Health Benefits of Gardening

Do you love to garden? It can be a lot of fun to fill your yard with flowers, or to fill your fridge with homegrown fruits and veggies! But did you know that gardening is also great for your health? If you don’t already garden but are considering it, you may want to start after you read about The Health Benefits of Gardening!

The Health Benefits of Gardening

1. Increased Vitamin D Intake

Vitamin D, the vitamin you get from the sun, is critical to your well-being. Not only does it help keep you healthy, but it also helps keep you happy. Unfortunately, many of us spend most of our lives indoors nowadays. Luckily, one of the health benefits of gardening is increased vitamin D intake! Even with a hat and long sleeves on, you’ll be soaking up the sun. 10 minutes without sunscreen is a good number to shoot for. Just make sure to put sunscreen on after that, and don’t stay out in the sun for too long.

2. Better Cardiovascular Health

If you want to exercise the natural way, start gardening! Farmers centuries ago didn’t have to plan to head to the gym. They got a good full-body workout every day just working the farm. While your backyard garden likely doesn’t require as much effort as a full farm, it does require digging, lifting, maybe even pickaxing. Do that on a decently warm day, and you’ll be sweating and breathing heavy in no time! As a result, gardening frequently benefits your cardiovascular system, reducing your chance of having a heart attack.

3. Improved Brain Health

Gardening isn’t just a physical activity, it’s a mental one, too. That’s why one of the health benefits of gardening is better brain health. In fact, studies have found that gardening every day can reduce your risk of developing dementia by around 40%. That’s an impressive number for such a simple activity! You have to think about what to plant, where to plant it, how to care for it, and when to harvest it (if you’re growing food). That means some good low-stress critical thinking!

4. Lower Stress

While a little stress is okay, a lot of stress is bad. It can affect you physically and mentally, and even make you sick! So that’s why it’s great that gardening is such a relaxing activity. Between the anti-stress properties of sun, fresh air, and exercise, gardening also helps reduce your stress by surrounding you with a calm atmosphere. If you’re growing flowers, you get the added sights and smells of your plants. And if you’re growing fruits or veggies, you get the happiness and pride that comes from growing your own food.

5. Improved Manual Dexterity

Another of the many health benefits of gardening is that it’s great for your manual dexterity! That’s because gardening makes so much use of your hands. Between snipping scissors, manipulating trowels, and pulling up weeds, gardening gives your hands a workout. This is especially helpful as you age, or if you’ve had a stroke or some kind of hand injury.

Do you garden? What do you grow?

If you like this post, you may want to check out 7 Places To Find FREE Gardening Plants or When to Plant Vegetables.