Why You Need To Start Gardening
Gardening is one of the healthiest hobbies you can develop as it will provide you with a ton of benefits.
Benefits of Gardening
Gardening gets you to go outside and take charge of your own need for exercise, healthy food, healthy mind and beautiful surroundings. By taking care of the garden, you actually end up taking care of yourself.
Physical exercise
Gardening might not be vigorous, but it is still a form of moderate exercise. Moreover, it uses every major muscle group in the body. You will believe it when you wake up sore the next morning.
Mental benefits
Studies show that gardening activities can be used to improve mental health by reducing stress and anxiety levels while making us feel calmer. It can even be an effective treatment for people suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s.
D vitamin
A little sunshine in the garden will do you good. Half an hour in the sun can produce between 8,000 and 50,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D in your body, depending on how much is your body covered, as well as the color of your skin.
Improved finances
Planting herbs, fruits and vegetables will save you quite a few trips to the grocery store. Additionally, specific plants can act as shade which can help you to cut your heating and cooling costs and dramatically reduce your Eversource utility costs.
Beginner Gardening Tips
Gardening might seem overwhelming when you are a beginner. But, keeping your plants looking their best and enjoying a beautiful garden don’t have to be that hard if you follow a few basic rules.
Location, location, location
Just like in real estate, a good garden is all about location. If it’s out of sight, it’ll be out of your mind. In order to enjoy the view of a beautiful garden, you need to take care of it by making it the top spot of your home.
All you need is the sun
Edible plants usually need at least six hours of daily sunshine to thrive so make sure you give it to them. Vegetables need six or more hours of sunshine and fruits will not ripen without it. But, don’t get discouraged as there are always exceptions such as lettuce that can survive in light shade.
There’s no life without water
Make sure a water source is nearby but more importantly, make sure you water your plants right and that means not too much and not too little. Ensure that water gets to the root but without applying too much of it at once. Slower watering is usually more effective, but you can never go wrong if you let the soil and plants tell you what they need.
Get the right plants
As dashing as a garden on Instagram might look like, you won’t have a garden at all if you choose plants that can’t survive in the conditions you can provide for them. Sun-loving plants need sun. Fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruits don’t need a lot of space, but some plants do so you need to make sure you can give it to them.
Use containers
Vegetable container gardening is a great way to control the soil, sun, and growing conditions of your edible plants. You can even put them on your patio. If the container is large enough, you can grow any fruit, vegetable or herb. But, you have to keep in mind that the material and color of the pot will affect how it retains moisture and heat.
Feed your plants
Besides watering your plants, you need to ensure great soil and that comes with top-notch plant food.
Takeaway – Improved physical strength, heart health, weight, sleep, and immune system are only the physical benefits of gardening. Creative calm, connection and mindfulness are only a few of the mental benefits. But, there’s even more to gardening. It gets us to be in the present moment and to appreciate how beautiful life is. So, what are you waiting for to get your hands dirty and to start planting that garden of yours?
