How Tending a Garden Nourishes the Mind, Body, and Soul
10 reasons gardening is good for you
Hello my dear readers.
National Gardening Day is next week, on the 14th.
Honestly, for me it’s a daily celebration year-round. Even in the winter, while I might not be out in my garden actively growing things or enjoying the garden, I’m most definitely planning ahead for the coming season and dreaming up new ideas and projects.
🌼If you’re not a gardener, you might be tempted to tune out right about here. But stay with me for a moment.
Because gardening - even if it’s just a single pot on a windowsill - has a way of reminding us of something deeper: that we are connected to the natural world, and that tending something living changes us in small but meaningful ways.
Whether you have acres to work with, or just a small balcony or bay window and a few pots, the case can easily be made that gardening is good for your mind, body, and soul.
So in honor of National Gardening Day, I put together 10 reasons why gardening is good for you.
Gardening for your Mind
#1 Social Connection
Gardening brings people together and creates community. Share it with your family and neighbors - whether it’s the bounty from what you’ve grown, or the process of creating that space. Social networks are the glue in life.
#2 Stress Management
Just being outside, to be honest, is known to improve your mood and reduce stress. And if you are engaged in doing something creative and fun, it will only motivate you to spend more time outside. Gardening for many is a meditative and centering activity.
#3 Satisfaction
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t feel joy and satisfaction from watching something they planted grow and thrive. Gardening lets you exercise your creative juices.
When you watch your efforts develop and your garden grow, you will build self-esteem and pleasure in a task well done.
But gardening doesn’t just help our mindset - it gets our bodies moving as well.
Gardening for your Body
#4 Fresh Air
If you are fortunate enough to have a private garden space, or even just a small balcony, working on your garden gets you outside. In the fresh air.
Sun, fresh air, and the vitamin D generated by the ultraviolet rays that also feed the plants are good for your well-being.
#5 Exercise
If it’s just a small pot or two on a windowsill, this one may not apply. But virtually any other size garden will have you moving and stretching and possibly even hauling heavy loads of soil and digging holes.
Moving is a good thing and something we should all do more of. And gardening is something you can do your entire life - even when you’re a bit stiff and getting older - with just a few modifications.
#6 Immunity Booster
We’ve probably all heard about the studies that show that early exposure to the land and gardening creates a healthier immune system. Exposure to dirt and microbes is said to reduce allergies and risks for autoimmune disorders.
So get in there and get dirty.
#7 Freshness and Flavor
If you choose to garden with culinary herbs or fruits and vegetables, you won’t believe what you’ve been missing at the grocery store.
How many times have we all heard that a fresh tomato still warm from the sun isn’t even remotely like the ones you can buy at the store?
Plus it’s budget-friendly if you grow your food from seed.
Beyond the practical benefits, gardens nourish something a little deeper as well.
Gardening for your Soul
#8 Wildlife
Gardens bring wildlife for the food and shelter that your space offers.
When you start to attract wildlife, you ultimately create a boost to the local ecosystem and can even improve the microclimate of your little corner of the world.
It’s a joy to watch birds and butterflies flourish in your garden (assuming they don’t eat your strawberries!).
#9 Environment
If you choose to garden organically, and if you are adding trees and native water-wise plants to your space, you are improving the balance in your little ecosystem and helping the larger environment.
#10 Beauty
Gardens and nature are aesthetically pleasing, and often gardens can truly be a work of art.
I often say that there is pure joy in beautiful surroundings. Create your own garden in a way that you find charming and appealing and spend time there every day just observing it - just because it’s pretty.
It’s not about how large, or productive, or perfect your garden is that matters most.
It’s simply that you take some time to explore the creative and hands-on activity of planting something and nurturing it along.
I believe it’s one of the most intimate ways to connect with this planet that we live on and the life that comes from it.
Go ahead - get your hands in the dirt.
Thanks so much for following along.
I hope you found a little motivation in one or two of these ideas. Even if you’re not new to gardening, maybe this will remind you why you fell in love with it when you first started.
Personally, I find gardening to be my truest solace. That, along with working at my glass torch in the art studio here at Juniper Hill Cottage.
With contentment & possibility,
P.S. What’s growing in your corner of the world right now? Garden beds, balcony pots, or even just a hopeful windowsill - I’d love to hear.
My husband and I love being in nature. We left 38 acres of forest in CO for 2+ acres here in Prescott.... we have granite grit for soil... so we have raised beds and pots and window boxes. We planted 21 trees... when we arrived in 2021. Lost only one. We are creating our own forest.
We are seniors in our 80s... gardens and gardening keeps us young in heart. Thank you for your wonderful posts.
Jan
Miriam, as someone who has killed a cactus and hasn't had success growing a plant since growing a carrot top in grade school, I leave the gardening/plant stuff to others. But I do love the creative way you made the case for it!