A vegetable garden can improve your health. A beautiful flower garden can improve the look of your home. But the mere act of planting and tending a garden can improve the way you look at things. After a few hours spent planting, weeding or pruning, most people have a more positive outlook, despite suffering a few muscle aches or maybe feeling tired. It’s a good tired, after all. A tired born of having accomplished something. A tired born of being in touch with nature.
The benefits of time spent outdoors in a garden are many.
Stress melts away in a garden. Whether it’s the fresh air or the sun or the birdsong or just the physical activity, studies have shown that gardening is one of the best ways to reduce stress. Go into a garden feeling a little tense, and a few whacks at a weed or clips to an unruly shrub will take care of any minor aggressions you’re feeling. Don’t take it out on your family, take it out on a weed, in other words.
Gardening can help overcome loneliness. Especially now, when so many of us have to work from home and avoid socializing to reduce the spread of COVID-19, gardening can be therapeutic. Being outside in the fresh air, stretching those winter-stiffened muscles behind a rake or shovel, and reconnecting with other gardening neighbors, albeit from a safe 6-foot distance across the fence, can make you realize you’re not in this alone.
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