What Are The Benefits Of Gardening For Seniors?

July 26, 2021 0 Comment Category: Assisted Living

Retirement does not mean that the only exciting thing in your life is the weekly bingo game. Your golden years can be a great time to start a new hobby. Gardening can be a great option for seniors and can be filled with challenges, surprises, and many changes making it a great choice for elderly adults of all skill levels.

 

Whether you grow some small outdoor plants, indoor succulents, or keep a small farm in the backyard of your house, gardening can be an enjoyable activity for virtually anyone. Some of the benefits of gardening for elderly adults as shared by staff in senior assisted living and other senior living facilities across the nation are shared below.

 

Eat What You Grow 

If you grow vegetables and fruits in your garden, you can harvest them and feed your family. As per the experts, a well-maintained garden can help you save about six hundred dollars per year on groceries. Even though you are not concerned about the budget, you need to understand that there is no substitute for fresh produce. Gardening can be an effective way to reduce your carbon footprint, and you can easily control what is in your food with gardening. If you are concerned about the presence of fertilizers and pesticides in the food you eat, you can opt for gardening.

 

Ensure Vitamin D 

As per the experts in senior living, 44% of senior men and 26% of senior women are deficient in vitamin D. It is this vitamin that helps your body use calcium, and therefore it is important to ensure proper vitamin D levels in the body of seniors to prevent osteoporosis. Vitamin D is also necessary to have a healthy immune system and can also help fight inflammation. Exposure to sunlight can be a natural way to ensure vitamin D production in the body. Spending a few minutes in the sun daily can help reduce the risk of vitamin D deficiency and gardening can help ensure this sun exposure.

 

Connect With Mother Nature 

Spending time in nature can help lower stress levels and improve the mental health of the person while decreasing the risk of common health issues like heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. Connecting with nature can also help change your perspective. Stepping outside your apartment in the senior assisted living community to take a breath of fresh air can help you relieve stress and slow down. In addition. Slowing down your mind and spending time in the lap of mother nature can inspire new hope and ideas in your mind.

 

Ensure Physical Activity 

Ensuring physical activity can be one of the best things you can do to ensure proper health and live a long and rewarding life. Not only does physical activity help maintain weight, but it can also help decrease the risk of heart problems, cancer, and many other health conditions. The best thing about gardening is that you can alter the activity level to match your physical ability. You can start slow by walking around in the garden and pruning plants and when you build strength, you can move to more challenging activities like digging in the soil or squatting to sow seeds.

 

Shared above are only a few of the advantages offered by gardening to seniors. The right senior assisted living community can keep you busy every day and can provide special events on holidays to ensure proper physical activity. Many senior living facilities also let their resident’s garden. If you are living in a senior assisted living community, you can grow indoor succulents, or have a hydroponic grow station in your apartment. You may also start a garden club for other residents who are interested in gardening.