Gardening time is almost here! Make the most of it for your health

Just in time for the start of the 2023 growing season, community gardens got a special shout out in a survey of studies done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that show the health benefits of gardening. The combination of physical activity with social interaction and exposure to nature and sunlight that community gardens provide is beneficial for a multitude of reasons, the study said.

The survey’s author, a former president of the Royal College of Physicians in London, Sir Richard Thompson, offered several reasons why community gardens are good for you, including:

• Sunlight lowers blood pressure and increases Vitamin D levels.
• Vegetable gardeners tend to eat what they grow so that adds fresh produce to their diet.
• Working in the garden provides exercise that strengthens the body and restores dexterity.
• The social connection is good for mental health.

Cape Cod Healthcare Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist Kristine Whaples, who runs a cancer wellness pilot program called Living Fit for You! agreed that gardening is healthy for a variety of reasons.

“It is absolutely true that gardening is good for mental health and stress reduction,” she said. “It also gets people moving and the up and down bending is something we don’t do in natural life. That’s really good for our joints and our strength. Bending down to pick something up and then standing is a good exercise for leg strength, and that’s something we need to maintain.”

Gardening also can give people a sense of pride and accomplishment, she said.

The NIH research resonates with what I know to be true in my own life. My husband and I have had a plot at the Brewster Community Garden for more than a decade. Since the compost pile is at the opposite end of the garden from our plot, we get plenty of steps walking to it to dump our many buckets of weeds. We also enjoy walking around the garden paths to see what other people are growing. It provides both inspiration and the opportunity to chat with fellow gardeners.

Planting is meditative by nature. I find my breathing slowing down as I tuck each tiny seed into the ground. Listening to the birds sing in the surrounding meadows is peaceful as we pull weeds, and watering is a rhythmic activity that soothes my mind.

But perhaps best of all is the fresh produce we grow. There is an immense satisfaction in picking vegetables you’ve nurtured for weeks or months. Plus, there are proven health benefits of eating a diet rich in plants.

“Produce has dietary fiber and it can be a good source of potassium, which helps regulate blood pressure,” said Falmouth Hospital dietitian Michele McGann. “Produce is an excellent source of antioxidants, which help fight inflammation. We generally say, ‘Eat the rainbow.”

One of my favorite things to make with my garden produce is salads. Summer is the most obvious salad season, when produce is abundant, and tomatoes kissed by the sun are so luscious you want to eat them whole like an apple. But winter salads can also be wonderful.

The staples of my salads are dark leafy greens like spinach and arugula, which McGann said are much more nutritious than iceberg lettuce. I usually add cucumbers, radishes, red onion and red or yellow bell peppers. Those ingredients pair very well with just about anything, whether it’s summer or winter. For winter salads I chose a fruit, a nut and a cheese to complete the salad. Think pears, gorgonzola and walnuts, or apples, cheddar and pecans.

Every September, the Brewster Community Garden has a pot luck supper to celebrate another successful harvest. The salad I usually bring to share has oranges, roasted beets, goat cheese and pecans because we always have a ton of beets in the fall.

I haven’t used bottled salad dressing for years. They contain too many processed ingredients. The good news is it takes about one minute and just pennies to make your own salad dressing, which McGann said is much healthier for you.

Orange and Beet Salad

(Serves 2)

4 small red beets, ends cut off
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups baby spinach
1 navel orange
1 miniature English cucumber, peeled and sliced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, sliced into bite-size pieces
1 thin slice of red onion, cut in half
2 one-inch slices goat cheese
2 tablespoons toasted pecans

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place red beets on a large piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the beets in the foil and roast for about 40 minutes, until tender. (You can also buy steamed beets in most produce sections if you want to save time.)

Once the beets are tender, rinse them in a small colander under cold water until cooled. Peel beets and cut into slices. Cut the rind off of the orange and slice the orange horizontally. Arrange one cup of spinach on each of two plates. Divide the cucumber, bell pepper and red onion between the two plates. Alternate slices of beets with slices of orange on top. Sprinkle with crumbled goat cheese and toasted pecans. Lightly drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon country Dijon mustard

Place all ingredients in a small jar with a lid. Cover and shake well. Refrigerate any unused portion and remove it from the fridge about 15 minutes before serving to allow oil to soften so it can be shaken again to recombine ingredients.