Health Benefits to Gardening – Less Depression and Less Stress
Committing to Gardening Long Term has many Health Benefits
As a society, we’ve become more and more dependent on prescription anti-depressants to keep us on an even keel and to fight the onset of depression that comes from living a stressful life.
Depression is now a global epidemic which is being alleviated with anti-depressants containing chemicals that we’re becoming more and more dependent upon. There is another method that can work even better, but you must make a long-term commitment to it to make it work — gardening.
There are natural chemicals emitted in your brain when you’re exercising or doing something you enjoy. One of the best ways is to get your hands dirty, enjoy the outside and grow your own food.
Not only does gardening trigger the production of “happy” chemicals (serotonin and dopamine) but it also produces compounds that keep your immune system purring. Contact with soil can also provide good bacteria that are natural reducers of depression.
Today’s world consists of obsessively “clean” living and we often forget – or never knew – how good it is for us to dig (or play) in the soil. Now, it’s known that some children’s ailments such as asthma, depression and other mental disorders are directly caused from living too sterile lives.
One chemical-release from gardening is dopamine. When we harvest food or the beauty of flowers from our gardens, we experience a rush of euphoria from the “happy” chemical release in the brains.
Even the smell and touch of veggies and fruit can trigger this reaction in our brains. When we harvest what we’ve created with our own hands, it gives us a sense of satisfaction that can’t be bought.
One interesting side note about how dopamine, the natural chemical released in the brain when gardening, can help the biological reaction experienced in certain addictions.
There’s nothing like the rush of adrenalin you get when you discover the first tomato on the vine or the first, juicy strawberry ripening on the vine. If you go a step farther with your garden and can or freeze what you grow, you also experience it during times when you can’t garden by using it in recipes.
Rewards are plentiful when you garden, but none are as wonderful as the reactions you feel from creating a living thing and then enjoying it for its beauty and its natural taste and benefits for your health.
In fact, researchers have found that a person addicted to drugs feels the same reward “rush” that a gardener feels when enjoying all that nature provides in the activity of gardening.
With all the chemicals being used in big-farm produced food, it’s no wonder that we’re a nation of addicts and compulsive disorders. Whether you have a small patio space or windowsill – or acreage, gardening can play a huge part in your quest to prevent stress and live a healthful and bountiful life.
3 Types of Gardens You Can Grow to Combat Stress
Stress relief can be as close as your garden. Rather than reaching for a prescription drug or over-the-counter medication to calm your nerves, there are three types of gardens you can cultivate that will combat stress in almost any form.
Stress relief from the garden can come from flowers, a beautiful and relaxing butterfly garden or a food/herb garden so you can enjoy nature’s bounty on your table in exciting and delicious recipes.
Just the act of cultivating a garden can be a restful and peaceful experience. Getting outdoors in the warm sunshine and communing with nature by helping plants grow and provide beauty or harvest can be relaxing and a healthy way to exercise.
Flower Garden – The perfect type of garden to combat stress is the beauty of the flower garden. Let your creativeness and imagination run wild when creating a beautiful space in which you can relax and even bring some of the beauty into your home.
Grow them from seeds in flats and then plant them in containers or flower beds surrounding your home or on your patio. The rewards you get from a flower garden range from the scene of blooming flowers, the scent and the harvest for your own personal use.
Certain flowers, such as lavender (an herb) are commonly used in aromatherapy for stress relief. You can purchase the scent of lavender in soaps and lotions – or grow your own and tie up bunches to dry in your home.
Butterfly Garden. A butterfly garden not only brings beauty, but the added benefit of observing gorgeous butterflies flying from flower to flower. A properly executed butterfly garden will attract butterflies and hummingbirds, filling your garden with life and aroma.
Among the plants you can grow in your butterfly garden include lavender, azaleas and hibiscus. Also try Tropical sage, butterfly bushes, purple coneflower and bee balm to attract hummingbirds and butterflies and to fill your garden with beauty.
Food/Herb Garden. – And, for the ultimate in exercise and health, try a food garden. A food garden can bring beauty to containers or outdoor garden spaces and add healthy vegetables to your table.
Easy and fast-growing plants for your food garden include tomatoes, bell pepper, radishes, carrots and lettuce. Fresh produce from your garden tastes much better than what you can purchase from the supermarket.
Try growing your favorite herbs such as basil, oregano and parsley.
If you have a large enough garden space, try growing extra produce for canning and/or freezing. This ensures you can be enjoying your gardening efforts far into the cold winter months.
Choosing any one or all of the above garden types ensures you get needed sunshine to increase serotonin and melatonin levels in the brain. Serotonin is the “feel good” chemical and melatonin helps you get a good night’s sleep.
The fresh air you enjoy with gardening keeps you healthy and promotes cell growth and renewal in your body. After gardening, you may also find that you can focus better and enjoy a sense of physical and mental well-being.
Carve out a space in your garden for your relaxation by adding water features and other sounds of nature – plus and comfy spot to relax with a good book or maybe a glass of wine.
Get Started Today with The Gardman 4 Tier Mini Greenhouse!
If you’ve ever spent time walking in a park or a place where there are plants and flowers, then you know how much seeing and being among the beauty of nature can relax you.
Of course, not everyone has a lot of space where they can put a greenhouse in order to grow the abundance of plants that they’d like to have. If you’re someone who wants to grow plants and you’d like to have a greenhouse, there is a solution, though.
A MINI GREEN HOUSE!
You can get a mini one like the Gardman R687 4 Tier Mini Greenhouse. This model is the answer to small spaces. Even if you have a smaller than usual backyard or you just simply don’t have room in your house for a large greenhouse, this model will fit right in.
You can use it on your patio and it doesn’t take up a lot of room. Or you can put it on a wooden deck and it will even fit easily on an apartment balcony. With a greenhouse, you can use it to protect your seeds and new growth plants from the weather and other things that would stunt their growth.
You can give the plants a good start on their growth cycle. This compact greenhouse is made with a clear polyethylene covering so you can keep an eye on how well your plants are growing. It also has an easy to use zippered door to enable you to get to your plants whenever you need to. This polyethylene cover goes over the frame. The frame is tubular and made of steel.
You can put this frame together yourself and you won’t need tools to do this. When you have it together, the measurements of the greenhouse 27” long by 18” wide by 63” in height.
The greenhouse is durable and designed to be used for a number of years. Along with the steel frame and covering, the greenhouse also comes with shelves. You’ll receive a set of four 18” shelves that are suitable for holding either potted plants or trays where you’re growing seeds. If you plan to use the greenhouse in the yard, you can stake it to give it added strength for wind resistance.
You can use the ropes and metal stakes that come with it to do that. Some people do like to use the greenhouse inside when the weather gets harsh outside.
You can certainly do that if you want to and it’s your choice if you use the cover then or not. However, you should be aware that the greenhouse is not built with a floor so if you drop a plant or spill water, it will end up on your floor.
