Life is all about balance, and when there is good balance, there is generally good mental and physical health. Maintaining a garden can go a long way toward creating harmony in your life, as working in them has been proven to greatly reduce stress levels. Gardens, and the work you do to cultivate them, offer so much more than visual beauty and bountiful harvests of grains, veggies, herbs, and flowers. They can also play a key role in improving your sense of calm and well-being.
When you plant and maintain a healthy garden, wildlife creatures are bound to take notice. Take the right steps to ensure that your efforts don’t go to waste. Many styles of deer fences are available to protect both your flourishing garden and landscape and the investment you’ve made in your priceless good health.
Stress Level Increases
Many Americans, nearly 50% in fact, have reported an increase in stress levels over the past five years. Many of whom went from suffering from moderate stress to high stress levels.
Gardening Reinforces the Immune System
While many people try to avoid getting dirt beneath their nails, spending time in the garden, digging around, and being exposed to the soil can boost your immune system because it is chockfull of human-friendly microbes. These microbes reduce stress, and cut down your risk of inflammatory disease (which include autoimmune diseases, allergies, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, coeliac disease, and many others).
Garden to Exercise
To many, gardening may seem more like a ‘spectator sport’ as what comes to mind is sitting and pulling weeds. But, in reality, gardening is a full body workout that can burn up to 300 calories an hour. All of the getting up and down, stretching, carrying heavy bags, walking, and raking can build up a real sweat. Daily gardening can build strength, endurance, and dexterity and turn a sedentary person into an active one. It has also been found to significantly lower the risk of developing dementia.
Gardening Reduces Cortisol Levels
As the primary stress hormone, cortisol increases glucose levels in the blood, and when at optimal levels, helps increases the body’s ability to repair damaged tissue. For many people, increased cortisol levels are a way of life, and it becomes necessary to find ways to lower them. By living mindfully in the garden – for example, watering seedlings, cutting a bouquet of flowers or pulling weeds, you reduce the stress – and corresponding cortisol levels in your body.
Gardening Creates a Healthier Diet
Whether you are planting fruits, vegetables, grains or herbs, there’s something to be said about fresh, organic produce and its positive effects on a nutritious diet. The act of maintaining a garden, reaping the rewards of the harvest, and taking the bounty right to the table, equates to being more in tune with your own health, and more conscientious about deepening your own strength and well-being.
Promotes a Positive Example for Children
Parents who garden with their children teach them positive habits that will last a lifetime. They are more likely to eat what is harvested from the garden (say goodbye to fights about eating broccoli) and the time spent with you is an investment in your relationship and their future self-sustainability.
Nature Heals, Naturally
Our environment has an enormous impact on our health and sense of well-being. If we choose to surround ourselves with the soothing sounds and sights of nature, we can lower our blood pressure, pulse rate, and improve our immune system. Simply by sitting in a garden, it’s possible to lower muscle tension and improve nervous and endocrine system functioning. Scientists even believe that it may have a role in reducing mortality.
Spending time outside has been significantly linked to improved mood, a psychological sense of well-being, greater sense of fulfillment and improved vitality.
Garden to be Earth-Friendly
The earth is a natural mother, giving of herself abundantly and selflessly. Gardening help the earth restore and revitalize itself, while it brings about comfort, good health, and a greater sense of daily satisfaction for those who participate. Avoiding chemical pesticides and fertilizers helps not only the soil but those who consume the harvest. Focusing on using organic compost, non-GMO seeds, and creating a mulch/compost for recycling, shows your appreciation for the earth and creates a calming sense of gratitude and abundance.
With such an extraordinary positive link between gardening and overall mental and physical health benefits, is there any doubt as to why people are claiming their own fertile green spaces? Be sure to protect not only your garden but also your well-being by installing deer fences to encourage deer and other wildlife to move to other pastures.
