How does gardening support your health?
Gardening can:
1. Gardening Helps Manage Weight
Gardening activities like digging, weeding, raking, and shoveling engage your upper body—especially your hands and forearms. Meanwhile, hauling supplies, squatting to tend to plants, and pushing a wheelbarrow activate your legs and core.
2. Gardening Encourages Healthier Eating
When your backyard (or balcony or community) vegetable garden provides ingredients, you might be more likely to cook with them. Which is to say, growing your own fresh produce makes it easier—and more exciting—to eat whole foods that support overall health and weight management.
3. Gardening Can Boost Mental Health
Spending time in your garden can be a powerful tool for mental well-being. Research has found that sun exposure helps increase Vitamin D levels, which can support mood and cognitive function. Just don't forget to apply sunscreen and wear a hat (even when it's overcast).
Plus, having a hobby you genuinely enjoy and seeing plants thrive thanks to your hard work can be incredibly rewarding and even boost confidence and self-esteem
4. Gardening Connects you with Nature
There's growing research in a field called green care, which explores how spending time in nature benefits overall health.
One of the most famous studies on these dates to the 1980s. Researchers found that hospital patients with a view of greenery recovered faster than those staring at a concrete wall.
It may sound obvious, but it highlights just how deeply nature (or lack thereof) impacts us.
Science aside, you've probably heard folks’ joke about the need to "go touch grass “a not-so-subtle reminder to step away from screens and social media and reconnect with the real world. Gardening offers a way to do that, encouraging more time outdoors, fresh air, and natural movement.
Studies suggest that spending time in nature can lower cortisol levels (that's the stress hormone), support immune function, and even improve Sleep. Plus, a little extra vitamin D from the sun helps keep bones strong by helping the body absorb calcium.
Source: Stacker Insights