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Are you an intense person? Do you feel a double dose of emotions, whether it’s love, passion, or even anger? There are certain people who only feel alive when they feel these emotions – even if they keep them completely to themselves. Such is the poet, balladeer, and the sculptor. Though they may not outwardly express these strong emotions, they pour them into their work. And such is the same way with the gardener.

It takes some time to truly understand another person’s personality. It requires in-depth conversation and an understanding about the person’s past. However, the astute observer can find some tell-tale clues that people leave about their personality. One of the largest of these clues is their choice of colors. These choices can bee seen in their homes, in their clothing, and particularly in their gardens.

For years psychologists have studied the effects of colors on the human mind. Colors make a gigantic statement about a person’s mood or personality. Consider this when picking the flowers for your next garden. Your house should reflect your personality – as should your garden. So if you are the type of person who wants to tango with a rose between your teeth, try to grow some wild red roses for starters.

Roses are the quintessential flower when it comes to showing passion. They are intensely beautiful, sporting bold colors. Yet in the midst of that beauty lurks hidden dangers – the pointed thorns that lie in wait for those who mishandle this beautiful flower. The red rose is a dangerous beauty, intense in every way.

That dangerous beauty is also a symbol of passionate love, thus making it the patron flower of Valentines’ Day – the one time of year that husbands dust off their suits, spend the extra money to be pulled behind a smelly horse, and even consider giving up the TV remote. It’s the passionate intensity that bursts from between the rose’s petals that make a normally thick-headed man willing to do this.

If you are the rose in life – if you vive with passion and live for them moment, take a moment and take stock of what is in your garden. Do you have dull plants in a colorless garden? Could you tell the difference if you took a picture of your garden?

When it comes to putting your life and your passions together, consider making your garden an extension of your personality. Gardening is a time- and energy-consuming hobby, and you want to do all that you can to enjoy every minute of it. One way to do that is to immerse yourself into your work, and you can do that simply by purchasing flowers that fit your personality.

Plant life into your garden! Don’t be afraid of the passionate reds and the picturesque pinks! Let the same love that you pour into your life bloom in your garden. Let the red roses climb and vine their way into your life.

People are always trying to stay in shape. They run hard and they play hard. They also exercise hard every single day, working themselves into a frenzy on the treadmill. Yet, they don’t go anywhere. The man on the treadmill may have run 10 miles at lunch time, but he didn’t go anywhere. Exercise is definitely a beneficial activity, but many people become frustrated when they don’t go anywhere. This is where gardening pays off. When you garden you get the exercise and the results.

Gardening is a great way to exercise in several different ways. First, gardening involves a lot of bending, stooping, and standing. It makes for excellent calisthenics by keeping the joints moving. Many arthritis patients report that after adding a daily exercise regimen their arthritis significantly improved. Of course you should consult with your doctor before you make any changes – that means start AND stops. For others, the difficulty comes in that some people knees can’t take the pressure from bending. For these people, most greenhouses sell kneepads that give a nice soft surface to cushion against direct pain.

Another benefit from gardening is in the cardiovascular workout. While it’s not as intensive as a brisk run or a fast cycle, the extra moment does raise your heart rate. And for most people, every doctor will agree that an elevated heart rate is a great thing.

Gardening also provides limited opportunities for strength training. This is not as severe as a weightlifting workout, if you spend any time lugging heavy things like mulch and water, you are exercising while you are gardening.

Gardening also involves mental exercise as well – and the mind needs a good spin on the treadmill as much as the body does. You can’t be a non-thinking gardener. You have to know what plants should be planted in what area, how to plant them, what and when to feed them. If you are setting up a flower garden you need to know when each plant will bloom so that you don’t have a rainbow of color one week and a dead brown patch the next one.

The best part about using gardening as your exercise is that it gives you a chance to enjoy yourself without even knowing you are exercising. You don’t think about the exercise you are doing when you kneel and stand over your labors is exercise? It certainly is! It’s just that you are distracted by the task at hand so you don’t realize all the work that you are doing. The one caution is that, if you have a medical condition, that you consult your doctor before taking up a new exercise routine.

So for people looking for a meaningful workout, gardening is an excellent way to accomplish this. Gardening works out the muscles, adds smooth movement to the joints, strengthens the heart, and provides intellectual stimulation. As it does this, you work towards a reward of either visual or taste nature.

Gardening: It may just be the best thing you can do for yourself.
Most people in today’s world garden for pleasure. Although in the past a vegetable garden would have been used to feed the family, nowadays it’s just as easy to head down to the grocery store for your supply of potatoes, tomatoes and green beans. Throughout the years, gardening has gone from an activity of necessity to a creative and satisfying hobby that allows you to get some sunshine, put your hands in the dirt, and end with a great finished product. Much more than simply a source of vegetables or flowers, a garden today is almost a spiritual experience. And it’s great for your health, too.

Studies have shown that those who grow their own vegetables consume more vegetables in their diets than those who rely on supermarket produce. The reasoning here is simple. When it comes to a tomato grown under a hot light and then shipped to a grocery store, versus a freshly grown, natural tomato that you tended with your own hands, which would be more satisfying? Which would you be more excited to introduce into your menu? It’s a fact that gardening opens the world of vegetables to many people as a pleasurable experience. After the first year, you may find yourself looking forward eagerly to growing season and anticipating the taste of those first fresh cucumbers.

The benefits of gardening are not all in the body, and they’re certainly not limited to vegetable gardens. Tending and cultivating a garden, whether it’s vegetables, flowers, herbs or anything else, provides an emotional release that allows people to relax in a unique way. The slight physical exertion required to tend a garden is just enough to get your blood flowing, and that in turn is shown to awaken your mind and calm nervous agitation. Those who garden also often spend hours alone, with time to think and rejuvenate while performing their tasks.
In fact, horticultural therapy is a form of emotional therapy based off of the ways in which gardening can improve, relax, and recharge the mind and soul. The chance to breathe some fresh air and communicate with nature is a connection to reality that can do the average frazzled person a world of good.
It doesn’t take much. In fact, it’s one of the most inexpensive hobbies there is. If you can, section off a small corner of your yard and start daydreaming about what you’d like to grow. If a true garden is impossible- for example, if you live in an apartment building or don’t have a yard, even growing flowers and herbs in pots on the balcony or windowsill will help. The peaceful connection with nature, and the satisfaction of watching something come to life beneath your hands, will do you a world of good.