Tips for Building a Backyard Garden to Boost Your Overall Wellbeing

If you’re looking for a hobby that is eco-friendly and without a doubt helps boost both your body and mind, gardening is hard to beat. Gardening is an activity that caters to those of all skill levels, fitness levels, and ages. If you don’t mind getting dirty and you have a few hours to spare every week, you can build a lush, thriving garden in your own backyard.

Why garden?

If you choose to grow your own fruits and vegetables in your garden, that’s an obvious way to boost your overall health. Having local, pesticide-free, organic food to feed your family is one of the best benefits of a vegetable garden. But the benefits of gardening stretch beyond healthy food. Gardening provides a boost to your mental wellness that few other hobbies can match.

Studies have shown that gardening is an effective stress-reliever, helps people recover from mental fatigue, and improves overall life satisfaction. Gardening is considered moderate physical activity (spend some time raking, digging, tilling, and moving rocks and you’ll see why), which we know is vital to keeping our body healthy and preventing the onset of a multitude of diseases and conditions. The bottom line is that by gardening, you’re helping to improve your body, mind, overall life outlook, and you’re also doing something to benefit your family.

Tips on creating a great garden in your own backyard

Gardening, like many hobbies, is fun for the novice but increases in enjoyment exponentially that better you get at it. The best tip for starting your own garden is to get out there and get to planting - don’t be afraid of failure. You will lose some plants along the way. It will only get better with practice. Apart from that, here are some solid tips for every beginning gardener:

• Know what every plant you loves prefers in a habitat. Different plants thrive in different conditions, and you can’t will a plant to grow well in an environment they hate. You can save yourself a lot of time and heartache by doing research on every plant you intend to plant to determine if they like full sun, partial sun, or shade, and whether they prefer damper or drier root conditions (you can find that info online). One thing beginning gardeners often forget about is their soil makeup (nutrients, pH level, etc.). You can buy a soil kit or use one of these home tests.
• Start with plants that are easy to grow and hard to kill. Don’t overestimate your abilities right out of the gate. Get some success under your belt before you move on to more complicated varieties. Here are some bulletproof plants for your beginning garden.
• Consider building a solar greenhouse. Unlike many greenhouses, a solar greenhouse only uses the sun to keep the environment warm and fertile throughout the year (no extra warming/light gear like heaters or lamps). This will allow you to keep some plants alive during the colder months and will help you produce incredible yields on your flowers and vegetables during the summer. Check here for more on building your own solar greenhouse.

Gardening is a relatively inexpensive hobby that has numerous health benefits - for both body and mind. It’s a hobby that anyone can get into, no matter your age or experience level, as long as you have time, patience, and a willingness to learn. A garden is a healing space in your own backyard - one that only gets better over time. It’s a hobby where you will most certainly get what you give.

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