The Health Benefits Of Landscapes And Why Your Garden Matters
Gardens are not just a nice thing to have – they are also vitally important to your health and wellbeing. Spending time outdoors and in nature can boost your well-being, leading to a range of health benefits that you may not have been aware of.
As a leading landscaping company, Green Acorn Landscape Design respects the role nature plays in our health and understands that a great garden is more than just an accessory to your home. We are passionate about creating beautiful and accessible landscapes for our clients, as we believe everyone deserves to feel better.
In this post, we are sharing some of the best – and most surprising – health benefits of landscapes to inspire you to get outdoors this season.
Your Garden: Nature’s Prescription For Better Wellbeing
Outdoor spaces are more powerful than you may have imagined. While it may just seem like a nice addition to your home, there is plenty of research to suggest that spending time in green spaces is good for you, not just mentally.
Spending time in the fresh air has long been hailed as a cure for a range of ailments, and there is some truth in this. Nature can be a wonderful health and wellbeing boost, and is becoming even more important as we spend more time indoors than ever before.
Those in urban and industrialised areas struggle the most from a lack of nature and can therefore experience better benefits from having a blooming, natural landscape at their doorstep. Your garden may have been a great place for you in the past, as the main hub for entertainment, summer barbeques, and sunbathing, but it can do so much more.
As a landscaping company, we believe garden design is extremely advantageous – but don’t just take our word for it.
Wellbeing And Mental Health Benefits Of Landscapes
Spending time outdoors and in nature can offer a mental health boost and contribute to better well-being, which includes benefits such as:
- Reduced Stress: Time in nature, breathing the fresh air and spending time in green spaces has been proven to reduce cortisol levels. Cortisol is the main stress hormone, which can affect mental health and functionality when levels are raised.
- Improved Mood: Greenery and flowers, in particular, are great health benefits of landscapes as they can enhance feelings of happiness and tranquillity. In some cases, flowers and greenery can also reduce depression and anxiety through the aforementioned cortisol reduction.
- Promotes Mindfulness: Mindfulness is a great way to take a step back from the stressors of daily life and create more time for calm, and landscapes promote this. An accessible, attractive garden can be a great space for tranquillity and meditation, allowing you to experience more mindfulness every day.
- Improves Cognitive Development: Outdoor spaces are great for people of all ages, but can be especially beneficial for children and elderly people. Nature, with its fresh air and calming atmosphere, can help improve developmental functions, such as focus and creativity, and has also been proven to reduce mental decline.
Physical Health Benefits Of Landscapes
As well as promoting better emotional and mental health, green spaces can also contribute to your physical health with benefits such as:
- Encourages Movement: Spending time outdoors is a great way to incorporate more movement into your life, and therefore benefit from greater strength, flexibility and heart health. In most cases, spending time in nature means participating in movement, whether you are hiking, jogging or even gardening – physical activity will do wonders for your health.
- Better Sleep: Natural light patterns help to regulate the body’s circadian rhythms, which is your internal body clock. By working with natural light, seeing the sunrise or sunset from your landscape, you can tune into the organic rhythm of your body and experience true sleep signals for a great night’s rest.
- Boosts Immune System: Being outdoors means being exposed to various microbes, which in turn cause your immune system to get to work. The more you are exposed, the better protection your immune system can provide, so you can experience reduced sickness and allergy symptoms over time.
- Increased Vitamin D: Natural sunlight is the best way for the body to absorb vitamin D, which is an essential nutrient for teeth, bone and muscle health.
Social Connection And Community Benefits
Health covers a broad spectrum of areas, and this includes social connection and our community. While we may not give it much thought these days, community is an essential part of human life and plays a role in our health. Community is essential for development and mental health.
Social interaction has proven to be connected to longer life expectancy, as well as offering better mental health. Landscapes can contribute to this through benefits such as:
- Social Interaction: From local parks and green spaces to your own back garden, being outdoors encourages social interaction. With barbeques, outdoor gatherings, play dates, or even talking to neighbours over the fence, getting outdoors can be a conversation starter and encourage you to make friends within your community.
- Shared Interests: Allotments, private landscapes, and community gardens encourage those with shared interests to connect. You can learn from local experts, chat with neighbours and develop a sense of togetherness over a shared goal of cultivating attractive, thriving outdoor spaces.
Conclusion
Spending time outdoors can be an amazing treatment for your health. With a range of mental and physical benefits, landscapes continue to play a vital role in our well-being. From improved social connections to stress reduction and cognitive support, landscapes offer a wide range of health benefits to support people of all ages.
While your garden may not have felt like anything special in the past, it has a lot of potential. To experience a healthier, happier lifestyle, aim to spend more time outdoors where you can connect with loved ones and nature.
Creating Health Landscapes And Gardens With Green Acorn
To ensure you can experience these health benefits of landscapes for yourself, you need to have access to green spaces. Green Acorn Landscape Design is a premier landscaping company that can help you create the garden of your dreams, allowing you to experience these health benefits on demand and cultivate a better lifestyle for yourself and your loved ones.
Spending time outdoors is easier when you have a safe, accessible space to do so. For many people, the garden can be a prime spot, but it may be lacking the design and functionality needed to support this.
With our design and landscaping services, we can transform any outdoor space into a wonderful haven of tranquillity, play or entertainment. We work closely with clients to create outdoor spaces that align with their lifestyles.
Contact Us Today
To learn more about what we can do or to request a consultation to start your own project, please contact the team today.
