Video - How Gardening Makes You Healthy

This short video discusses a few of the health benefits of gardening. From stress relief to exercise to healthier food to improved sleep quality and so much more, gardening is good for your health. If you can grow a garden instead of pop a pill, all the better!

Check it out, and learn how you can benefit from growing a garden this year:

Health Benefits of Gardening
Join Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, author of Life Is Your Best Medicine, on a journey toward healing, health and wholeness as she explains the benefits of working an...

How Gardening Can Improve Your Health

It's no surprise to most avid gardeners that while we are attending to the health of our plants, we too are improving our health both physically and mentally.

Even the relatively light work of weeding the garden is good exercise and elderly people will find it an excellent opportunity to get outside, breath the fresh air and improve your well-being.

Cottage garden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As we bend down to pull out weeds or pick up plants and pots we are exercising and stretching our muscles and keeping our joints active. This helps to circulate the blood through the body and maintain a healthy heart. It is also good for the mind as gardening can relax the mind and reduce stress.

Working outside in the garden also exposes us to sunlight and that is essential for Vitamin D, which helps the body to absorb calcium, and this is particularly important for women.

Gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the country and also ranks as one of the most popular forms of exercise for many people.

As with any form of exercise, precautions need to be taken. Lifting heavy pots and plants can also do damage to the lower back and knees so we need to be sensible when gardening to ensure we can continue to enjoy this wonderful pastime.

Like the lower back, our knees are susceptible to damage from gardening if we tend to kneel down while working but fortunately there are various gardeners' aids that can be worn or used to help protect our knees. (Check back next week for more on protecting your knees while gardening.)

There are also belts that can be worn to support our back when lifting heavy items in the garden.

If you take a sensible approach to your gardening and don't over extend yourself you can reap the rewards of improved health and happiness while enjoying the fun of creating your own piece of garden paradise!

Video: Vegetable Garden Planning Tips

Here is a short video with some fun garden planning tips for your organic vegetable garden. You can get creative with your garden - you don't have to stick with the traditional square or rectangular garden shapes - why not try something new and add a fun curvy shape?  This video gives some ideas for how to do that in an interesting way.  And for another fun and interesting design, see the sun-ray garden design idea here.

Organic Vegetable Garden Design - 2 Curvaceous Tips
Check out http://www.smilinggardener.com for the free '15 Vital Organic Gardening Lessons For Becoming A Better Organic Gardener'. If you're looking for some...

Garden Planning: Choosing A Theme for Your Garden

When planning your garden, it is often good to have a theme that you can follow throughout your garden,  and a selection of plants that will go along with that theme.

By having a theme to follow this will dictate, not only the types of plants that you will be buying, but also anything else that you put in the garden. This will include everything from sculptures and garden furniture, to the colors of the pots that you will choose.

While some people might think this is restricting their freedom of creation, it does in fact allow you to create a garden that has more freedom of flow rather than being disjointed with a variety of different themes that never quite gel together.

Cottage garden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes the theme of your garden will be determined by the style of the house that you have on the property, and other times it will be determined by the geographical location where you live.

If for instance you are living near a beach, you might want the theme to tie in with the beach setting. By doing this you are likely to get plants for your garden that are more appropriate and will endure the conditions that they will be growing in. Plants that are suitable for growing in coastal areas will be able to withstand the winds and the salt of the sea air that could quickly damage other plants that aren't suitable for those conditions.

Likewise it wouldn't look quite as appropriate to have a tropical garden with palms where a cottage garden would compliment the style of the house.

And tropical plants are not going to flourish as well in cold harsh climates so there are many factors that need to be taken into account when deciding on your garden theme.

But overall, a well-planned theme can ensure you have a healthy and beautiful garden that is both thriving and enjoyable to work and play in, and expresses your own unique sense of style.

Improving Your Garden Soil With Seaweed

One of the best soil conditioners you can get for your garden is seaweed. What makes seaweed even better for the garden is the fact that it doesn't need to cost you anything if you are prepared to collect it when it gets washed up on the beach, or alternatively from the surface of the water when boating, if you live near the sea.

Seaweed Mulch. Echoing the old crofting traditions, seaweed is used as a mulch in the garden behind the Tourist Information Office in Lochboisdale. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you don't live near a beach then you can still get the benefits of seaweed in your garden by buying dried seaweed in very affordable packs from many garden centers.

This is the most convenient way to use seaweed on the garden, as it has already been prepared in a state that allows you to spread it evenly throughout the garden. There is the added benefit that the seaweed sold in the stores doesn't smell as much as the seaweed that you would collect from the beach, and it usually has the salt rinsed off already.

Seaweed is also very good as a plant stimulant. It is particularly good for people who are reluctant to use any types of chemicals on the garden, as seaweed is completely safe for the plants, people and also for pets, which makes it ideal for organic gardening.

Many people are unaware that seaweed is also used commercially as it has proven to be a very powerful soil conditioner and in many tests has worked better than some of the manufactured soil conditioners that are commonly sold on the market.

By buying dried seaweed from garden centers you can be assured of the quality and consistency of the product and you can expect results while having the convenience of it being readily available when needed as it will store just fine as long as required. However, if you are concerned about sustainability, of course you will want to collect your own seaweed if if you have access to it.

Seaweed has been used for centuries in gardens around the world and is becoming more popular as people are looking for alternative natural products in preference to chemical-based fertilizer products.

Making the Most of Any Soil

First off, I apologize for the lack of posts last week! I ended up getting the flu, and was down for the count. But we're wrapping up soil month this week, with a couple of helpful articles on making the most of your precious garden soil.

It's really not what you start with when it comes to the quality of the soil in your garden, but the results you have when the preparation has finished that really matters.

With the correct information and procedures you can make just about any soil fertile, but the key factor here is getting the right information in the first place. Even poor quality soil can be improved to the extent that you can have a lush garden.

Planning your garden ahead of planting will make all the difference as you will be able to get proper drainage sorted out while also allowing for good water and nutrient retention.

An example of sand based soil. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Digging the soil will give you a good feel for it's quality and allow you to look at factors such as the density of the soil and whether it needs breaking up to allow for more water, air and nutrients to be retained within it.

The types of plants you intend to have in your garden will determine what you will need to do with the soil, as some plants thrive in heavy conditions, such as those found in clay soils, whereas other plant roots will struggle to get through anything other than light sandy soils.

Mixing in compost, sand, and other grades of soil when you are digging your garden can change the structure considerably. Having additional information from pH test kits as we previously discussed will also ensure you have the right balance of lime in your garden.

You might need to add fertilizer to get the quality of the land up to suitable levels for planting but almost any soil can be made fit with the right preparation.

Consider raising the garden beds where the ground is particularly poor or where there could be problems with drainage.

Light sandy soils will have space for air, water and nutrients but the nutrients can get washed away easily leaving the plants to suffer. Heavy clay soils can hold the nutrients better but the roots of the plants might have trouble getting to them. Clay soils can also become waterlogged or alternatively in hot dry weather they can become very hard, cracked and dry.

The climate will play a big part in determining how you prepare your soil. Check back Thursday when we will discuss a very helpful soil amendment that can improve almost any soil.