Seed, Soil, and Sun: Discovering the Many Healthful Benefits of Gardening
https://www.healthline.com/health/healthful-benefits-of-gardening
Key takeaways:
Gardening invites you to get outside, interact with other gardeners, and take charge of your own need for exercise, healthy food, and beautiful surroundings.
If you’re digging, hauling, and harvesting, your physical strength, heart health, weight, sleep, and immune systems all benefit. And those are just the physiological outcomes. Gardening can also cultivate feelings of empowerment, connection, and creative calm.
Whether your patch is large or small, a raised bed, community garden, or window box, getting dirty and eating clean are good for you!
I have been getting dirt-y a lot these last couple of weeks! Sometimes I forget to put garden gloves on and then my nails pay the price. I guess in some ways, I’m a bit of a tomboy. Playing in the dirt always came naturally to me.
Yesterday I got semi-pinned under a wheelbarrow full of garden soil. My hands were free, but I couldn’t lift the barrow off of me, as I was on a bit of a hill, too. I texted my husband, who of course didn’t see my requests for help until an hour and a half later.
Apparently it only took me 8 minutes to wriggle my legs out. I thought it was about 30 minutes that I was trapped. I’m glad it was only a wheelbarrow and not a tractor. Bruised but not terrible. My wrist is still messed up, and somehow managing to get the wheelbarrow off of my legs, tweaked it again. I think this will take a few more weeks to heal up. I plan to work through it. I can’t very well do all this work left-handed, so it will just have to be a slow heal.
I got my tomatoes in last week and they’re doing great.
The only thing that isn’t doing well is the onions I started from seed. Lost most of them, although the ones from the onion sets are doing very well.
I was going to buy more seeds for the red ones, but then had the brilliant idea of using some of the ones in the garage which are sprouting. I stuck them in the ground, watered them well, and they are looking very good.
So I’ll save the seed and try again next year.
My garlic is doing great. Asparagus is up and doing well. Lettuce is doing OK, and I’m going to go with the idea of using a high nitrogen fertilizer on them. Does that work well for asparagus, too?
My rhubarb bloomed with the butt ugliest “flowers” I ever saw. Is the rhubarb still useable?