How Gardening Can Improve Your Overall Health

This is a guest post from Marcy at Networx.

Sometimes the simplest solutions to our problems are right before our very eyes.

This is the case with gardening. If you are feeling down, stressed, overworked or need a budget-friendly outlet to increase your physical activity, then gardening is the answer for you.

With so many self-help books on the market and so many medications being prescribed for stress-related ailments, gardening provides an inexpensive and side-effect-free method for lifting your spirits and toning your muscles.

The Physical Benefits of Gardening

The type of physical activity associated with gardening and landscaping is believed to prevent health problems such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

A half-hour of light gardening is equal to a light workout that focuses on toning and body strengthening. For example, lifting two watering cans, each filled with a gallon of water, is equivalent to lifting a set of 8-pound dumbbells.

Muscles – Gardening requires the use of almost every muscle in your body. The many weight-bearing activities associated with gardening, such as carrying water to plants, pruning trees and bushes, pushing a wheelbarrow, or moving large potted plants will work to strengthen your muscles and increase your bone density. Don’t forget that your heart is a muscle and gardening helps to strengthen your heart too.

Blood Flow – Like all physical activity, gardening will help increase your blood flow and blood oxygenation.

The Mental Benefits of Gardening

The improved oxygenation levels caused by gardening contribute to the release of hormones called endorphins. The release of endorphins causes one to feel happier and less stressed than before gardening or exercising.

According to Familes.com, "A study conducted by Tennessee State University found that people who garden regularly believed that the greatest benefit they received from the act of gardening was not a yard filled with flowers and vegetables. Surprisingly, it was the significant reduction in general stress they felt in their lives."

Additionally, a study at Iowa State University concluded that gardening activities, such as digging, pruning, cutting and mulching alleviated tension levels in the body.

Researchers have also documented that people who interact with plants handle everyday stress and mental fatigue better than those who do not. (Source: Relf, D. 1996. The pyscho-social benefits of greenspaces. Grounds Maintenance. March.)

Gardening also provides a creative outlet for homeowners. The planning and creation of a landscape or garden provides an excellent brain workout.

Environmental psychologists have brought to light that gardening skills require the use of the right side of our brains. The right side of the brain is the side that is equated with stress and worries as well as creative thoughts and planning. The idea is that gardening will overpower the worrying and increase feelings of happiness.

Get your family involved in gardening, too. A happy family is a healthy family and gardening is a great way to spend time together and create a fun outlet for physical activity. Family gardening has been shown to strengthen family bonds and encourage teamwork.

Additional Health Benefits from Gardening

There are additional health benefits associated with gardening:

• Healthier Eating – Planting vegetable and fruit gardens encourages healthier eating. Those with fruit and vegetable gardens are more likely to try home-cooked recipes using their home-grown produce. Home-cooked meals are healthier (and less expensive) than eating out. Additionally, the average garden yields large quantities of vegetables. This encourages gardeners to eat greater quantities of fresh, raw vegetables than people without vegetable gardens.
• Healthier Vegetables – Home grown produce tends to be healthier because it does not contain the same amounts of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers as commercial produce. Aim to plant an organic garden, free of chemicals.
• Meeting "5 a Day" – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children and adults eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Children and adults are more likely to eat their 5-a-day quota if they personally grow crops. Additionally, there’s a higher rate of tasting new vegetables among people who grow them themselves.

Improve your well-being and challenge yourself this spring and summer to get out and garden. Whether you start with some planters for your porch or create a vegetable garden, the benefits are truly priceless.

Marcy is a blogger at Networx. She’s worked with gardeners for over a decade on ways homeowners can enhance their gardens and landscapes.

Photo by sarniebill1

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