Ever have trouble keeping those New Year’s resolutions about lowering stress, exercising more and improving diet? Gardening, in the home landscape or volunteering in public gardens, may hold the key to honoring those good intentions. In a nutshell, gardening delivers an abundance of benefits for maintaining physical and emotional well-being.

Research suggests gardening activities lower the stress response hormone cortisol and encounters with soil serve as a natural antidepressant. Perhaps sidestep a costly gym membership by working out in your own backyard. Pruning that oversized boxwood increases arm strength. Tone your muscles, by string trimming the ever-mounding grass around the bird bath. Pulling unrestrained henbit gives purpose to stretching for agility and flexibility.

Why not insert more green (herbs), yellow (squash) and purple (eggplant) nutrition into your diet, by starting a vegetable bed? If you’re needing help to fall asleep at night, a stroll in the brisk air of a native plant habitat may be the solution! Gardening may even stimulate brain activity through social encounters with pollinators. And don’t forget to take pleasure in both sunshine and rain shower, which are believed to aid with relaxation.

Online Cooperative Extension articles highlight the benefits of having positive effects on something else that is living, through acquiring a sense of achievement and taking pride in accomplishment, which are both found in the gardening environment. Therapeutic gardening further expands the discussion, when such activities are designed to assure positive health outcomes and minimize negative challenges. These techniques are often utilized in schools and care facilities with success.

Relish time in the garden and be more productive, by taking necessary precautions before launching into gardening activities! Have safety glasses handy for eye protection. A wide-brimmed hat or golf visor will minimize the risk of facial sunburn. Always hydrate before, during and after communing with the plants. Select tools designed for the task.

Protect your back and knees by bending from the knees, never the waist. Choose low maintenance landscaping for less care requirements. Avoid letting your landscape turn into wilderness, by tending to lawn and garden chores as needed. By doing so, the workload is made manageable and pleasurable.

Tending to hands, feet and skin is just as important. Proper footwear helps gardeners manage the tendency for wet feet. Hand gloves are essential protection. Gardening is like participating in sports, in that you need to choose gear appropriate to the kind of activity being practiced. Don’t forget to keep skin moisturized and protected!

Gardening can become a family bonding activity. Develop a keen botanical interest in children, by encouraging them to participate in your endeavors, whether they be planting or maintaining a garden. Doing so, will prepare them for future landscaping activities.

Launch into 2025 with an eye towards the landscape! Winter gardening is full of healthy adventures and may form behavior that can last all year long.

Kristi Hendricks is a graduate of Shepherd College and West Virginia University and a Master Gardener with the Virginia Cooperative Extension. She can be reached at belowthejames@yahoo.com.