7 Studies on How Garden Clubs Significantly Benefit our Mind & Body
When we grow together and care for a future harvest, our energies are benevolently invested in positive hopes for a bright future.
Bluebird Garden Club
1. Fitness BMI
Men and women who participated in a community gardening program also had significantly lower BMIs (body mass indexes) than their otherwise similar neighbors, according to a 2013 study in the American Journal of Public Health.
2. Lowers Blood Pressure
With 30 minutes of moderate-level physical activity most days of the week can prevent and lower high blood pressure. In fact, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends gardening or raking leaves for 30-45 minutes to lower blood pressure.
3. Vitamin ‘D’ Super Benefits
When you’re outdoors and your skin is exposed to the sun, it prompts your body to make vitamin D.
- Bone strength to prevent hip fractures.
- maintaining healthy bones and teeth
- protective and fights to reduce risk of flu virus
- low vitamin D increases risk of allergic sensitization
- protect against type 1 diabetes
- supporting immune, brain, and nervous system health
- regulating insulin levels and supporting diabetes management
- supporting lung function and cardiovascular health
- cancer prevention
Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may include:
- regular sickness or infection
- fatigue
- bone and back pain
- low mood
- impaired wound healing
- hair loss
- muscle pain
4. Healthy Fresh Nourishment
Besides the physical stamina you’ll increase when tending to a vegetable garden, the fresh harvest of veggies, berries and herbs facilitates a healthier diet. Dietary Guidelines suggests at least 2 cups of vegetables and 1½ cups of fruits per day to reduce risk of chronic disease. However, only 1 in 10 Americans adults meet those recommendations, according to the CDC.
5. Horticultural Therapy
Gardening is a form of horticultural therapy shown to reduce PTSD depression and anxiety, according to a 2017 meta-analysis in Preventive Medicine Reports that looked at 22 different case studies.
6. Uplifting Community Friendships
People who work, learn, share and care together in community garden clubs have significantly better self-esteem, positive energy, and stamina health compared to those who did not garden, according to a 2016 study published in Journal of Public Health.
7. Happier Lifestyle for Brighter Future
When we grow together this caring for the future harvest is a benevolent investment in a brighter future. Caring for and growing plants may also help boost outlook. The 2017 meta-analysis links gardening with increases in quality of life.
“The thing about gardening is that you have to have faith in the future,” Fried says. “Growing something green, something real, something alive, is a hopeful thing to do.” Garden clubs uplift our perspective with care, empathy and goodness when we work together for a happy future.
Bluebird Garden Club 