Why Do People Like to Garden

I didn’t realize I liked gardening until a couple years ago. Before that, it was just something I did without much thought. I grew up watching and helping my mom garden. She taught me how to tend to flower and vegetable gardens. When I had my first house of my own, I would go out into the yard and garden. I figured this is just what people did. 

It always struck me was unusual when friends and co-workers seemed surprised when I would answer their question of “ what did you do on the weekend” with “I spent it in my garden”. It was rare if someone else responded with “me too”! Usually, their surprise led to questions about the how, what, where and why of my garden. 

I spent a lot of time thinking about why I like gardening, usually while I’m gardening, and I’ve come up with a list of why people like to garden.

Mental Benefits
There’s a meditative piece to gardening. I use the term meditate loosely, as gardening is far from a formal meditation practice. Meditation has its biggest effects when you can transfer what you’ve learned from your formal practice into your everyday life. You learn to weave the skills you’ve learned into everyday situations. Informal opportunities to practice meditation, such as through gardening strengthen your mental health. 

When you garden, your mind may wander to the millions of other things on your to do list. Focusing your thoughts on the single task you’re doing trains your mind to be present. It gives you the opportunity to recognize when other thoughts creep in so you can let go of them and refocus. 

When your mind focuses during gardening, the world around you becomes quiet and your body relaxes. This helps reduce stress, anxiety, depression and pain while increasing peace and wellness.

Physical Benefits
Gardening is physical movement. Moving your body is good for your health. You get a total-body workout when you garden. Digging, planting, weeding and watering is aerobic activity. Gardening gives the physical benefits of:

• Strengthens your bones, muscles and joint
• Improving your ability to do other daily activities
• Improving your balance
• Decreasing your chances of getting chronic conditions, such as: high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease
• Promoting longer, healthier lives

Family Benefits
When you are outside gardening, you are modelling healthy living to your children. Children like to be around you - watching, helping, and talking to you (it’s not just my children that follow me to the washroom, right?). 

Gardening is another activity for them to be doing right beside you. Children who are involved in food preparation are more likely to try new foods. They get all the same benefits from gardening as you. They also get the added benefit of learning a life skill that they’ll be able to take with them forever.

As a side bonus, children

• Learning where their food comes from
• Learn patience while they wait for the plants to grow
• Get to play outside
• Allow their imagination to go wild with all the possibilities that come with dirt and water

Food Benefits
If you plant a vegetable garden or fruit trees, you get delicious healthy food. Gardening promotes better nutrition. As there’s no ingredient list on the food you grow it can be easily digested by your body. The food you grow can be organic and pesticide free. If you’ve put the effort into growing your own fruits and vegetables, you and your family are likely to eat more of them.

Can you think of other reasons why people like to garden? Let me know in the comments below.