Gardening is healthy for all ages, but the advantages of gardening increase with age. At the same time, physical limitations might also be increasing. If you can adapt to your limitations, you’ll still be smiling in the garden.
Any size garden is healthy. A garden can be on an acre, in an area of your backyard, at a community garden, in a planter or grow bag, a container on the patio, or a simple potted plant indoors.
Regardless the size of the garden, you’ll have exponential returns!
7 Reasons Gardening Is Healthy
There are countless benefits to growing vegetables and herbs. Consider the following reasons gardening might be a healthy option for you.
Physical Activity
People who are active feel better. Moving the body is good and gardening gives great reasons for activity. You’ll need to check on your plants and keep them watered and weeded. Reaching, bending, and stretching are all part of the experience.
Cognitive Enhancement
Gardeners need to be problem solvers and that’s good for the brain. That often requires reading books or finding online articles or videos for help. Even the most experienced green thumb might be challenged by an insect, mold, or rodent that calls for a new strategy.
Emotional Wellness
It feels good to care for something that’s alive and visibly growing. It creates a daily optimism and sense of hope in the future. The first flower on a tomato plant means more than the pretty yellow flower. The tomatoes are coming next!
Creativity and Fun
Put creativity to use with painted pots, stacked planters, varieties of rocks, decorative row markers, climbing trellises, and fencing or supports. There are no two gardens exactly alike. Let your personality shine.
Spiritual Lessons
Getting connected to plants and the soil can be a spiritual experience. Even the frustration or sadness of a dying plant reminds us that our time on earth is limited. On the other hand, a healthy plant helps us feel empowered with a sense of success and strength.
Financial Savings
Your homegrown herbs and vegetables will be money savers. For the price of a packet of seeds, you may literally have bushels of food. You’ll save gas money or delivery costs, as well.
Environmentally Friendly
Massive industrial farms cause damage to our environment with extensive use of pesticides and herbicides. Home gardening contributes to the well-being of the earth and your body, as well.
Plant Something Today!
Watching a garden grow isn’t as fast-paced as TV or the movies but it’s still surprisingly enjoyable. The flavors of freshly snipped herbs in your home are mood lifters. Cucumbers, tomatoes, and zucchinis cut from the vine and cooked the same day are indescribably delicious and can’t be compared to store-bought produce.
If you have physical limitations, you may be able to work around them by using raised garden beds or hanging pots. Arthritis sufferers can find tools specifically made with comfortable grips.
Need further encouragement? A guest writer recently submitted a beautiful essay about her 80-year-old mother-in-law setting her cane on the garden fence to pick up her hoe. You can read the story here.
Please share your thoughts in the comment box below…
Do you grow anything at home?
Have you found ways to work around any limitations as age has advanced?
Hi Kathryn! Christina from TWYS here. š Your garden is amazing! Iām trying to produce my own veggies too! A couple of questions though: Do you just put your frame on the ground, cover with newspaper, and dump in the soil? What type of soil have you found to do best? Do you buy your seeds online, at a big box store, or your local garden shop? Any particular seed brand that has been successful for you? Sorry! I guess you could do another video! Lol!
Thank you for the compliment! Yes, I set down a square, use newspaper, add bags of soil, and often plant in the same day! I don’t have a fav brand. I buy my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds and I love them!
Love your garden! Thanks for showing it to us. Do you have natural controls for insects? Do you suppose deer ate the tops of those beans in that high raised bed? My peas, beans, tomatoes and apples were all topped off by deer in a single night. I hadn’t seen so many deer this year so I didn’t use netting and put out smelly soap — now I know better.
I don’t know if Monica has had any deer problems but I know she’s had little critters nibbling her lettuce!
As for insect control, I patrol the garden twice a day looking at every plant and will immediately clip a leaf with signs of bugs. I use BT (approved for organic gardening) on my cruciferous veggies when needed!