THE BENEFITS OF GARDENING AS A FAMILY
Words by Le ChameauMay 09, 2023
The Benefits of Gardening as a Family
Spending quality time with your family is precious. It creates everlasting memories and establishes unbreakable bonds between each generation of the family. However, with everyone leading busy lives or getting used to a routine, we may not spend as much time as we would like with our loved ones. One way to bring the family together is by opening the backdoors of your home and encouraging your family outside and into the garden. Your garden is a space that each generation of the family can enjoy together and where they can share experiences, bond with each other and create memories that will last a lifetime.
What are the Benefits of Family Gardening?
Whilst having a garden is a wonderful way to come together as a family regularly, there are many ways using the outside space of your home can benefit every family member.
Spend More Time Outdoors
Spending time outdoors has many positive effects on your family's health and well-being. Breathing in the fresh outdoor air benefits your respiratory system, and exposing your skin to the extra sunlight encourages your body to produce more vitamin D. This essential nutrient helps you feel healthier and more energised. Also, leaving your confined indoor spaces and being away from the temptation of staring at screens can help relieve stress and revitalise you, helping you retain focus.
Creates More Learning Opportunities
Being in the garden allows you to teach the young ones in the family about the environment and allows them to appreciate their outdoor space. Spending more time in the garden encourages curiosity in children, especially when they take on gardening activities. Both the children and adults in the family can learn more about the importance of maintaining a healthy ecosystem, how plants grow, and the different interesting wildlife we can see just by sitting out in the garden.
Moderate Form of Exercise
Getting in the garden creates opportunities to participate in activities, encouraging movement, whether planting, building or just simple garden maintenance. By making it a routine, grandparents, parents and children all benefit from the extra exercise.
Helps to Learn New Skills
Being outdoors and encouraging outdoor activities in the garden is a way to learn and develop new skills. For children and adults, maintaining or taking on garden activities promotes patience, organisation and communication skills, especially when planting or planning the garden's design.
Encourages Healthy Eating
Being in the garden may encourage you and your family to start growing fruit and vegetables. Giving you and your family access to freshly grown fruit and vegetables forms a new hobby and promotes healthy eating. Children are more likely to try new foods, and parents will benefit from the saved costs and the reduced trips to the supermarket.
What Gardening Activities Can You Start with the Family?
While there are many great benefits for families in encouraging each other to get out into the garden, finding reasons to be in the garden and making a routine of it may be challenging to cultivate. However, there are many activities families can do together.
Growing Fruit and Vegetables
As mentioned previously, growing fruit and vegetables is a great way of promoting healthy eating within the family and can be a fun and rewarding activity the family can do together. You don't need a large area to grow your fruit and veg; you can even grow produce in pots and with very little equipment. Growing crops that the whole family loves to eat will bring you all together and make dinner time a little bit more exciting. It is also a great gardening activity for children, as they can take responsibility for growing their own crops. Follow our useful guide on how to get your children involved in the vegetable garden.
Encouraging your family to enter the garden doesn't mean just planting. Creating a space for your children to make their own will help spark their imagination and encourage them to enjoy all the benefits of the outdoors. Building a den is a great gardening activity for teenagers as it will encourage them to spend time outdoors and help them learn new skills.
Planting Flowers
Flowers can add all sorts of colours to your outdoor space, making it more inviting for your family to spend time in. Planting flowers is a wonderful gardening activity for children as they can add their favourite colours to the garden and give parents a relaxing space to unwind.
Increase Your Garden's Wildlife Population
Not only can you encourage your family into the garden, but you can also share it with lots of interesting wildlife. By planting flowers and crops, creating water features and putting up birdhouses, creatures will soon make their way into your outdoor space. This family gardening activity will also allow you to learn about all the different types of wildlife you can find.
Le Chameau Gardening Boots
Getting the family out in the garden will open up many opportunities to make long-lasting memories and form unbreakable bonds between you all. When taking on family gardening tasks, you will need the proper footwear, whether planting a vegetable patch or building and maintaining the flower beds. At Le Chameau, our range of gardening boots are suitable across all seasons of the year, from wool-lined boots during the winter to jersey-lined boots when pottering around in the summer. Our Wellington boots also come in sizes for children. Our children's wellies are durable and comfortable, making them suitable for all your youngster's garden activities.
Discover our wellington boots for men and wellington boots for women.