Infographic inspired by: Trim That Weed
Think about it, when you’re gardening, you’re always on the move. Whether you’re pushing a barrow full of wood, pulling out weeds by hand, sawing off tree branches, or digging over soil, you are pretty much always in motion, which means you can actually get a pretty decent workout in when you spend some time tending to your garden.
That. combined with the fact that most kids love nature; they love to dig up worms or plant flowers to attract butterflies; they love to swing from trees and do handstands on the lawn; they enjoy watching the birds go about their cute business as they collect feathers for their nests or come looking for juicy big worms to eat, means that you can more easily convince them to get involved, and, then, gardening can give them a surprisingly good workout.
This summer, George’s Grampy set up a little garden for him in our backyard. We took 2 huge plastic storage tubs, drilled holes in them, and filled them with dirt. Next George got to plant all sorts of vegetables for summer. We are currently awaiting our first tomato to ripen. George loves to wake up and go check his plants every day.
I hope that growing his own food will teach George the importance of being diligent and taking care of the world around him. The memories he makes will last a lifetime as he experiences watching things grow.
Not only that, but gardening has a number of physical and mental health benefits that go above getting your daily exercise in. The infographic below goes into great detail about the numerous benefits you and your children can get from a regular gardening session, and you might be surprised by some of them such as boosting mental health and lowering dementia risk by more than a third. Intrigued? Read the infographic and you’ll soon be sold on the benefits of encouraging your kids to get busy with you in your yard space.
