As I was prepping my gardens for planting, later this week, my mind and body were buzzing with joy and excitement over the plants that were soon to arrive.

It got me to thinking about all of the amazing health benefits that owning and maintaining a garden(s) has.  I thought I would share eleven of the not so obvious health benefits!  

1. You get a vitamin D boost.  If we have learned anything over the last year or so, it is how important vitamin D is for our over health and well-being.  The majority of us are walking around with a vitamin D deficiency, so make sure that when you are gardening, you allow your skin to see a little bit of sun.  The best thing to do is allow as much skin to show, for 20 minutes per day.  

To read more about specific benefits of vitamin D, you can check out this blog post. 

2.  It’s great for your mental health and self-esteem. There is something about making things beautiful (planting flowers and gorgeous plants) or creating healthy food for you and your family that makes you feel great. Plus, have you ever noticed how simply being in the fresh air feels cleansing?   

3.  Your brain health is improved.   Studies have shown that your risk of dementia goes down up to 36% from gardening.  This is because it improves dexterity, requires the use of reasoning skills and sensory awareness.  

4.  Connecting with the Earth helps ground you.  Grounding or Earthing, literally means connecting with the Earth’s energy.  Arguably the easiest way to do this, is to literally connect with the Earth’s ground, by kicking your shoes off!  Some of the benefits of grounding are that it lowers stress and inflammation and it can even help with sleep and immunity! 

5.  It’s physical activity - you can get stronger.  Lifting, hauling, bending, pulling, etc.  You are bound to get stronger just doing what you love!  And, who doesn’t want more muscle? 

6.  It builds your empathy.  According to this study in 2009, gardening regularly can actually improve your relationships with others by making you a more compassionate, empathic, generous and community focused person.  

7.  It reduces stress.  Being out in natural, focusing on bringing life to plants and physical activity are natural stress reducers.  If you are stressed out, it is time to get one with nature!  Here are some other ways to help reduce stress.

8.  You begin to respect nature, more.   Respecting nature more has an obvious benefit of protecting the planet, because the more people who respect nature the better off we will be.  When you respect nature more, you also get to enjoy being in it more.  All of a sudden things are even more beautiful than you remembered them to be.

9.  Builds up your immune system.  - Direct contact with dirt and nature can help you build up a healthy immune system.  Not to mention, eating homegrown foods eliminates harmful toxins that can effect your immune system poorly.

10.  You can get better sleep.  Fresh air, sunlight and physical activity throughout the day can really improve your sleep.  This has so many added benefits to your health, including, building more muscle.  Your body builds muscle while you are sleeping, but only if you are actual asleep during the primetime muscle building hours of 10pm and 2am.

11.  It helps you lose weight/maintain a healthy weight.    This one of course could be a continuation of point number 5 (It is physical activity - makes you stronger.) But it can also help because when you are working with plants you are less likely to eat as many heavily processed foods, or chemically/genetically altered foods because you are providing yourself and your family fresh plant foods.   Also, I don’t know about you, but getting tons of fresh air and being outside in the warmth actually makes me want to eat lighter than I do in the winter, when it’s cold and I feel “stuck” in the house all of the time.