seem impossible to have and maintain....
Garden Drainage: How to Avoid a Waterlogged Garden & Patio
Many locations around the world get a lot of rain. With an average of 33 inches of rain per year, this is especially true in the U.K. where it is rare for a day to pass that it is not raining somewhere. Regardless of where you live this can lead to problems with...
Easy Lawn Care? Experts Say It’s Possible With These Tips!
There's no way around it: If you want a lush lawn, you have to work for it. That entails putting in a lot of time, effort, and yes, money. And even if you are hiring experts in lawn care, you will still need to shoulder some of the responsibilities involved. That does...
Water-Wise Landscaping: Avoid Cultivating These Types Of Plants
Water is one of the primary needs of all plants. They need to receive the right amount of hydration to grow and thrive properly. You can ensure your plants get the hydration they need by watering them regularly using a garden hose or watering can, or by having a...
Starting A Vegetable Garden: Motivational Tips For Beginners
Back in the day, our ancestors did not have to go very far to buy vegetables, they just had to step out in their garden and pick up free, fresh veggies. Unfortunately, over generations, most of us have lost touch with our natural gardening instincts due to the busy...