12 Health Benefits of Gardening

As you look around at your house plants, you may have two questions. What are the health benefits of gardening and is it beneficial for you to take care of indoor and outdoor plants?

You will understand how plants significantly help us improve our health without us knowing it in the first place. Without further ado, here are some of the health benefits of keeping plants inside your household as well as plant cultivation.

1. Plants Make Us Happy and Reduce Stress

Studies have shown that interaction with indoor plants may reduce psychological and physiological stress, and in fact, they can have a soothing effect. Plants can also improve the mood of a person drastically. You might notice that if a person is angry or depressed, they’ll be more likely to feel bummed out in a barren

A 2007 study found a bacterium in soil called mycobacteriumvaccae that triggers the release of serotonin, which lifts the mood and reduces anxiety. The results of one research suggest that active interaction with indoor plants can reduce physiological and psychological stress. This is accomplished through suppression of sympathetic nervous system activity and diastolic blood pressure and promotion of comfortable, soothed, and natural feelings.

Caring for your plants is the perfect way to get your mind off of your exam or project deadline, while still benefiting your health. The better you take care of your plant, the better it can take care of you. Being around plants also mimics being outside in nature, which can make you feel more calm and less stressed.

In addition, a 2009 study found patients in hospital rooms with plants and flowers had lower blood pressure, higher pain tolerance, lower anxiety and lower fatigue than patients who stayed in rooms without plants. This study supports the therapeutic value of plants. [mfn] Flowering Plants Speed Post-surgery Recovery [/mfn]

10 Reasons Why You Need To Put Plants Inside Your Room

2. Plants Boosts Productivity

Productivity can be hard to come by these days, thanks in large part to the Covid-19 pandemic. Working from home, our desks have never looked less appealing. 

One experiment showed that looking at plants for 40 seconds when you are at work, boosts mood & productivity. Other says that having plants & caring for them have a remarkable effect on overall well-being. This is a must for urbanite population to bring a positive change in their not so healthy life styles, where loneliness & depression is taking a toll on many. It is high time to de-saturate home office clutter & unfold a new green space by opening our doors to nature.

“Anyone who has time for drama is not gardening enough.”

3. Plants Increase Brain Function

There are some plants that lower stress levels as well as increase the brain function and activity of the mind in a person. How this works is that usually, these plants contain essential oils and extracts that are consumed in some form which directly affects the brain and causes the brain to function rapidly.

4. Plants Provide A Sense of Accomplishment

Your Pothos or Money Plant is thriving and so your bougainvillea plant, and you could not be more proud. They’re shining in the golden sunlight and after admiring her for a minute, you grab your phone to snap some pictures. Your Instagram followers will be amazed. All the worried google searches and sleepless nights were worth it. Your baby is all grown up. You’re so happy you could cry.

5. Gardening Promotes Physical Fitness

Gardening is an art that takes hard work and effort. However, after said hard work, the pay-off is amazing. Not only do you get beautiful plants making the environment better, but you also get a better and more fit physical health due to the strenuous exercise that gardening puts you through. This is very commonly observed in today’s world.

6. Plants Promote Healing

According to a study, hospital patients with plants in their rooms demonstrated lower blood pressure and heart rate, as well as fewer instances of anxiety and fatigue. So not only do plants improve mental health, but they can have legitimate benefits for physical health and healing, too. 

7. Plants Boost Memory

It has been shown that being around with plants could also help with concentration and memory. Plants reduce anxiety and that helps in smooth functioning of brain and enhances memory.

It’s more of a repetitive process of examination when it comes to plants, with different experiences every time. Your brain retains more and keep you focused in on the task at hand. You actually promote insights & activity and take challenges.

8. Plants Boost Self-Esteem

Plants can convey to us the meaning of life. It can teach us all, the good and the bad. Keeping plants and being close to nature makes us appreciate everything making us gentle, kind and worthy.

Being a plant parent is a responsibility of providing boundless love with endless possibilities. It is just like having a child or children and raising them. There are people who have plants and trees, they grew old with them with beautiful connection throughout life. Taking care of plants can provide us with some perspective that we do have some control, and that our actions matter.

“Let’s have a garden party. Lettuce turnip the beet!”

9. Plants Improves Attention and Reaction Time

The American Journal of Public Health examines how the green or natural settings can be beneficial for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). [mfn] A Potential Natural Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence From a National Study [/mfn] Researchers found activities carried out in green settings significantly reduce symptoms of ADHD compared to other settings.

The mental fatigue can be reduced when attention capacity is restored. Nature can serve as a source of fascination which can restore the attention capacity. People bring plants indoors so they can experience nature in their workplace and therefore improving work performance.

10. Plants Boost the Immune System

In many households, the houses are located in areas that are polluted heavily in terms of air quality and environment due to the overuse of vehicles and the burning of fuel and wastes. In such areas, the level of toxins in the air is so much that the immune system of the people residing there is at extremely high risk. Due to this reason, they are more susceptible to diseases and are at a higher risk of mortality.

11. Plants Improve Air Quality

One of the biggest factors that make gardening and planting better is air purity. The air around us due to pollutants being released from different factories and even cars and other vehicles has become extremely polluted and harmful for the environment and animal life as well.

Plants produce oxygen while taking the carbon dioxide that we, as human beings, produce. Therefore, planting trees and other plants along with basic gardening in every household can greatly counteract this pollution.

12. Plants Remind us to Also Take Care of Ourselves

When you’re feeling good, chances are you’re taking good care of your plants. But if you notice your plants starting to look a little wilted, it could be an indication that you’re feeling run-down, too. 

Why It’s Healthy And Important To Treat Yourself

“Gardener’s recipe: one-part soil, two-parts water, three-parts wishful thinking.”

A Word From The Author

These were some of the significant benefits of cultivating plants in your household and interacting with plants in general. If you also have a very stressful life as many others do in today’s workaholic environment, then you should also get into the field of gardening for a mind calming and stress-reducing feeling.

With a wide variety of therapeutic plants available in the market, you’ll be able to get the best plants for your households and get the best mentally satisfactory results from nature’s best gift to humanity.

An indoor garden can be your refuge from the outside world, and for many people it is a source of great joy. Whether you live in a small apartment, or a large house, by introducing certain plants into your home, you will start to notice improvements to your health, and overall happiness.

I am not an expert plantsman or a gardener but I love taking care of small plants, indoors and outdoors. Well, sometimes I could not avoid some plants dying yet I still try my best to revive them.

“I just want to let you know that if you ever need to have a plant killed, I’m the person for that job.”

Here are some of the babies I’m currently taking care of … 🙂

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“Gardening. Cheaper than therapy (until your spouse adds up the receipts).”

I usually buy my plants from Nad Al Sheba Nursery located in Al Warsan, Dubai. They have a variety of flowering and vegetable plants on a really good price. They also have everything you need for gardening – from pots to soils, from fertilizers to planting tools.

I would love to hear from you!

Do you also love gardening? Show us your love with plants by letting us know which plants you currently have now and how you make the most out of it!

Sources:
1. Flowering Plants Speed Post-surgery Recovery
2. A Potential Natural Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Evidence From a National Study

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