Gardening for Health and Wellbeing: The Benefits of Plant Parenthood

Aside from exercising regularly and eating healthy, there are a number of activities that can improve your overall health. And one that’s becoming increasingly popular is home gardening for health and wellbeing.

Other than beautifying your backyard, gardening also plays an important role in keeping your mind and body in good shape. A lot of people have turned to gardening health and wellbeing  during the COVID-19 to help ease their stress and worries. Read on to learn more about gardening for health and wellbeing.

Gardening for health and wellbeing

Since the pandemic began, staying home has been one of the best ways to control the spread of the virus. But being in home isolation for months can cause stress, frustration, and loneliness.

To cope, a lot of people have found gardening as one of the best ways to spend their time, and refocus their energies.

Aside from planting succulents and other aesthetically pleasing plants indoors, urban gardening has also gained popularity during community quarantine. This is because more people have become aware of the importance of saving and becoming more self-sufficient.

In the Philippines, urban gardening has become a popular way to create alternative sources of ingredients. And so a lot of people, even in cities, have geared towards planting fruits and vegetables in their backyards, balconies, and patios.

With this, the Department of Agriculture promotes Plant, Plant, Plant program, which encourages every Filipino to grow their food and lessen their worries about food supply during the pandemic.

The benefits of gardening for health and wellbeing

People use gardening for health and wellbeing during these trying times, since it helps preserve their mental health. But aside from its positive effects on stress management, gardening can do more for our health. Here’s how.

Gardening serves as your daily dose of exercise

As a form of exercise, gardening encourages you to move around, use your muscles, and stretch your body by digging, walking, bending, mowing, and raking.

Even if you’re stuck at home, you can continue being active through gardening. Thus, gardening can also reduce the risk of obesity.

Gardening improves and preserves your mental health

Other than its physical benefits, gardening also enhances and maintains a person’s mental health. Seeing greenery makes you more calm and relaxed, thus reducing stress, anxiety, and depression.

Also, gardening signals your body to release more happy hormones like dopamine and serotonin, which makes you feel positive emotions and alleviate discomfort and loneliness.

Gardening promotes healthy eating habits

Since you grow your food in your backyard, it is much easier for you to access healthier food choices that you can include in your diet.

Gardening helps people dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia

According to studies, gardening helps alleviate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia, such as agitation and mood changes. Some identified benefits for them are receiving stimulation, being present, and developing relationships.

Other studies have found that gardening lowers the risk of dementia by 36%.

Other benefits

According to a study about gardening for health and wellbeing, gardening also:

• Helps people who are recovering from surgeries and other medical treatments.
• Improves social interaction. For instance, gardening allows people to interact during the activity, or converse about it.
• Reduces the occurrence of self-harm in those who are dealing with mental health problems.
• Improves different mental skills such as memory, alertness, and cognition.
• Helps people overcome their difficulties with drug and alcohol dependency. Gardening can provide a recreational activity as well as a sense of community for people with substance abuse disorders.

Benefits of Air Purifying Plants

Tips for gardening

If you are considering gardening for health and wellbeing, these tips can make your quarantine gardening successful:

• Think of what to plant. Do you want flowers? A tree? Or fresh produce like vegetables and fruits? Some of the easiest plants to grow are snake plants, spider plants, tomatoes, lettuce, basil, and thyme.
• Make sure to stay consistent with your gardening schedule. Allot a specific time in your day for gardening.
• Start with a small area. But, expanding your garden will be more useful as you can explore in growing more varieties of plants.
• Do your research. Gardening takes a preparation and research, such as what type of soil to use and what plants or seeds that could thrive in particular soil.
• Know that each plants needs are different. Make sure to learn about the right way of watering plants as well as the amount of sunlight they need to thrive.

You might find gardening challenging at first, but with patience and learning, you will soon master the craft. You may also consider journaling about your gardening experience and how you feel about gardening.

Key takeaways

Gardening is an enjoyable activity for people of all ages and walks of life.

During the pandemic, gardening for health and wellbeing may help you with your daily struggles, as it helps ease your worries about the current state of the world.

Gardening teaches people lots of things, such as patience as well as a sense of responsibility, both of which are valuable traits in order to live a healthy and happier life.

Learn more about Stress Management here.