Plant Care Is Self-Care: How Gardening Improves Your Health

Working our way through the pandemic for over a year now, many of us have developed unique ways of coping with the current crisis. Some turn to learning new hobbies, some lean more to their pet companions, and others turn to nature. All of these are beneficial in their way as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to healing and survival. Therefore, if gardening is your happy place, you know how nature's seasonal transitions lead to gorgeous hues and scents that drift through the air, enchanting anyone with its beauty and health benefits.

Of course, you are free to include various things in your garden to foster feelings of connection, reflect your personality, and make it your happy place. So if you want to grow a vegetable garden, focus more on perennial plants, or look into adding a bit of both with garden ornaments to give your outdoor space a year-round appeal, make sure to communicate this well with a professional landscaper.

It can aid in the body's disease-fighting capabilities.

The truth is, plants have a lot more in common with people than we think. For instance, your body can photosynthesize, much as how plants create their nourishment from sunlight. This means that our skin can produce vitamin D, essential in keeping our bones strong and healthy. According to studies, spending at least 15 to 30 minutes outside with at least 40% skin exposure to the sun can already help our bodies produce the much-needed vitamins to supply our bodies. Furthermore, this can also help lessen deadly diseases such as breast and colorectal cancer.

It increases strength, improves sleep, and aids weight management.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gardening is considered a form of exercise. For instance, if you allocate a day in your garden to move pots, rake leaves, and cut grass, it can already help you burn stubborn and unwanted fats while also strengthening your muscles and engaging your core. In addition, shoveling, chopping, and digging around your garden is considered a moderate activity equal to one gym session, thus helping stretch your glutes, hamstrings, and joints.

Furthermore, physical exercise associated with gardening has been shown to aid in having a good amount of sleep and balance both childhood and aging weight issues. Having adequate rest can help lower the risk of severe health problems, including heart diseases and diabetes, and improve overall mood.

It is a mood enhancer.

Tending a garden benefits numerous facets of our lives. For example, cleaning the garden, transferring flower pots, or watering fruit trees can already increase one's feel-good hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. These help the body combat stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental health issues.

This is especially true for older adults living alone or those who have limited mobility and find it hard to do vigorous outdoor activities anymore, such as jogging, running some errands, aerobics, or swimming. Gardening is also a great pastime for those in the younger bracket to combat social isolation due to the pandemic.

Moreover, individuals who spend more time in nature noticed a gradual decrease in blood pressure and muscle tension, improving the overall immune system. What's more, having a space to plant in your backyard or within your community can help build connections crucial for human existence.

It serves as a memory enhancer. 

Planting vegetables, fruits, and flowers are a good workout for your body and mind. Researchers found that having a regular exercise likened to garden activities can help boost one's verbal memory and learning. This factor then helps reduce the risk of dementia in older adults.

Although there has been a long discussion among experts regarding whether gardening alone is adequate to influence cognitive abilities such as memory, a new study suggests that it can help stimulate the creation of nerve cells in your brain that are associated with memory. For instance, a 20-minute experiment incorporating horticultural tasks to dementia patients as part of their treatment found that both men and women have had high quantities of memory-associated brain neurons that can potentially benefit further treatments and cognitive functions for them.

The truth is, getting yourself dirty through cultivating a garden benefits you in all ways possible. Planting vegetables and fruits around your home can give you easy access to healthier and more budget-friendly food. Moreover, it fosters awareness of the type of flowers and seedlings people can plant depending on their climate and region. The satisfaction of having a serene outdoor space can even attract and help wildlife around your community. In general, the energy you put into your garden encourages outdoor activities, social interaction, and self-discipline, as well as beautifying your surroundings inside and out.