Gardening benefits your health and well-being in so many ways and appeals to all the senses. Many people are turning to “sensory” gardens to enjoy the stimulation you can get for touch, sight, smell and sound. It’s easy to achieve and satisfying to create.

Today, many care facilities are using sensory gardens for their patients. A stroll through the features it offers can relax and calm patients – and studies indicate it helps those children with autism and other disabilities to better process their thoughts and actions.

When choosing plants for a sensory garden, remember to design and choose the plants in the garden in a way that appeals to all five senses. For example, you’ll want to encourage visual stimulation by colors.

Keep in mind the seasons and group or plant them accordingly for maximum benefit. Butterflies and birds are attracted to colorful plants and flowers – and provide extra sensory stimulation.

Incorporate sound in your sensory garden by adding plants which project sounds, such as rustling of leaves or ornamental grasses that make calming sounds when the wind blows through.

Water fountains and wind chimes are also great additions for sounds in the garden space. You can create a beautiful and calming area by strategically placing them where they can be most enjoyed. Continue reading →

Your spiritual nature is as important as your physical and mental state in your overall well-being. Whether or not you belong to an organized religion or belief system, you can find spiritual satisfaction in gardening by relieving stress and allowing your mind to focus on something besides life’s many problems.

Digging in the soil has the same effect on your mind as athletic activity. It’s now viewed by medical science as a way to get mental and spiritual therapy for those who are depressed.

Verdant foliage, flowers, water, wildlife and smells all add to the harmonious nature of a garden and can have many healing effects when you’re exposed. Gardening has long been recommended to those recovering from surgery to gain optimism and hope to nurture your life and your spiritual side. Continue reading →

One activity proven to fight stress that leads to premature aging and chronic conditions that accompany the aging process – is gardening. Evidence exists which proves that gardeners may live up to 14 years longer than non-gardeners.

That’s an impressive reason to take up gardening as an activity in your own life. In studies of areas where life expectancy far out-performs the norm for the rest of the world, the findings were definitely linked back to gardening as one reason these people enjoyed a longer and healthier life span.

These areas have been named “blue zones,” and exist in pockets all over the world. There are many factors involved in the findings, but there are key issues that stand out more than others.

Gardeners get certain nourishment, not just from eating the bounty of their gardens, but from touching the soil from which the garden produces the food. Touching the actual soil with your bare hands can help to build positive energy resulting from the positive elements contained in the soil.

Those who never have contact with the earth miss that crucial way to prevent disease and to benefit from all that the earth offers. As you age, contact with the earth becomes even more vital and beneficial to your life and your feelings of well-being. Continue reading →