COVID STRESSING YOU OUT? GARDENING GREAT GETAWAY FOR FOOD, FLOWERS, EXERCISE

Millions of people Canada-wide practise this safe, economical way to reduce stress, eat better and get more exercise.

No matter how chaotic the world around us is, this simple remedy can help bring a sense of calm and accomplishment into our lives.

We are told that adding more fruits and fresh vegetables to our diets is the first step to a healthier lifestyle. What better way than to grow them yourself. What a sense of accomplishment.

The taste of fresh peas off the vine or a carrot pulled right from the ground is delightful. The colours of a mixed flower bed — native or not — is a pleasure to your eye.

The aroma of those flowers or of a small herb garden as your hand gently brushes the plants is amazing. The happy hum of bees gathering pollen, and birds singing in the shrubs soothes the soul.

Gardening can be hard work making you wish you had a back of iron with a hinge in it. Slow down and take time to smell the roses (literally), observe your plants, admire how long the weed roots are that you have pulled. Enjoy being outside, in nature, puttering in your garden.

Gardening can also be meditative and therapeutic.

Repeated hoeing, raking, weeding, deadheading, and harvesting gives you time to calm down and destress. No worries about pesticide recalls or chemical treatments to you veggies. Everything in the garden can be reused or recycled.

Of all the hobbies that we can do, gardening is probably the best for exercise, fresh air, fresh veggies, and for an overall healthy lifestyle.

Gardening can stimulate our minds with so much to learn about companion planting and new varieties to grow. Gardeners get to learn more about botany, entomology, meteorology, and more.

Gardening can encompass the whole yard, or just a small 4’X4’ patch. Gardening can be done in containers on your patio or balcony or even be as simple as a pot of herbs on your window sill.

Happy 2022 — Canada’s Year of the Garden.

Nancy Thompson is a member of the Bracebridge Horticultural Society, which meets in the Centre for Active Learning, 54 Dominion St., at 7 p.m. on the 4th Tuesday of the month.