How to Use Gardening for Self-Care -

How to Use Gardening for Self-Care

Category: Landscaping, Landscape

Gardening is a fun hobby that offers a wealth of benefits for the mind and body. Not only does it provide a sense of accomplishment and connection to nature, but it also offers a unique opportunity for self-care.

Let’s explore how landscape gardening can be used as a form of self-care and provide tips and tricks for green thumbs to create their own relaxing and rejuvenating outdoor spaces.

The Benefits of Gardening for Self-Care

1.Physical benefits, such as increased physical activity and exposure to fresh air and sunlight

Work up a sweat while pulling weeds, digging out bulbs, and planting seeds. You also get plenty of fresh air that improves your lung function, boosts your immune system, and reduces stress.

Limited sun exposure helps your body produce vitamin D that keeps your bones strong and improves your mood. Always wear a hat and sunscreen, and don’t forget to drink plenty of water. Take a break in the shade after working in the garden for 30 minutes.

Landscape weeding dandelions

You’ll notice improved strength and flexibility when you regularly work out in the garden because you use different muscle groups while weeding, pruning, and harvesting.

Lower stress and anxiety with landscape gardening

2.Mental benefits, such as reduced stress, less anxiety, and improved mood

Did you know that your brain releases endorphins when you work in your garden, which lowers your anxiety levels?

Read more: 5 Great Magnolias for Your Landscaping

Scientists have found that gardening benefits your mind and soul as much as it does your body. You can practice mindfulness while working in the garden. For example, you focus on one task in the garden, such as weeding a flowerbed or planting spring bulbs along a walkway.

You’re also connecting with nature, which has a calming effect on your body and mind. Trees, flowerbeds, and other green spaces relax your mind as you work in your garden. Next time you’re in the garden, take a deep breath, absorb the surrounding view, and breathe out. Don’t you feel the stress leaving your body?

3.How gardening can provide a sense of accomplishment and a connection to nature

If you had a tough day at work, tend to your vegetable garden when you get home. How do you feel when you look at the vegetables growing, such as the corn’s tassels, the lettuces filling out, and the zinnias blossoming?

You can feel good about yourself when you’ve nurtured a garden that produces flowers, vegetables, and other plants. Weeding also gives you a sense of accomplishment when you aim to weed one flowerbed at a time.

Vegetable Gardening in your landscape

Tips for Creating a Relaxing and Rejuvenating Landscape

landscaped garden area with symmetry and flow

Choose the right plants and flowers to suit your personal preferences and environment.

While it may be fun to install plants willy-nilly, it’s better when your landscaped areas are designed with symmetry and flow. You must also follow the sacred landscaping rule by planting the right plant at the right place to ensure that your investment survives and thrives in your landscape.

For example, you don’t want to grow hostas in full sun when they thrive in partial to full shade. Likewise, you don’t want to plant coneflowers in a shady spot.

Your landscape designer can work with you to draw up a master plan. If your landscape company takes care of your property, ask your designer to create a plot where you can grow a garden. Alternatively, you can ask someone to build raised garden beds that don’t require you to step into a garden and cause soil compaction. Also, preparing raised beds is easier to grow flowers, vegetables, and herbs.

Incorporate water features, hardscapes, and outdoor lighting to create a calming atmosphere.

Whether creating a Zen garden or adding hardscape features to your landscape, realize that water and lights soothe your mood. Trickling water in a fountain or koi playfully swimming in a pond calms and entertains you simultaneously.

You can also install outdoor lighting to create moonlighting through a tree in your backyard or add soft LED lights so you can enjoy your patio in the evening.

Hardscape and outdoor patio with lighting
Sun shining brightly on garden

Planning and organizing your landscape to ensure its longevity and beauty

Again, work with a landscape designer to create a master plan with flowerbeds and gardens you can work in for self-care. Ask your landscaper to include a meditation garden, what they recommend for new gardeners, or the best plants for full-sun gardening.

How to Incorporate Self-Care into Your Garden Routine

Like everything else, you need to be purposeful in spending time in your garden. Self-care means making time for yourself. Here are three tips to get you started:

Mindful gardening tips

Block time on your calendar that’s for gardening only. Also, be present while gardening. Think about what you’re experiencing using your five senses: smell, taste, sound, sight, and touch.

Include lavender, roses, and basil in your garden to delight your senses. Pay attention to the sun’s heat on your back, taste a strawberry, listen to the birds sing, feel the loamy soil, and smell the roses.

Watch more: 3D Landscape Design – Mentzer Movie

Lavendar plant in garden
planting young lettuce seedlings

Self-care while gardening

Make sure you take water breaks and go into the shade if you get overheated. Wear sunscreen and a hat. Invest in a good pair of garden gloves that protect your hands while working in the dirt.

3. Mindful activities in the garden
Your garden shouldn’t be only where you pull weeds, prune trees, and harvest vegetables. It should be an outdoor space where you go to relax. Make sure you include a bench for reading or a quiet place for yoga. But make it your outdoor space overall.

Teenager with sun hut is chilling on a bench.

How Tomlinson Bomberger Creates a Landscape That Nurtures the Mind and Body

 

Tomlinson Bomberger offers a range of services, including lawn care, landscape, pest control, and tree care to homeowners in several Pennsylvania counties, including Berks, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York.

 If you have questions or want to learn more tap here or call our office at 717-399-1991.