Want Motivation To Begin Your Landscaping Project? Read This
Not everyone is bestowed with a green thumb however much they want it.
If gardening doesn’t come naturally to you, it can be difficult to drag yourself out there. Especially when it seems like your garden is dying or not thriving.
If you’re in a gardening slump, we get it. We’re here to bring you out of the slump with some motivation you can’t pass up.
Before we get to the motivation, let’s talk about how landscaping is beneficial to you.
How Does Landscaping Benefit You?
1. And Work in One
Did you know doing gardening work for 30-45 minutes could burn up to 300 calories?
The action of bending over, clipping stray branches, and digging the soil gives you a full-body workout. Being out in the sun also gives you an essential dose of Vitamin D.
Beyond burning calories, gardening can help increase your muscle mass and bone density.
So even if you don’t lose weight from the activity, you will become more healthy.
For gardening to be the most effective as a workout, try to forego the mechanical tools. Garden the old-school way.
To improve the quality of the workout, you can couple exercises like lunging with gardening.
For example, the lunge-and-weed. This was invented by Jeffrey Restuccio, author of two gardening fitness books.
But bending the wrong way or lifting too much weight could take you out of commission for a couple of days. So don’t push yourself.
2. It’s a Form of Therapy
Horticulture has been recognized and practiced as a form of therapy for centuries.
Horticulture therapy is used to treat patients with PTSD and people with disabilities.
A garden is a very stimulating environment. Being in this environment opens up all of your senses.
When all of your senses are stimulated, the stress and all your pent-up emotions find a way to leave your body.
A study has proven that taking care of a plant can help increase your sense of health and well-being.
When you are physically ill, you lose your sense of control over yourself. Tending to plants helps restore that control you feel you’ve lost.
The therapeutic effects of gardening were especially felt during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
The national spending on gardening products doubled in 2020 from 2019.
Still not motivation enough? We’ve got more for you.
Top 5 Ways to Stay Motivated When Landscaping
1. Grow Easy-maintenance Plants
Droopy, browned plants are what deters most from getting into gardening. Every Pinterest-perfect garden is lush and full of colors. So you get frustrated when yours isn’t.
To ensure your garden is bountiful, plant no-maintenance species. Peonies are a breathtaking species that needs very little care.
Coneflower is another hardy plant with gorgeous petals.
Alternate flowers with hardy trees so your garden will have vertical differences.
Another route you can take is to sprinkle your landscape with artificial plants. Since they always stay in bloom, you’ll have an impressive garden without doing any work.
You can use artificial boxwood if you want to add a ‘living’ perimeter to your garden.
2. Never Garden Alone
Gardening could become a lonely task if you do it alone. Some people enjoy getting a break from constant chatter. But not everyone.
Rope in a loved one to garden with you. You can even set up fun growing challenges amongst yourselves. This will encourage you to get out into your yard every day.
If you have small kids in your house, they’re the best company you can have. Gardening will allow children to get out their energy in a productive way. It also helps form a good bond between you and the child.
If you’re a senior citizen, gardening with your buddies is a safe activity that can get you out of the house. Look for and join a senior landscaping club in your area.
3. Set a Goal and Focus on the Reward
Always give yourself gardening goals. Say, in one season, you want to grow 10 pounds of tomato. Or you want to harvest flowers enough for 3 bouquets by the end of the growing season.
Having this goal will help get you off your couch.
As each planting season progresses, expand your goals accordingly. Arm yourself with the research to achieve your goals. This will give you the best chance of getting rewarded.
4. Think of the Environmental Benefits
Gardening is a popular hobby because it is productive. The practice has both personal and environmental benefits. Here are some of them.
- Clean Air
6th-grade science taught us that plants take in Carbon Dioxide, and give out Oxygen. Plants also filter substances like ammonia and formaldehyde from the air. Bamboo Palms and pothos are some of the best air purifiers.
- Clean the soil
The roots just don’t draw water. They also pull heavy metals like zinc and lead from the soil.
- Protects local wildlife
Even if it may not look like it, your suburban yard is a breeding ground for hundreds of species. Gardens help attract pollinators like butterflies and bees. If you have a birdfeeder, you can also expect birds and squirrels to frequent your backyard.
Yes, this space is beneficial for the animals. But in a selfish way, having the animals visit your backyard will also help relieve stress for yourself.
5. Take a Walk Around Your Neighborhood
Nothing could be better inspiration and motivation than looking at other thriving gardens in your area.
Doing this will also give you ideas on what plants grow well in your zone. If you’re the talkative type, you can also speak to other gardeners in your neighborhood to get ideas.
Talking to seasoned landscapes will give you a perspective on why they garden. You can also teach each other gardening skills.
If enough people in your neighborhood garden, then you can even form a gardening club. The sense of fraternity will help motivate you.
We hope you exit this article ready to put your gardening gloves and hat on.
