There Are More Hidden Benefits to Gardening Than You Might Think
Gardening is one of the best hobbies that you can take part in. This is because of the different benefits that it can help you and your family to enjoy. Apart from the obvious ones such as helping make the environment a bit greener and enjoying more fresh food, there are other benefits of gardening that you may not have thought about. Here are a few of them that could help you make the decision to start a garden at home a lot sooner.
You Can Bond With Your Community Better
With 40 million housing units being part of Home Owner’s Association communities, you may already be united by this factor if your home is part of one. If it is, you will need to know their stance on gardening so that you don’t break any of the governing laws. If you find out that you can garden, then you may find common ground with other neighbors who may be interested in gardening themselves. Even if there are no other gardeners in your midst, you could be the first one. You may have surplus produce every harvest or so and therefore share it with your neighbors. This will give you something to bond over and you may enjoy the resulting closeness that grows between you and some of your neighbors.
You Improve Your Health
As a gardener, you will enjoy better health along with your family. This is not even simply in terms of the fact that you will have access to fresh and healthier food. Apart from this, you will also improve your activity levels when you start gardening. Between planting, pruning, weeding, and harvesting, you will get quite some amount of activity into your daily schedule. You will also enjoy the benefits of spending time outdoors, something that can boost your mood considerably. All of these factors point to better health all around, physically and mentally. This makes gardening one of the most rewarding hobbies that you can do.
You Can Enjoy a Cooler House
Adding a garden outside of your home, if done strategically, can help keep extreme temperatures in control. For the best results, do research to make sure that the placement of your garden and the plants that you grow in it is all correct. Alternatively, enlist the help of an expert to make sure that you get the exact results that you want. You could even plant flowers which you will be able to use to decorate your home and give as gifts to friends and family whenever you want to. This is an amazing consideration when you think of the fact that 88% of the people responding to a survey said that their mood changes for the better when they receive a gift of flowers.
You Live More Sustainably
Finally, planting a garden helps you live a more sustainable lifestyle. For starters, you can minimize your trips to the grocery store when you grow your own herbs and produce. You can also compost and therefore cut back on the amount of waste that your home creates. This is because the largest component of municipal solid waste is organic material. Paper and paperboard make up 27% while food and yard trimmings make up a further 28%. The compost pit that you create can also help you get natural fertilizer for your garden, making it a healthy cycle from start to finish.
These benefits of starting a garden should inspire you to start one or motivate you to work harder on the one that you have. This way, you will enjoy a greener and healthier lifestyle while inspiring children in your community to do the same when they grow up.