Now that summer's here, more and more people will be grabbing their wellies to head into the great outdoors.
Gardening is great for your health because it gets you outside, moving around and in the fresh air, and brings joy when you watch your plants grow. As a result, gardening has been proven to be very beneficial for your health.
How gardening improves health
Gardening reduces stress, increases
alertness and even lowers your risk of developing serious diseases
like coronary disease and colon cancer.
Loneliness is very high in modern urban
inhabitants and this also has an impact on health. The added social
element of gardening, providing the opportunity to meet new friends,
is also essential to wellbeing because it improves our resistance to
disease.
Finding a garden in London
Gardening is also a low-cost activity
that families can enjoy together, or you can attend solo to make new
friends. It has pretty much no barriers to entry – apart from
actually finding a garden!
It can be tough to find green spaces in
the inner city, and most people won’t have a garden of their own –
unless they are very rich! However, there are many urban gardening
initiatives that welcome people to participate.
Visit farmgarden.org.uk
for a list of London-based city farms and community gardens that you
can visit and get involved!
Where your food comes from
Getting city dwellers outside and
interacting with the earth is so important. It’s especially for
children to help them understand where there food comes from, because
better education leads to increased healthiness.
Obesity and obesity-related diseases
are affecting the health of children in London and across the
country. Moderate intensity exercise like gardening is the perfect
way to tackle this rising problem.
Indoor gardens
If one of the city’s gardening
initiatives isn’t for you, perhaps there’s a sunny window ledge
in your home crying out for some plants. Growing herbs and spices
indoors is very popular right now, or even lettuces and chillies, and
this also has many of the benefits of gardening.
Growing and cooking with your own
ingredients is fabulous for health and wellbeing, and saves money
too! Plants in the home increase happiness and improve the overall
environment. Your friends and family may also appreciate being given
your homegrown produce for their own cooking.
The Mini Cooking Club runs regular cooking sessions for children aged between 7-11 including a class devoted to gardening and cooking. Head over to our website to find out more and sign up.
Image: Benjamin Combs, Unsplash
