People Turning to Gardening for Wellbeing

Many pagans are keen gardeners and a survey by a lawnmower supplier has shown that more and more people are turning to gardening for relaxation and well being as well as to grow flowers, fruit and veg.

The survey was released for National Allotments Week (running this week from 10th-16th August) and polled more than 1,000 Brits to find out what gets them gardening.

Under-35s made up a significant number of the participants, suggesting that more young people are gardening than middle-aged or retired people. The most popular reasons for gardening within this age group were relaxation, maintenance, and growing their own produce.

“It’s great to see more and more young people getting into gardening,” said Mark Bartram, managing director of Lawnmowers Direct. “Young people are becoming more environmentally and economically conscious, and are often voicing their opinions about food production, so it’s hardly a surprise there are young adults who aim for self-sufficiency.”

Other Findings
• More than half of the total participants (51%) said that they were interested in gardening for relaxation or satisfaction.
• Most of the answers came from participants in Wales, at 21.8%.
• A significant amount of the answers were from the south of England, with 10.3% from the southwest and 9.8% from the southeast.
• Just under a fifth (19.2%) claimed their garden was mostly vegetables, or that a vegetable patch was a significant part of their garden.
• Time spent gardening varied greatly, with around 27.3% gardening for under an hour a week and 36.1% gardening for over three hours a week.

Mary Lou Harris, senior nutritional therapist and wellbeing coach at www.newyoubootcamp.com (FdSc, Dip ION, ITEC), said: “It is uplifting and enlightening to see the younger generation really understanding that quality ‘Grow Your Own’ produce is far more beneficial to your health. By eating home grown produce everyone reduces the health burdens of GM foods and pesticides to their health. Both have been proven to damage our health in some very serious ways, including cancer, poor gut health and overall inflammation.”

She added: “The added benefits of relaxation and being out in the outdoors is another bonus. Mindfulness, stress depletion, increased Vitamin D exposure from being in the outdoors will all help to reduce the dreaded stress in today’s world.”

Lawnmowers Direct (https://www.lawnmowersdirect.co.uk/) is an online retailer of garden machinery, with a show room in Norwich, UK.

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