National Gardening Week is coming up April 27 through May 5, and its purpose is to encourage more people to get involved with gardening. The reality is that there are so many great benefits to gardening, no one should wait to get started. Forget about the fact that people in the U.S. are too sedentary for their own good, with an unhealthy 90% of our time spent indoors. Get back to nature in the best way possible, and check out eight reasons to grab a bag of topsoil and start gardening.
1-Dirt
Dirt is cool. Every kid knows it, and gardeners know it’s one of the nicest things about gardening. Not only are there 70,000 different kinds of dirt in the U.S. alone, but get this: 1 Tablespoon of dirt contains more 7 billion organisms—more than the number of people on the earth! Probably the best thing about soil, though, is that 95% of all food that we eat comes from the soil.
2-Putting your Hands in Dirt
Sticking your hands in soil while you’re gardening literally makes you feel good, and there’s science behind that fact. Inflammation is relieved by touching soil, according to an article from Neuroscience magazine. But even if you don’t have a condition like arthritis relieved by dirt, it still makes you feel good to get your hands dirty in soil.
3-Cool Gadgets
One reason you may not be keen on the idea of gardening is that you have a fear of spiders. No problem because when you grab your spade and other gardening supplies, you can also bring a spider catcher to the garden. These are cool tools that allow you to catch a spider without getting close to it at all.
4-Smart Gardening Technology
Do you have a tendency to neglect plants, causing you to shy away from gardening? If you want some assurance you’ll be successful with your garden, you can get the Flowering App and a gizmo that comes with it. You stick this little device in the soil near a plant. The little tool will send a message to your phone if the plant needs water or fertilization.
5-Burnt Calories
If you don’t like going to the gym, no worries. You can burn up to 330 calories in one hour doing light yard and gardening work. It’s a lot more fun to work in a garden plus you could lose weight. That’s a win-win situation.
6-Strong Bones
Osteoporosis is a condition that weakens the bones, and it’s fairly common among the elderly. If you get involved in gardening, the likelihood that you’ll develop osteoporosis is decreased. While your old friends are falling and breaking their hips, you can visit them in the hospital with a bouquet of flowers from your garden.
7-Free Vases of Flowers
If you have a flower garden, you can enjoy fresh flowers daily in your home as well as your yard without having to pay an arm and a leg to a florist. Being around flowers indoors and outdoors helps to reduce stress and helps you remember to stop and smell the annuals and perennials.
8-Growing Stuff
There’s nothing quite like the experience of watching a plant grow, especially if you cultivate it starting at the seed stage. When you plant a row of seeds and then later eat all sorts of vegetables and fruits that you grew yourself, it’s awesome. Saves money on groceries, too.
Get your Gardening On!
It counts to garden, even if you have no option but to create a garden in pottery instead of directly on the ground. No need to let anything stop you since there’s plenty of dirt and sun to go around. What will you plant in your garden?
