Gardening helps everyone in the family

By Afiya Orara

Gardening is a beautiful activity, which can benefit everyone on more than an aesthetic level. Inviting gardening into the family life can be beneficial on a wide scale. Teaching gardening to children can benefit them from infant hood and beyond and supplement their education whether it is public or home school. In infant hood, children that are exposed to gardening during this age period can learn different textures. Have your infant child feel the soil in their hands, brush a smooth rock on their legs, let them touch the leaves of different plants. In toddler hood, gardening can help children fine tune their motor skills, by learning how to grasp garden tools that are age appropriate and safe for them such as small shovels, to add soil or other nutrients to your garden. Preschool age children can learn how to plant seeds, the alphabet with simple plant names; school age children can learn how to track bean and other seeds’ germination, the names of plants, learn how to think scientifically, and learn math skills. Women when gardening, stay in touch with their sacred feminine energy by working with the feminine energy of the earth.

Men will also get in touch with their feminine side, which is done by tending to the plants, and looking out for their well being. They will even get in touch with their reproductive systems, by seeing how the seed when planted in the earth produces, just as when the sperm when planted in the egg of a woman and then that egg plants (roots) into the woman’s uterus (like the soil), produces a child.

Gardening also has benefits on a health level. Standing barefoot on the soil for a few moments will reduce electromagnetic pollution in the body, which is caused by the body absorbing the electricity of the televisions, computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices. Standing barefoot in the soil also grounds a person. Grounding is important; it aligns your mental, spiritual, and physical being, and your personal power.

Gardening is also good for stress relief, by it being a quiet place for one who tends to it, to become peaceful, as they feel the dirt, and see how their plants are growing

Gardening has also been found to be therapeutic for people who have suffered from trauma, alcoholism, and birth defects.

I hope this article gives you more reason to garden., and don’t worry about if you don’t have a lot of space, even a container garden, or plants within the house provide the same benefits, just use your creative powers to make it work best for you! If you want to learn more about gardening, visit your local library, or find out when your local gardening club holds meetings.

Recommended Sites

www.ahs.org/ (American Horticultural Society)

www.ahta.org (American Horticultural Therapy Association)

www.kidsgardening.com (Gardening Activities with Children)