“Life begins the day you start a garden.” This beautiful Chinese proverb really says it all for those who love to garden. April is National Gardening Month, and it’s a great time to get excited about the upcoming growing season as well as recognize the numerous benefits of growing things.
National Gardening Month has only been celebrated in recent decades. Back in April of 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared the week of April 12-18 National Gardening Week, but it wasn’t until April of 2002 that the event became an entire month-long celebration dedicated to gardening.
Gardening has a long list of benefits, including both physical and mental. According to Michigan State University Extension (MSU), gardening is associated with mental clarity and feelings of reward, and not surprisingly, there are many physical benefits as well.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that moderate-intensity level activity for 2.5 hours a week can reduce the risk for obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, depression, colon cancer, and premature death. Gardening is considered a moderate-intensity level activity by the CDC, meaning you can achieve those 2.5 hours a week by gardening. In fact, gardeners are more likely to exercise 40 to 50 minutes longer on average than those who choose activities like biking or walking.
Exercising both the arms and legs is recommended to help prevent illnesses like coronary disease, MSU says, and gardening incorporates the entire body in exercise. Gardening may even help students do better on tests. The journal “Biological Psychiatry” reports that some experts say fresh air can help prevent Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), resulting in higher test scores.
The stress-relieving benefits of gardening have also been scientifically proven. Stress leads to a number of health issues, including irritability, headaches, stomachaches, heart attacks, and worsening of pre-existing conditions in the body. An experiment published in the “Journal of Health Psychology” compared gardening to reading as stress-relieving activities. Test subjects who gardened had a more significant decrease in stress than those who read.
Scientists have begun the process of unraveling the mystery of why gardening is so good for people. Do you find that digging in the dirt helps to relieve stress and boost your mood? Researchers at the University of Bristol, U.K., discovered a group of non-pathogenic bacteria abundant in the soil increased levels of serotonin and decreased levels of anxiety in mice. The same thing could happen in humans, meaning science may help explain why gardening makes you feel good.
Vegetable gardening can help save on your food budget and promote healthy plant-based eating. In a ten-year-long study done by Burpee Seed Company, it was found that for every $1 spent on gardening items such as seed, fertilizer, etc., gardeners harvested $25 worth of produce. Scientists at the University of Missouri say growing plants helps the environment. Plants filter the air and help curb soil erosion. They lower our “carbon footprint” by removing carbon dioxide from the air as they carry out photosynthesis. Growing your own food in your own backyard means no shipping of produce over great distances, helping reduce the amount of carbon dioxide produced by trucks.
Celebrate National Gardening month this year, get out there and grow something! The many benefits are too great to ignore.
