Gardening Tips to Save You Green
Any gardener, no matter how experienced, will be the first to tell you just how rewarding a hobby gardening is. No matter if they tend to a small window garden for herbs, care for some pots on their back deck, or look after an expansive, immaculately landscaped backyard garden that provides a bountiful harvest, gardening is a hobby open to all experience levels. Not only is it beginner-friendly and helps you live more sustainably, but it yields quite an impressive reward with the proper care and effort put in.
Flower, fruit, herb, and vegetable gardeners alike all reap the same benefits of their hobby, which is already uncommon enough. Not many hobbies reward you with a tangible reward for the time and effort you put in, and gardening ensures that you get quite a reward in the form of beautiful blossoms as well as food you can eat that you grew with your own two hands.
As rewarding as this is, this isn’t the only benefit that comes with gardening. If you need more convincing on why you should pick up some soil and seeds, check out the following reasons and gardening tips on why gardening is a great hobby that will also save you some money.
Health Benefits of Gardening
Aside from the gym, there aren’t many hobbies that will make you healthier and happier. Gardening, however, is considered to be moderate-level cardiovascular exercise that has been linked with burning calories and lowered blood pressure. If you garden for around an hour, you’re burning the same amount of calories that you would walking on a treadmill. For example if you need to mow your lawn, you may utilize a manual hand push mower (read buying guide) instead of any electric/automatic lawn mower
Not only are you getting in some serious exercise, you’re also doing your mind as well as your body some good. Studies have linked gardening with an increase in happiness and reduction in mood swings, and those that participate in community gardens have shown better moods and an increase in self esteem versus their peers that don’t participate.
Getting outside in the fresh air and sunshine has benefits of its own, with Vitamin D levels being known to benefit both bone growth and the health of your immune system. Gardening can do your entire body, inside and outside, a world of good!
Sustainable Options
Relying on your backyard garden for your food can help out both the health of your wallet and the size of your carbon footprint. By spending $3 on seed packets, you’re choosing to not spend that money at the grocery store—which turns into a huge investment when you harvest all of the food you plant.
Not only are you being more sustainable just by growing food, you’re also lessening the shipping costs (both financial and in terms of fossil fuels) that it takes to ship food to a grocery store.
You’re also removing the amount of pesticides and preservatives that are sprayed onto your produce, which in turn damage the soil and waters of the surrounding areas. Just by planting some tomato or lettuce seeds, you’re doing your part to live much more sustainably and be more eco-friendly.
These are just a few of the reasons behind why gardening is a good hobby for your wallet, your body, and the earth. Check out even more reasons, as well as actionable gardening tips, in this visual from Intuit Mint!
Please include attribution to https://www.mint.com/ with this graphic.
Salman Zafar is an ecopreneur, consultant, advisor, speaker and journalist with expertise in waste management, waste-to-energy, renewable energy, environment protection, conservation and sustainable development. His geographical areas of focus include Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe. Salman is the Founder of EcoMENA, a popular voluntary organization based in Qatar. He is also the Founder and CEO of BioEnergy Consult, a reputed consulting firm active in biomass, waste-to-energy and waste management segments.
Salman is a professional environmental writer with more than 350 popular articles to his credit. He is proactively engaged in creating mass environmental awareness in different parts of the world.
Salman Zafar can be reached at salman@ecomena.org or salman@bioenergyconsult.com
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