Sitting in your backyard, relaxing with the sun beaming down on your face is one of life’s greatest pleasures. But if your garden’s lawn, shrubs, flowers aren’t taken care of properly, then chances are you won’t be enjoying your outside surroundings as much as you could be.
Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to let your garden become overgrown. The busyness of life takes over and maintaining a gorgeously lush backyard has to take a back seat to other important chores – at least until summer comes around!
But believe it or not, gardening is a wonderful pastime for you to be focussing on all year round. And what’s more? There’s a variety of different health benefits that come with maintaining a garden that we want to inform you of…
It’s a great stress-reliever
Being at one with nature has always been considered good for us. Gardening can be a therapeutic form of therapy. You may find your mood lifts to happier places if you potter around the garden for a little while. Get outside and breathe in some fresh air. Doing something active in natural surroundings is a great way to let off some steam and melt stress away.
It’s good for your heart
Any physical activity is good for your health and wellbeing, and gardening is a form of light-moderate exercise. Although it may not seem like strenuous work, gardening is a great subtle way for you to keep your heart healthy and your hormones regulated. There’s been plenty of research that suggests maintaining a garden significantly reduces your risk of heart disease.
It can boost your self-esteem
Nurturing your garden until you see some results can do wonders for your self-esteem. Having a long-term project or setting yourself some goals can be a fantastic way for you to focus on something for a while. You can make a visual plan for how you may want your garden to look, or you can buy some seeds for you to sit back and watch sprout into fully grown plants.
It’s a simple way to make you happy
Other research into the health benefits of gardening suggests those who do are generally much happier and contented people. Think about it this way…if you’re happy when your hands are covered in muddy soil, when else could you feel happy?
It can save you some money
Why not have your own vegetable patch? Growing your own fruits, herbs and vegetables can be an excellent way for you to save some money on your weekly shop. Plus, home-grown organic produce will taste all the better after your hard grafting.
It can maintain the health of your immune system
We all know we get Vitamin D from the sun, but exposing yourself to dirt is also thought to help maintain a healthy immune system. By working with soil, you will be coming into contact with a lot of what scientists like to call “friendly bacteria”, meaning you could be in with a better chance of fighting off the pesky cold.
There are plenty of other great health benefits that come with gardening – including an improvement of hand strength and dexterity, a reduced risk of Alzheimers, and improved sleep. So get yourself down to the local nursery garden and start your gardening journey today. Who knows what your backyard could look like when next summer comes around?
