National Gardening Week – Can gardening be good for you?
National Gardening Week was launched six years ago by the RHS and aims to become the country’s biggest celebration of gardening. Thousands of people, gardens, charities, retailers, culture and heritage organisations and groups have got involved over the years and you can too.
In 2017 at the RHS, National Gardening Week is all about helping new gardeners to get growing plants. Four RHS Gardens will be running activities and events which will inspire and help new gardeners, including creative ideas, tips and suggestions for plants to grow indoors and outdoors.
Here are some suggestions if you’d like to get involved in 2017.
Join the celebrations
Events and activities are being run up and down the country. From beginners’ workshops to guided walks, face painting to garden parties, there’s something for everyone and everyone is invited. Find out what’s on.
Get involved
Would you like to throw a garden party, love your neighbourhood park or think your local street could do with a tidy up? Well if so, you can get involved in National Gardening Week by running your own event and registering it online. No matter how big or small your idea, get involved.
Do something fun
There are plenty of things you can do yourself or with your family to get into the spirit of National Gardening Week, from growing tomatoes on your windowsill to sprucing up your driveway.
Gardening is good for you
A spot of gardening not only gives you a good physical workout but reduces pain and anxiety, too.
A Sunday afternoon of pottering round the garden – a bit of weeding here, mulching a bed there – doesn’t exactly seem like an arduous workout. Yet a 2006 study by Pennsylvania’s University of Scranton suggests otherwise. The team found that prolonged light exercise, such as gardening, can burn more calories than a gym session, despite feeling much easier to do.
How does this work? The key is the duration of the session. Gardening tends to be much lower intensity, but last twice or even three times as long as a trip to the gym, meaning the cumulative effect of this more modest rate of calorie-burning starts to add up.