The health benefits of gardening during isolation

Gardening during a self imposed isolation or the  lockdown because of the covid-19 can create some really benefits to your health especially your mental health and provides ways to stay calm
By its very nature gardening activities ranging from a full blown garden development project to simply repotting a houseplant  is an all consuming activity placing you in a state of mindfulness.
Worried about Coronavirus, your job, business or family gardening is not going to solve any of these problems but what it will do most effectively is provide you with a mental and physical break, a moment of respite helping to restore your minds equilibrium.
Along with the mental health benefits of gardening its also useful as a rewarding group activity with your partner or family you might be in isolation with. Gardening activities have a lot of hidden benefits especially for young children providing a very interactive activity involving physical effort which in turn helps to stop boredom and promotes sound, deep sleep after the activity.
To start gardening you need very few tools. Listed below are a few suggested gardening projects to get you started.
Sunflowers – Growing sunflowers is easy to do from seed and creates a great family activity. Simple sow a few seeds in small pots on a windowsill and then in May plant out in the garden.  Maybe creating a small prize for the family member that grows the tallest sunflower by the end of September. Once the sunflowers have finished the seed heads can be collected to feed your garden birds in the winter.
Vegetables – Growing a few of your own simple vegetables from seed such as salad leaves, carrots, peas and beans is an easy project that does not require a large amount of space or a special vegetable area. Vegetables can be grown in existing gardens flower borders in small patches or in pots.  
Garden plants from cuttings – A lot of garden plants such as hydrangea, pyracantha and skimmia will root very easily from semi ripe softwood cuttings. Other common garden plants such as buddleia and cornus will root from hardwood cuttings. 
Houseplants from cuttings – many houseplants can be grown from cuttings placed in water in small jars or glasses such as tradescantia or cheese plants. Other plants such as rubber plants can be layered to create new plants. 
For further advice and how to get started contact the GardenAdvice team for some free gardening advice and encouragement. Click Here 
In addition gardening activities provide other health benefits such as stretching and physical movement. Unlike the structured framework of other exercise activities such as yoga gardening as a physical activity is unstructured and over a period of a couple of gardening activities you will find yourself  stretching in loads of different positions increasing flexibility and creating endorphins in your body creating a general feeling of wellbeing. 
Finally if you have never carried out any gardening before simply growing a few plants from cuttings or seed can be a very rewarding activity