Cannington Horticultural Society
Gardening and Family Wellness
"Gardening keeps you grounded"
"The calming, natural setting of a garden is the perfect backdrop for quiet thought as well as fitness walks."
Children
and parents can dig holes together to plant vegetables or
flowers, weed the garden, and water the garden to help it grow.
Gardening teaches children principles about how things grow and
develop when nurtured.
Physically, planting a garden is a great substitute for regimented exercise. Since gardening is not limited to traditional row gardens it is ideal for those with health issues and physical imitations. There is no age or disability limits for gardening. Your garden can be created in a space as small as 1'x1' or larger; it can be either ground level or raised to accommodate wheelchairs, or anyone with back problems. There are "sets" to do while weeding, double-digging a bed or using a posthole digger.
Gardening lowers blood pressure
and reduces stress and can improve both your physical and mental
health. Gardening is also a creative outlet, as it involves
planning, designing and tending. According to
www.healthstatus.com, a
150-pound person can burn 180 calories gardening for 30
minutes. Gardening for an hour can help you
achieve all three of the goals of physical activity:
strength (lifting bales of peat moss or soil), endurance (raking and
digging) and flexibility (weeding).
Mentally, planting a garden is a teaching avenue for mathematics, science, economics and the arts.
Emotionally, growing a garden will provide you with an inner peace as well as being a vehicle to explore family values. Eckhart Tolle, in Stillness Speaks, reasons that when you look at plants and perceive their stillness, you become still yourself. That experience grounds many of us, and it is one reason long-term care facilities develop gardens for residents to relax in.
Spiritually, gardening is about
creation. As you watch it mature into food and
medicine to feed your body, mind and soul, your garden will be a symbol of your life and your ability to create the future you choose.
Canada's new food guide reminds us to eat at least one dark green vegetable and one orange vegetable each day. Gardeners who grow vegetables can eat them fresh, or freeze and preserve them for future meals. And you know where they grew!
As a member of Cannington Horticultural Society you have the opportunity to obtain garden information from:
Society library
Other members
Guest speakers
Workshops and courses
Visit our website to find out more about our programme at the
Cannington Horticultural Society
Come grow with us!