Growing things is a time-honored tradition around the world. From the dawn of agriculture, people have been tending the land to produce crop. They did it to feed themselves, their families and communities. For as long as people have had the luxury of their own little plot of land to beautify, gardening for pleasure has been a prevalent and much-beloved pastime.
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Great authors have found solace in their gardens — J.R.R. Tolkien was, for example, a renowned lover of gardening. And even soldiers returning from war have found that tending a plot of land positively impacted their sense of well-being.
So if you haven’t yet picked up a set of grow lights, a shovel, and some tough gloves, and set about turning your garden into your own personal wonderland, what’s stopping you?
Here are a few ways in which gardening can improve your quality of life.
By giving you some exercise, fresh air, and sun exposure
A pretty shocking number of people in the current day spend the majority of their time locked indoors. They get the bare minimum of physical activity — if any. Sometimes they go days without exposure to direct sunlight or fresh air.
This is pretty devastating for overall health and happiness, as you might imagine. Experts have warned that a sedentary, indoor life correlated highly with mood disorders such as depression, not to mention with overall risk of mortality and poor health in general.
Recently, some have called sitting “the new smoking”.
Gardening is a great way of getting some time away from the constant screen-exposure of modern life. When you garden, you get vitamin D from the sun, you get fresh air, and you get a light physical workout.
By allowing you to experience the joy of nurturing and creating
Being a consumer is a major part of just about everyone’s life these days, to a greater extent than has ever been possible in the past.
And while there’s nothing wrong with doing some shopping and consuming entertainment media, it is important to find a place of balance, where you’re able to offset the time you spend consuming with spending some time in acts of creation.
Gardening allows you to get back to basics and experience the joy of nurturing and creating. You’ll feel an immense sense of fulfillment once you’ve transformed your garden from a wasteland into a beautiful landscape.
By giving you some time away from the constant noise of life
Life has a way of being really noisy and distracting. We get so caught up in the requirements of our work life, and the demands of our domestic chores, and the interpersonal dramas we may be involved in, that things can easily become too overwhelming.
Gardening provides an excellent opportunity for having some quiet, calm time away from the endless chaos of 21st Century living.
When you’re gardening, you can choose to get completely lost in the rhythm of what you’re doing, the beauty around you, and the sounds of nature. Alternatively, you could listen to an engaging audiobook as you garden.
In any case, you get a moment to catch your breath.
She has a B.S.Ed. in Secondary Education/English and a Spanish Minor. In addition, she holds a Certificates in Natural Health and Herbology from accredited programs. She pursued these natural wellness certifications due to her love for herb gardening.
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and two rescue pets a sweet toy fox terrier and a cat who showed up one day and moved into the house. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
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