April 14th: Gardening Day

April 14th is Gardening Day! This is the perfect day to give a little extra love to your garden or to learn something new!

Author: Madison Frederick

National Gardening Day is a day used to celebrate gardens and people’s love of gardening. It’s an amazing activity that so many people are passionate about! There are many benefits to having a garden that you may not know, including social, physical, mental, and environmental benefits!

Social Benefits 

While some may find this surprising, gardening actually has plenty of social benefits! Like any other hobby or passion, it can allow you to connect to groups of people with similar interests. There are also community gardens, which are typically shared between and cared for by neighbors and members of that community. It can allow you to find a community that shares the same passions and interests as you!

Physical Benefits

Gardening is known to improve your health! The physical labor you do when working in a garden certainly counts as a workout. Doing aerobic exercises, like gardening, even improves your overall cardiovascular health! Since it is a typically outdoor activity, you also usually get a lot of vitamin D when doing so! Vitamin D helps our bodies better absorb calcium which leads to strong bones. Vitamin D also greatly contributes to our immune systems. Another major health benefit is that it usually motivates you to eat healthy! Incorporating the fresh fruits or vegetables you grow into your diet is a great way to ensure you are eating enough produce!

Mental Benefits

Gardening provides a variety of mental health and cognition benefits! There have even been studies done that show it can decrease the risks of dementia. Many people find being in nature to be incredibly relaxing, which makes it an excellent way to fight stress! Providing stress relief is one of the largest mental benefits. Gardening outdoors also has been shown to increase overall serotonin levels! This can be attributed to the sunshine and also the large amounts of vitamin D received. Gardening can be an effective way to boost one’s overall mood! 

Environmental Benefits

Even the Earth benefits from gardening! It does so many things for our planet, such as cleaning the air through photosynthesis or providing the soil with nutrients. It promotes the growth of healthy, vibrant ecosystems. These ecosystems attract birds, pollinator insects, and more into the area! It can even help reduce your carbon footprint! This is because you are able to grow your own food and skip the grocery store sometimes. The production and transportation of food emit a large amount of carbon, but with gardening, you can avoid that.

It can have such an incredibly positive impact on both the environment and us; the benefits are endless! This is the best time to get started by even planting one seed and watch it grow. 

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