Do you know that giving your house curb appeal is only one of the things that a garden can do?
There’s something about grooming plants that improves your health and wellbeing in a number of ways. According to many scientific researches, when you perform any form of physical exercise, you tend to notice improvements in your body weight and your blood pressure.
In fact, by growing plants and flowers, you will be enhancing both your mental health and your mood.
In the opinion of Gwen Fried, a manager of Horticulture therapy at NYU Langone’s Rusk Rehabilitation, the impact of nature on an individual’s wellness and overall health is quite huge.
The cortisol level of people tends to reduce whenever they’re in a green and calm surrounding. So, if you’re not into planting just yet, perhaps now is the time to begin.
Here are the benefits you stand to enjoy once you take up gardening as a hobby:
1. Get a Lower Blood Pressure.
Why don’t you try doing some gardening activities for about 30 minutes every day and see if you don’t notice any changes in your blood pressure?
You can reduce your high blood pressure by undertaking physical activities like gardening. In fact, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has advised people with high blood pressure to rake and do some gardening for between 30-45 minutes each day to reduce their blood pressure.
2. Gardening Relieves Stress.
Gardening also has some kind of positive effects on anxiety and depression in people.
Hospitals now treat patients and rehabilitate them through using flower arranging. This style proves very effective for treating people recovering from such health conditions as stroke.
Injured individuals can also be treated in this way. Gardening teaches you a new skill while healing you. It also proves that you have control of your wellbeing and helps you channel your strength into a profitable cause.
Nurturing living things increases self-confidence since success in growing plants means they stand a chance of achieving success in life as well.
According to Gwen, gardening provides some sought of escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life which actually winds up causing stress in people. When they go to plant, they become more relaxed as nature is soothing and calming.
3. Gardening Helps to Burns Calories.
This is one of the coolest things about gardening. Losing weight can be hard if the plan is to do vigorous amounts of exercises in the gym and adopt a new eating schedule.
However, by simply doing what you love to do–planting–for just an hour, you can get rid of around 330 calories.
The center for Disease and Control (CDC) has even discovered that gardening offers more results than you would get if you were trekking at a moderate speed for the same duration of time. People that generally take part in community gardening programs record remarkable reductions in their BMIs.
If you have a yard, you can even burn calories by mowing your lawn. Now, if you are wondering how much calories can be burnt by operating a lawnmower?
It depends on the type of mower you are using and your body weight. If using a manual hand push lawn mower (like this), a person weighed 185 lbs can burn approximately 244 calories in just 30 minutes of mowing.
4. Your Bones Too Will Benefit
Anytime your skin gets exposed to the sun, your body begins to produce vitamin D. This vitamin is what assists your body in taking in calcium.
Meanwhile, this mineral is very essential for the formation and improvement of bones in your body. However, it is still advised that you apply sunscreen anytime you want to go under the sun for more than a few minutes to avoid cancer of the skin.
5. Gardening Can Help You Socialize
Gardening alone is good, but gardening with someone else is even better. The 2016 research released in the journal of public health shows that individuals who are active in allotment gardens enjoy a rise in their self-esteem.
Apart from this, they are able to overcome mood disturbances and their general health does not suffer too. While gardening with others, you get to interact. This makes the tasks more enjoyable and you also make more friends.
Especially for those in need of horticultural therapy, working in groups can be of great benefit.
6. Growing and Eat Your Own Food
Calorie burning benefits aside, tending to your own plants, which are likely vegetables, means that one day you get to harvest them and eat them.
Because you’ll be eating fresh foods straight from your garden, you’ll be eating healthier. In addition to this, you would be saving yourself a lot of the money you would have otherwise spent on food.
It is recommended by the Dietary Guidelines that you eat nothing less than two cups of vegetables plus one and a half cups of fruits each day.
This combination nourishes the body and minimizes the risk of experiencing chronic diseases. You can also easily get used to eating vegetables and fruits since you grow them yourself.
7. Can Become A Happier Person by Gardening
Greenery improves mood, keeps you relax, and generally makes you happier. As a matter of fact, gardening has been linked with increased lifespan and life quality.
Gwen fried says growing real and living things like plants help people to become more hopeful. This changes a person’s outlook to a great extent.