Garden Health Benefits
Herb Garden and the Health Benefits Associated with It
The other day I was walking through a tiny herb garden out in the countryside and I smelt the fantastic smells of the plants. It gave me an awesome feeling of well-being almost like the troubles from my often stressful job had melted away. When I left I felt unusually peaceful and happy.
It turns out that I am not the only one. Herb gardens have long been known for their health benefits. English poets have been writing for centuries about the feelings of happiness they got from being in the English formal gardens. Japanese lore likewise required some sects of Zen monk to complete a garden as part of their enlightenment training and their achievement of oneness with nature.
We now know that just being in a herb garden has been linked with lowered stress, lower levels of perceived exhaustion and raised happiness. This offers proof that it has a lot of benefits, the question is why? It seems that people have a need to see natural things. A kind of aesthetic feeling rebels against too much concrete- which is unfortunately the reality that many of us face. A simple herb garden in the corner of a room has huge benefits on your feelings of happiness. This is one of the reasons that these wonderful plants have recently been growing in popularity especially growing herbs in pots.
Another is that even the smallest garden gives you a chance to use your mind. You may not think it, but even the smallest garden requires a lot of thought and knowledge. Every herb grower is like a gardener, scientist and artist, carefully combining aesthetic beauty with the optimum growth for culinary garden purposes. I even had to learn things about insects (A science known as entomology for those interested!).
The health benefits from moderate exercise have long been known too. Heart disease, proper functioning of the immune system and control of obesity are some of the many benefits. What many gardeners did not know is that herb gardening is also a form of exercise. In fact gardening in a large garden consumes as many calories as vigorous walking!
The other key thing is that eating healthy, fresh herbs is part of a healthy natural diet. The key word here is ‘natural’ as it is easy to end up introducing too much processed, artificial food into our own (And our kid’s) diet. Just the simple act of adding fresh herbs to the food we eat gives you the numerous benefits of eating healthy, alive food that is rich in minerals.
The garden health benefits are numerous. Therefore it is something worth considering if you ever get frustrated with a lack of progress or a particularly weak harvest. In fact the main benefit may not have been the destination, but rather the journey. The best part is that gardens can give you many different kinds of health benefits all of which add up to a significant improvement in the quality of our lives.
