New beginnings like the start of a new year inspire the human spirit to set goals for the months ahead. From year to year New Year resolutions look surprisingly similar. Some of the most common include:
Making New Year resolutions is always easier than following through to implement them unless one is guided by a resolution coach. The garden is the context and the coach for realizing each of the above intended goals.
How does the garden coax and coach you into accomplishing your goals?
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The American home garden is ideal for bringing generations together in a shared venture of not only growing plants but also growing relationships. Old hands and young hands fit like gloves when it comes to tasks of sowing seeds, digging holes, staking vines, building arbors and cold frames, dividing and transplanting perennials, and picking berries.
Moments spent outdoors cultivating the soil, observing earthworms, cutting flowers for the table, nurturing tender sprouts, caging tomatoes, handpicking insect pests, and spreading mushroom compost will harvest memories for a lifetime. The garden brings generations closer around the dinner table too when sharing the harvest.
For individuals living far from family, community gardens offer companionship, cooperation and conversation.
A garden enables you to grow the fruits, vegetables, and grains that match the food pyramid or target personal nutrition related illnesses or issues. Growing calcium-rich plants reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Cruciferous vegetables like cool-season broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cabbage, kale, bok choy, rutabaga, collard greens, and mustard greens are packed with phytochemicals to prevent a variety of cancers. Tomatoes and their high lycopene content make them a top food insurance policy against age-related degenerative diseases.
An assortment of dwarf citrus plants on the patio including lemons, kumquats, oranges and grapefruits add vitamin C and fiber to the diet.
Leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard, parsley, watercress, romaine, lettuces, arugula, beet greens, and dandelion greens are rich in carotenoids, folic acid, Vitamin A and C, and fiber.
Grow a personal healthy palette of garden produce for you plate.
The low-impact aerobic exercise of gardening not only assists the cardio-vascular system but also burns calories.
Physical activities of gardening such as planting, pruning, weeding, mulching, cultivating, double-digging, turning compost, harvesting, raking, hoeing, lifting, pushing the wheelbarrow, and walking combine stretching and weight-bearing exercises for flexibility, aerobics, and muscle-toning.
Gardening is a muscle-powered enterprise involving numerous opportunities to get in shape while getting the garden in shape too.
Wear a pedometer or step meter when gardening to see how far you travel.
The intense exercise of gardening removes harmful stress hormones and raises endorphin hormone levels for a feeling of well-being.
Being outdoors in fresh air and gentle massaging wind calms nerves, lowers blood pressure and slows heart rate. Nature provides a natural relaxation response.
Walking through your own garden or visiting a botanical garden infuses the mind and body with serenity.
Your garden can be a setting in which to practice yoga and meditation, a place to refresh mind and spirit.
Whether you start from seed or bedding plants, an annual food and flower garden will save money at the grocery store, gas station, and, quite possibly, the pharmacy. Growing one’s own food saves fuel cost paid when buying produce and your transportation cost to the grocery. Most gardeners grow more produce than they can use in a season even after preserving and freezing. Donating produce to local food banks saves money within the community.
Some gardeners weigh their harvests and calculate the value saved compared to grocery store prices.
Growing food reduces the temptation to eat out since rarely does one find the flavor of fresh-picked produce at local restaurants. Home-grown meals cost less and taste better.
Enrolling in the local extension service Master Gardener program or taking horticulture classes through a community college adds new knowledge and new contacts to a gardener’s range of skills.
Garden organization such as the American Horticultural Society and the National Gardeners Association offer courses, tutorials, symposia, and online resources to members.
Most online seed catalogs and nurseries provide educational information on their websites.
Public libraries stock the latest best-selling garden books and current garden magazines.
Gardening is a lifestyle enabling us to integrate many desired and desirable changes in our lives through the common ground of the garden. Achieve a happy new year through gardening.
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