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National Gardening Exercise Day – June 6, 2023

On National Gardening Exercise Day, June 6, we appreciate the bodybuilding activity that is gardening by picking up our trowels and toiling in our gardens! Not only is it so satisfying to grow your own flowers or herbs from seedling to sprout to a full-grown plant, but it’s also great exercise! Any gardener will tell you that squatting to pick weeds or water a seedling will get those quads burning. Besides, working in the hot sun adds an extra athletic challenge.

History of National Gardening Exercise Day

The history of gardening is so old and intertwined with agriculture that it can be challenging to tell where farming ends and gardening begins. However, it’s clear that the first enclosures in forests and wild spaces were made all the way back in 10000 B.C. — humans used these enclosures as a kind of primitive landscaping, as well as to produce food. It’s probable that the first real farms and gardens were established in Mesopotamia.

Gardening flourished all over the world — and almost at the same time! While evidence of ancient rice cultivation was found in China in 7000 B.C., corn was found in Central America, and so on. All over the world, different flowers, produce, and herbs sprung up and were domesticated, then shared. By 1100 B.C., gardens had moved beyond agriculture, cropping up in front of temples and around public buildings.

Between 100 BC and 100 A.D., books on horticulture, agriculture, and botany started to take off. They depicted everything from rural life and herbal medicines to waterworks that were placed in gardens. Letters described beautiful villa gardens teeming with carefully domesticated and cultivated plants. ‘Scholar gardens’ and palace gardens reflected culture and government as civilizations flourished. The study of botany emerged in the 1600s, followed by botanical gardens.

In the past century, gardening has undergone more trends than we can count. The 1910s were defined by World War I victory gardens and influenced by art nouveau, while the 1920s and 1930s were preoccupied with the arrival of potted plants on the market. The idea of the classic American backyard featuring a modest garden and manicured suburban lawn arrived in the 1950s.

Since the environmental awakening of the 1960s, much of gardening has been dominated by principles of sustainability and environmentalism. Many gardeners dream of patches full of low-maintenance, native plants, with house plants like succulents sunning themselves indoors. Though gardens have definitely changed throughout the centuries, it’s clear people have always loved their plants!

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