Gardening Tips To Improve Your Health

Gardening is not limited to making your house good (even though your home always needs curb appeal). Scientific research shows that caring for plants is one of the ways to improve your well-being. Interacting with flora is also a good way to improve your mood and mental health, just as physical exercise improves blood pressure levels and ensures a healthy weight.

Get ready to roll up your sleeves and start digging this spring/summer season and get the following benefits;

1. Burning a lot of calories

Gardening is considered an exercise because all the energy used to plant and take care of the plants is equivalent to moderate-intensity exercise. Did you know that you can burn more than 300 calories when gardening for one hour or doing yard work? That is more than you would burn when walking at a moderate pace for an hour.

2. The outside sun is good for your bones

According to Natural Therapies Practitioner Sally Austin, “When you spend some time outside in the sun, your body prompts the skin to naturally produce vitamin D, which is very important for so many body functions.” The same vitamin is found in fish and foods like milk, which aid the body in absorbing calcium. You use calcium to strengthen the bones. It is advisable to get some good sunscreen when working outdoors in your garden.

3. Growing your food means that you will eat healthier

You promote good health by eating fresh and healthy produce from your garden. Healthy foods combined with the physical exercise you will get from working in the garden are a great way to stay in shape and keep chronic diseases at bay. 

4. Gardening is good for stress relief.

Mental Health Therapist Sandra Ryan knows the benefits for her clients, “Research shows that gardening is a good way to relieve some of the symptoms of depression and anxiety.” Some hospitals use activities like planting and arranging flowers as a way to rehabilitate patients that are recovering from issues like strokes, surgeries, injuries, and so on.

Experts from a Sydney Detox Centre know that gardening is a good way to teach a new skill and restore confidence, “it gives a person control when they may be feeling out of control in other areas of their life.” People with these conditions often feel helpless, and any activity they have control over, no matter how small, is productive.