Gardening: Exercise for the Body and Soul

Spring is a wonderful time of the year, particularly for those of us who love to garden. There is so much to do, with seed sowing, digging, planting, and mulching, among other chores. My main problem is that gardening literally consumes me at this time of year. I just can't stop once I am outside enjoying the blooms, fragrance, and peacefulness that comes with being in my garden. I think about missing my zumba class, or yoga while I am planting a rose. But I realize that I am definitely getting exercise when I finally retire for the day and I am tired to the bone.

Most of us gardeners don't realize how many muscles we are using when we dig a hole, or lift a a really heavy planter. But we certainly feel it when we come inside at the end of a gardening day. It is especially important to maintain flexibility and strength for our gardening activities. Bending down is hard on the knees and joints, so improving our core strength is essential. It is also important to stay hydrated, and to take breaks for just resting our bodies while gardening. This is the hardest part for me - I hesitate to take a break on a nice, sunny day and on a roll with my weeding and planting.

The physical exercise of gardening is a benefit in the long run. But equally impressive, in my opinion, is the mental exercise that we gain. Being outside in nature and making our environment more beautiful is calming. I generally forget my worries when outside. Or being out in my garden sometimes helps me to think more clearly without the television or computer nearby. I find it a positive time in my always busy day. It is also satisfying to see the results of my efforts, and to just sit and enjoy the experience of being in the landscape.

For the gardeners out there who are reading this, I have a few actual tips that I want to share with you. There are a couple of things that I have learned this season that may help you in your quest to create your amazing garden or improve your landscape. Since I have been gardening for well over 30 years, I realized that there are a few steps I can take to make things a little easier for myself. So here they are:

1. If you have a plant in your landscape that you are tired of, or you simply don't like for some reason, it is okay for you to move it to another location, get rid of it, or give it to a gardener who may appreciate it. There is a hydrangea in my current landscape, and although I have only been here for a year and a half, I don't like it where it is. I fretted about this last year, saying to myself that the hydrangea is healthy, and I should just learn to like it. But I still don't like its location, and I am going to move it and replace it with a climbing rose. My neighbor across the street just gave me two shrubs because she didn't like them in her landscape. Yes, my gardening friends, it is okay to part with a plant that you don't like anymore!

2. When choosing plants for your garden, stick with the ones that you have successfully grown. This has been a particularly hard lesson for me. In my previous landscape, I had a virtual arboretum, with hundreds of different plants, various interesting specimens, and unusual plants that I had seen in the catalogs. But I became frustrated by the many that I lost because, for whatever reason, I could not grow some really well. So with this new landscape, I am determined to stick with the ones that I know will make me happy. I am good at growing roses, for example, so I am using them. It sounds so simple, but most of us just want to try something new. This isn't bad, but life is somewhat easier if you can confidently predict what is going to brighten your landscape! And it makes trips to the garden center go much faster if you already know what kinds of plants you are looking for!

3. Planters can look very beautiful with two or three plants, or even a single, eye-catching specimen. You don't have to have 25 different plantings stuffed into one container to have a nice container design. The garden magazines generally emphasize the number of different plants that you can manage to put into a planting pot. While these designs can be lovely, they are also labor intensive because of all of the time you spend watering these thirsty plants all competing for moisture! It also helps to go with fewer plants if you are planning summer trips.

So there is my gardening wisdom for the day. Consider it if you like. Enjoy both sweating and sitting in your garden. Finally, remember that your garden is like a painting that is never finished, and that is what makes it so much fun!