Gardens are beautiful. They are healthy too, including in ways you might not expect. Discover the benefits of growing plants.
6 Fantastic Health Benefits of Growing Plants
What You'll Find on This Page
The word “healthy” probably brings to mind the produce section at the grocery store, or the gym, or the doctor’s office. But take a look at your yard — it’s the healthiest place of all for you and your little ones. Get ready to get dirty, because here are six health benefits to growing a garden.
1. Gardening Keeps us Fit
Forget breaking a sweat at your local CrossFit gym. Gardening counts as moderate exercise, burning more than 300 calories an hour. That’s the average, and the calorie burn goes up the more you do. Digging around in the dirt will go a long way toward getting your kids the recommended 60 minutes of daily exercise without you having to push them to move. You’ll have a great-looking garden, a slimmer waistline, and healthier kids.
Fall is the time of year to rake and plant bulbs that will blossom in the spring. It’s also the best time to apply fertilizer and pest control. Parental tip: Use natural or organic products that won’t hurt your children or pets.
Click to read also: Organic Gardening: Do You Have an Organic Garden?
2. Growing Plants are a Serious Mood Booster
A meta-analysis of studies from around the world shows that growing plants eases depression and anxiety. There’s a positive association between gardening and mental health, and who couldn’t use a mood boost? Digging around the garden may be just the mini-vacation you need.
Gardening also improves children’s mental health. Getting dirt under their nails may be one of the calm-down activities you do with your kids. You can count on it benefiting their brains, as well as your own.
3. Gardening Helps with Hypertension
Between the physical exercise and the mood-boosting benefits of growing plants, gardening lowers your blood pressure.
4. Growing Plants Decreases Your Risk of Developing Dementia – and May Help Relieve Symptoms
Gardens are a great way for kids and grandparents to spend quality time together, and it may protect the grandparent’s brain.
Tending to a garden full of plants is shown to help relieve dementia symptoms. It can also help reduce the risk of dementia before it sets in.
Growing plants is good for the entire family.
Click to read also: How to Plant a Container Garden
5. Gardening Helps Us Get Enough Vitamin D
MostAmericans spend too much time indoors, and this can lead to a vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is crucial for kids who need it for bone development.
Growing plants means time out in the sunshine, with your body making all-natural vitamin D. Just don’t forget the sunscreen to filter out the harmful rays while your body soaks up the sunlight it needs.
6. Gardening Helps Us Eat Better
Your garden is the best locally sourced, farm-to-table food there is. Growing fruits and vegetables is a great way to eat healthier, and to get kids interested in eating more of what they’re helping to grow out in the garden. It’s super satisfying for your children to pick the veggies they grew and have a say in what they eat.
Choose fruits and veggies that you know your kids will like. Children need three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit a day. Motivate them by planting a pizza garden with tomatoes, basil, and oregano. Then, use the fruits of their labor to bake a pizza together.
Growing plants together plants the seed of a healthy lifestyle, a seed that will grow in the months and years to come. It’s a harvest your little ones will reap year after year, with habits any parent would be proud to pass on.
More Gardening Ideas for Families
Gardening activities for families to enjoy together.
Garden Book Activities for Children Everywhere
Here are some of our favorite gardening activities for kids to go along with one of my favorite pictures books, The Curious Garden.
How to Plant a Container Garden with Kids
Tips for planting a container garden – what type of garden to set up, and plants you might want to try when working with kids.
Tips for Using Recycled Materials in the Garden - Upcycled Gardening
Combine green recycling with green gardening through these fun ideas for using recycled materials in the garden.
Simple Experiments for Kids: Plants and sunlight
Did you know that plants crave sunlight so much that they will bend to follow it? Kids love this simple visual phototropism plant science experiment, and it’s one of our favorite simple experiments for kids.
Plant Biology for Kids & Garden Themed Learning Activities
A simple introduction to plant biology for kids, plus more garden-themed learning activities that pair beautifully with picture books listed in the post.
Gardening Fun for Kids
Simple ways to garden with your kids from spring through summer.
Gardening With Kids: Tips for Planting Tomatoes
Tips for planting tomatoes with kids, especially in climates where you can get surprise cold snaps in spring.
Tips for Gardening With Kids
Helpful tips for gardening with kids, plus more gardening activities for kids. These ideas work with all ages and gardens of all sizes!
Shamrock Gardens: Fun Ways to Create and Grow Clover
Clover is easy and fun to grow!
Growing Grass and Other Earth Day Learning Activities for Preschoolers
Grass is easy and fun to grow, making it the perfect preschooler science activity. This post also features other Earth Day themed learning activities for preschoolers.
Do you garden? What benefits do you see in growing plants?
Share comments and feedback below, on my Facebook page, or by tagging me on Instagram. Sign up for my newsletter to receive book recommendations, crafts, activities, and parenting tips in your inbox every week.
Carmen Dexter
Carmen Dexter is a former television journalist, mom, and teacher who enjoys growing her own organic food and recycling as much as possible.