Gardening is good for you!
Why garden? It’s fun. It’s a great way to spend time outdoors. You get stress relief with tomatoes throw in.
There are about as many reasons why people garden as there are gardeners. Some people take up gardening as a hobby, studying techniques and applying scientific discoveries with the fervor of a recent convert. Others were raised among gardeners. For those lucky few, to not garden is unthinkable.
Gardening Is Good for You
I remember how much I loved to garden as a child, and then how other things took my time and attention as a teenager; my friends and music (I was an avid music student, studying piano and singing with choirs). Later on in college, I had the opportunity to pursue my dreams of horse riding and ownership.
But after college, when my commute grew longer and my expenses higher and I could no longer ride as frequently as I liked, I was still able to garden. Gardening satisfied my longing to be outdoors. No matter where I lived, I gardened.
Fortunately, I had a great deal of knowledge absorbed from gardeners like my father, my grandmother, my older sister and my next door neighbor. But if you don’t have those mentors, there is still time to learn. Our motto here at Home Garden Joy is “Keep growing!” which means growing in knowledge and more.
Gardening Is Good for You: the Studies
Gardening is good for you as many studies prove. Those of us who are avid gardeners don’t need a scientific study to point out the benefits of gardening, but if you do, The Courier recently published an article listing the many health benefits of gardening and the corresponding studies to support each assertion.
Among these studies are the following proof points that gardening is good for you:
- Gardening can cut the risk of Alzheimer’s by 50% (from the Journal of Alzheimer’s research).
- The CDC classifies gardening as moderate intensity activity, which can decrease your risk of Type II diabetes and heart disease.
- Gardening improves your outlook on life and decreases the risk of depression.
- Gardening provides an outlet for creativity, self-expression, and more.
- It gives people a shared interest to talk about and if you join garden clubs, community gardeners or other programs, a social outlet, too.
All of this, and tomatoes too.
Gardening is indeed good for you!
Happy gardening. Keep growing!
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
