Happy New Year! From all of us at the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH), we wish you a healthy and prosperous new year. If health resolutions are at the top of your new year’s list, we understand. Health has become an all-time important priority for most everyone. It’s why we’re particularly excited to share with you the latest NICH infographic capturing the health benefits of gardening.
Tending plants, whether indoors or out, helps our mind. Planting seeds, pruning and shaping shrubs, cutting flowers to bring indoors, or even weeding and mulching provide diversions and interest for our minds. We feel it in reduced levels of stress and anxiety and improved ability to concentrate and focus.
Tending plants, whether indoors or out, helps our body. The movements associated with gardening tasks, such as digging, planting, mulching, watering, pruning, even tying up plants, can provide daily exercise comparable to that recommended by the American Heart Association. These tasks build muscle, burn calories, and help with weight management.
The good news about gardening gets even better! Its benefits are realized even with short periods of activity. Just five minutes of gardening can improve mood! This means that, even in our fast-paced, busy lives, just about anyone can enjoy the health benefits of gardening.
So, if 2022 has you focusing on health, don’t forget about your plants! Tending them can really boost your mental and physical wellbeing.
Happy Gardening!
The National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH) is a consortium of industry leaders who are promoting the benefits and value of horticulture. NICH brings together academia, government, industry, and nonprofits to cultivate the growth and development of a healthy world through landscapes, gardens and plants — indoors and out.
