“Gardening is a new workout for Weight Loss beginners. It is more interesting and productive than any other physical activity.“
I remember myself as a very young child who had a keen interest in gardening. The inspiration for this was my father. He would always grow and tend to a kitchen garden. He would also grow a line of bright colored flowers. I was very fascinated by plants and trees as a young child. During school vacations and holidays I used to spend plenty of time with them. We had a big house with quite a good space for gardening. But once I asked my father to buy me pots in which I could grow some plants on my own. After a couple of days, large numbers of pots were lined up in our courtyard. I had a great time planting in them and placing them at suitable places. Those days nurseries were not very common, so most of what I planted were cuttings borrowed from here and there or even stolen.
Even after so many years, my love for home plants has not faded. Although I am a busy working woman now with a teenaged daughter, I love to spend time with my green buddies. But now, it’s not a big garden, it’s a garden in the pots as I live in inner city built up. Each and every corner of my house has pots. My family, especially my husband is bothered by them. I can’t resist myself whenever I pass by a nursery, even though finding a suitable place for the new acquirement is a tedious job sometimes. In fact, the boot of my car is always full of soil. During monsoon, when people enjoy ‘Pakoras’ with some hot ‘Chai’, I am busy shuffling my green babies to safer places, lest they get water logged and rot.
I have seen more and more people nearby, getting involved into the gardening pursuits lately, especially during the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. Although many did this to kill the time at home during lockdown, but it’s such a beautiful outcome of lockdown.
Mostly people don’t take gardening seriously and consider it as once in a while type of activity. It has some amazing benefits for overall wellbeing. It gives the chance to be closer to the Mother Nature, to feel it and to touch it. It is a great stress reliever. Occupying yourself with it will divert your mind from the source of stress. Thus it will relieve your tension. It boosts your mood.
Gardening; may be you are doing it in a pot only, lightens up the place with beautiful landscape. You are doing your bit as a human while you are playing with soil as you are providing habitat to many small insects and worms by doing so. Many of these insects help in the maintaining the ecological balance. They are indispensable part of nature.
The green buddies beautify the place. How wonderful is it the wake up to a balcony full of plants! So you are getting a fresh and green start up to your day. The sight will keep you lively and cheerful through out day.
It is good for your health too if you are doing it outdoors. You will get Vitamin D in abundance. Modern lifestyles don’t allow us to sit outdoors, so gardening definitely provides that dose of Vitamin D. As a health care provider, I have noticed that almost 80% of the people suffer from Vitamin D deficiency as they are unable to get sun exposure.
“If you have a space for kitchen garden, I would say that you are blessed to have that.“
Also it will keep you physically active. It is a good aerobic activity and also improves your strength thus helping the heart, muscles and bones. The weight loss aspirants, who otherwise are unable to indulge themselves into the recommended physical activity, should certainly give it a try. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
It is good for your social life as well. You can create a group of people with similar interests. You can indulge into a dialogue with them discussing pesticides and sprays, manures, bug fighting sprays and other needs for plant care.
You can also exchange plant cuttings, bulbs, saplings and seeds with them. This is very suitable for the people who live alone and also for senior citizens if they have no physical signs and discomforts. Indulgence into plant care will keep them busy and happy.
If you are fortunate enough to have space for kitchen garden in your house, you can get fresh supply of fruits and vegetables. Nothing tastes better than home grown fresh and organic produce. I would say that you are blessed to have that. This is also a smart way to teach good eating habits to kids. Show them how a fruit tree bears fruit and the transformation it goes through while reaching there and also how a sapling turns into plant full of vegetables. They will be fascinated and will be encouraged to eat the fresh harvest.