Gardening Benefits for Your Mind and Body

Spring comes every year, and it’s the perfect time to get planting and gardening. Not only can gardening save you money, but it can also benefit your health. Spending time outdoors and working with your hands in the soil may also help support nervous system balance and reduce stress levels, which can positively influence digestion and gut health.

They don’t call it “dirt therapy” for nothing. It really can be therapeutic. Digging in the garden and harvesting what you grow can help you feel happier.

The Benefits of Gardening

• It helps relieve stress and anxiety, which in turn improves your overall health.
• Boosts your mood, helping to reduce depressive thoughts.
• It’s a form of physical exercise that helps burn calories, build muscles, and maintain a healthier weight. Planting and sowing get you moving.
• Encourages healthy eating and promotes a more balanced diet. You can enjoy your fresh vegetables. If you are not using pesticides and herbicides, you also eat cleaner fruits and vegetables.
• Being physically active outdoors also supports immune health and overall wellness, while fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs provide vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that support overall health.
• It keeps your brain healthy and boosts creativity. Being creative helps you come up with new ideas and refreshes your brain.
• Moderate sun exposure also helps support healthy vitamin D levels. Just remember your sunscreen to protect you from the sun’s harmful effects.
• You won’t have distractions like emails, texts, calls, or TV.

Tips to Create Your First Garden

Start with a small spot. You want to avoid becoming overwhelmed and doing too much at once, especially if this is your first garden.

Raised Garden Bed or In-Ground Gardening

Now that you have selected your space and its size, it’s time to determine whether you want to plant directly in the ground or add some raised garden beds. Either works, and both require work to set up. 

What Should You Plant

What are you going to plant? I love salad, so I would start with the greens and maybe an ingredient or two I like in my salad. I would also incorporate some herbs that I use for cooking, like garlic, chives, basil, rosemary, cilantro, and parsley.

Once you decide what you are going to plant, you have the option to plant seeds or purchase some small plants. Sometimes, you can even get starter plants from your neighbors who garden.

The majority of the physical activity takes place in the upkeep of watering, weeding, and harvesting. 

It’s all worth it because nothing tastes as good as fresh veggies. So enjoy the act of planting and digging in the dirt and the boost it gives you. It will affect your mind and body in many positive ways. So get into the garden; it’s one simple way to support movement, stress relief, healthy eating, and overall wellness naturally.

For more on building simple habits that support your health naturally, start with The Healthy Habits Challenge.