Walt Disney once said “The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all.” In times like these it can be very hard to see the light. From worrying about catching COVID-19 to worrying if you’ll have a job to go to next week, it can all be very stressful. Many people have been keeping themselves busy in different ways from reading to binge watching shows on Netflix. Well, if you’re looking for a fun, inexpensive and beneficial pastime you might want to consider gardening.

From physical to mental, gardening comes with a load of benefits. According to a group of studies published in the Clinical Medical Journal from Royal College of Physicians, planting fruits and vegetables has a great effect on people’s diets. Also the act of gardening outside in the sun helps with people’s vitamin D levels and can even lower blood pressure.

Now let’s talk about the mental aspect of gardening. The sense of accomplishment one get’s out of being able to eat something they put so much energy and time into so that it could grow. Or what about being able to sense the little seedling making progress little by little each day and finally seeing it break the soil and start sprouting. The more you tend and nurture it the more it will flourish. That’s just like us as humans. The more we feed and nurture things in our lives the more they’ll grow. In times like these it’s really hard not to pay attention to all the scary things in the news, but what if we take a few minutes out of our day to direct that energy to something positive. Something positive like gardening.

Plants can really teach us a lot about how to conquer the adversity we’re facing right now. The more we water them and give them fertilizer the more they grow and spread their roots. The more sunlight and vibrations they receive the more vibrant and lively they become. And if they are fruits or vegetables once they are ripe they will benefit our bodies greatly.

So your question now probably is how do you start? First you can check out Girl Scouts of Central Maryland’s Junior Gardening segment from our Girl Scouts at Home Series. Gardening doesn’t have to be a big expensive ordeal. Most of us have the tools laying around in our house to start a small garden. You can take seeds from fruits and vegetables at home and dry them out for use. Many plants start off in the house so using a recycled water bottle cut in half with some fresh soil will do just the trick to get your plant growing. You can use Google to find out specific requirements for your plants in particular.

So what are you waiting for? Go out and start your garden today! You never know what will come out of it.

Progress of one of GSCM’s employee’s garden.