Health, movement, and growing our own food

Do you do any gardening? It can be a great hobby, with so many health benefits. There’s a certain point every summer when the garden starts to shift. The herbs have gone a little wild, some plants are looking tired from the heat, and others are still producing more than you know what to do with.

As we move toward fall, it can be tempting to think the gardening season is coming to an end. But if we look at it a little differently, we see that there isn’t really a beginning or an end anymore. Just like our bodies, the garden is always changing.

Gardening is a reminder that health doesn't always have to look like a workout, a meal plan, or another thing to buy. Sometimes it looks like putting on old shoes and going outside, pulling weeds in the sunshine. There is something about walking back into the house with dirty hands, the feeling of a great workout, and something I grew myself to add into a healthy, home-cooked dinner.

Gardening as Exercise

I never started gardening because I thought it would be a form of exercise, but if you've ever spent an afternoon moving bags of soil, digging, squatting, pulling weeds, carrying watering cans, planting, raking, or hauling compost around, you know your body definitely notices. You are not counting reps, or watching a clock, or thinking about calories burned. Gardening just accomplishing something that needs to be done. The mind clocks out a bit, and muscles clock in.

We spend so much of our day sitting (at desks, in cars, on couches, behind screens) and then we try to compensate by squeezing an hour of exercise into our day. Structured exercise is important, of course, but there is something incredibly valuable about moving throughout the day in useful ways.

Squat. Dig. Pull. Lift. Stretch.

Gardening naturally incorporates these movements and more without ever feeling like a workout, and maybe that's one of the reasons we feel so good after working in the garden. Plus there is fresh air, natural light, the sounds of birds and insects, the feeling of the weather changing around you., even the smell of the soil after rain. There is something about being outside that makes it much easier to calm the mind. Something we have mentioned before that is missing in so many modern wellness conversations.

Go outside feeling overwhelmed or distracted, spend some time in the sunlight, working with your hands, and you won’t be able to come back inside without feeling completely different.

But the more we care about growing our own food, the more we think about what I'm putting on it, too. If I'm intentionally growing food for my family, I don't want to immediately turn around and cover that garden in unnecessary chemicals. And that's just one of many reasons we would NEVER use Roundup as a gardening solution. That stuff is nasty… read more here.

A healthy garden is anything but sterile. There are weeds, worms, bees, spiders, ladybugs, fungi, microorganisms, birds, caterpillars, and an entire little ecosystem happening beneath and above the plants. The goal isn't necessarily to eliminate every pest that shows up. It's to create enough balance that the garden can thrive. And that starts with the soil.

For anyone looking to make their own garden a little more intentional, local nurseries and independent garden centers are a great place to start. Ask questions about what actually works in your area, for your specific plants, and do your own research as well. Just like with our own food, we don’t buy something off a shelf because the label says it's "natural."

Read More: Please, Do NOT Use Roundup!

Fall Gardening

It's easy to look at a garden in late summer and think everything is winding down, but really, we're just changing seasons. The heat begins to break, mornings start to feel different, and suddenly the things that struggled through July can thrive.

Depending on where you live, this is the time to start thinking about carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and cauliflower. And then there's garlic, which might be one of my favorite examples of why gardening teaches patience.

You plant a clove in the fall. It sits there. You wait. Winter comes and goes, and months later you've got an entire bulb of garlic growing underneath the soil. There's something we can learn about that process. We live in a world that expects almost everything immediately, and a garden doesn't work that way. Neither does your body. Some things simply take time, patience, care, and diligence.

Interested in recipes or grocery lists? Let Us Know!

We always say, oftentimes wellness is much simpler than it is made out to be.

Go outside.

Move your body.

Get some daylight.

Grow something.

Eat real food.

Get your hands dirty.

You don't need an acre of land or a perfect vegetable garden. You don't even need to be particularly good at gardening. Start with a pot of herbs. Grow a tomato or zucchini. You could start now by planning to put a few carrots or garlic cloves in the ground this fall.

Do your research for your area and let yourself learn as you go. The healthiest thing you can do isn't another thing you buy, or optimize, or another box you check. It can be something you enjoy, or a new hobby to learn that feels good.  Here is to letting the garden remind you how good it feels to be alive.

Until next time, be well!