Getting a gardener’s workout on the set of Love Your Garden
You don’t need an expensive gym membership to get fit – just your garden. It’s perfect if you want to lose weight and build up your stamina. Make a commitment to get outside for a couple of hours a week for the gardener’s workout.
Gardening is a great way of keeping fit and active, both physically and mentally. It’s great to know such a popular hobby is also fantastic for your health and wellbeing.
Mowing and digging
According to nutritionists at Loughborough University, mowing, digging and planting for two to three hours can help burn off up to one pound a week.
And 10 to 20 minutes a day in the garden will help top up vitamin D levels in your system and improve your mood by lowering stress levels. Among other things, vitamin D can help reduce cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disease and type 2 diabetes.
The study also found that in general, gardening improves mood and cuts anxiety and depression. Being outside, doing something emotionally satisfying and physically tiring helps produce feel-good endorphins and reduce stress.
Body benefits
Gardening gives all major muscle groups a good workout, including your legs, arms, buttocks, stomach, neck and back. Some experts believe gardening can burn up to 300 calories an hour.
Another study in the American Journal of Public Health looked at 200 active gardeners comparing them to non-gardening folk. Female gardeners were 46% less likely to be overweight than non-gardeners. The percentage was even higher for men – 62% per cent less likely to be overweight than non-gardening men. Male gardeners weighed 16lb less and women 11lb less than their non- gardening counterparts.
Healthy eating
And none of this takes account of the added benefits of growing and eating your own fruit and veg!
Carrots, strawberries and tomatoes are all high in beta-carotene – a natural chemical in their red-orange pigments that converts to vitamin A in the body.
They are known by nutritionists as happy fruit because they boost your immune system and are easy to grow.
Getting started
Remember to pay attention to your body and exertion levels. The gardener’s workout is like any exercise. Have a stretch before you get started and try not to do too much at once.
Make sure you drink plenty of water, especially if it’s a hot day, and take regular breaks. Mind your back too – lift using your knees rather than bending your spine.
If you’re like me, the excitement of gardening itself gives you a lovely feeling, and you won’t notice you’re exercising!
Just don’t overdo it. Losing weight should combine a calorie-controlled diet with physical activity. But it’s so much nicer when it includes creating a beautiful outdoor space.[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
Wildlife gardens are increasingly popular, and you don’t need acres of land to encourage birds to feed and nest in your garden – simply plant varieties they love!
Many bird species are declining in Britain because they are losing their natural habitat, but you can help. There are 15 million gardens in the UK, covering 270,000 acres – that’s more than all the country’s nature reserves put together!
Choose plants that flower and seed at different times, so birds can eat natural foods all year round. Climbing plants also provide good cover for birds to roost. My top 10 plants are:
In autumn this plant will offer birds masses of fruit. Big fans include thrushes, finches and blackbirds, as well as more exotic birds like waxwing.
Corylus Contorta
The catkins and early growth of twisted hazel are ideal for chiffchaff and spring migrants.
Honeysuckle
It’s a great climber for birds, offering berries and cover for them to roost. Thrushes, warblers and bullfinches love it.
Malus Golden Hornet
Fruit from this plant will decay if you leave it untouched, exposing tasty seeds for great tits and greenfinches.
Pyracantha Orange Glow
This plant provides winter berries for thrushes and blackberries.
Rowan
Big rowan tree and ripe berries at golden sunset light
This is a great, compact plant for small to medium gardens. Different species will give berries from July to November, providing a feast for blackbirds and starlings. The white berries however are not as popular!
Festuca Gauteri
Goldfinch and Linnet love this plant’s seed heads.
Ivy
Its flowers attract insects, which birds love to eat, and its winter black berries are a firm favourite of thrushes, waxwings, starlings, jays and blackbirds.
Bidens Solar Garden
Its yellow flowers attract insects that are ideal food for tits, robins and warblers.
Other ways to help
Don’t be too keen to tidy your garden – those leaves, stems, twigs and debris make great nest material for birds!
You can install nest boxes for almost every garden bird you can think of, including owls, robins, sparrows and house martins. Site them away from feeding grounds, as the activity can disrupt mating pairs, and be patient – it can take a couple of years for birds to fill your box!
Finally, place a bird bath in your garden and keep it topped up with fresh water. Birds will flock to it for drinking and bathing. Put it somewhere you can see it from your window, so you can watch the birds without disturbing them.
The F Words is how I see a garden as I look at it. If you divide your garden into these three parts, you can take realistic steps towards your dream garden look. Today we’re going to look at the first F – flooring. Stay tuned to find out about fencing and features!
Chelsea Flower Show 2018 Plants
Picture the scene. I am at a TV colleague’s house for the first time, supposedly to collect some tapes. But it soon becomes clear that I’m the victim of what we call in the trade a ‘green ambush’.
I can see it coming when he opens the back door. “Any chance you can have a quick look at my garden while you’re here and give me some advice?” Got me – hook, line and sinker!
So I find myself standing in this cold, overgrown garden with him. His family are all watching me. Just as I go to open my mouth, he adds, “Oh and we don’t want to spend a fortune”. Bang goes the bulldozer recommendation then!
But I take a quick look and think of my F Words guide. In moments I am on a roll and they are cooing with inspiration.
One of the biggest mistakes gardeners make is to confuse garden design as an art form with practical garden renovation. But, and this is really important, you do not need to be a 400-metre Olympic contender to enjoy running.
There are simple, cheap, easy and achievable ways to create a garden to be proud of. For a small amount of money and a couple of weekends, you can completely make-over your garden.
Flooring
By flooring, I mean anything on the ground. This could be your lawn, patio and/or decking.
Lawn
Man cleaning lawn mower blade. Preparing to mow some grass.
This is a must for households with children and pets, but also for people like me who still believe that a lawn is the essence of a traditional garden.
Boost
You can rejuvenate your lawn with a programme of aeration and feeding. Aeration involves getting fresh air down to the roots by making holes in the lawn. This also reduces soil compaction and improves drainage. Aerate once a year by pushing a garden fork deep into moist soil at 6 inch intervals. Follow with a generous sprinkling of lawn feed.
Replace
It’s easy to replace your old scrappy grass with a lush new lawn. If you want instant results, buy new turf and have it laid. If you’d like something more affordable, you can prepare and seed a new lawn, but get a consultation from a garden lawn centre expert on your soil type.
Don’t start worrying about cost of a new patio – you can revamp your existing one in an afternoon! First, get out any weeds. Then use a patio cleaner to scrub off dirt and algae. For the best results, hire a pressure washer from a DIY centre – you’ll only need it for a day, and it makes it look brand new!
Make sure you fix any uneven slabs in properly. You can replace broken ones, but for a cheap fix just rip them up and put plants in their place! Alpines and succulents are great for this. Brush a new layer of sand over the patio to fill in the gaps between slabs and stop weeds coming back.
Decking
Journalists and TV interviewers are always begging me to say that decking is old fashioned and on its way out. But I don’t think this is necessarily the case. Wood in the garden adds warmth and style, and it will stay with us for a long time yet.
If you have a deck, revamping it is easy. A good scrub down and an oil-based treatment will give it new lease of life.
For those of you who would like decking in the garden, try something a bit different. I always recommend oak – it gives a rich, timeless look.
