The New Year’s Resolution to Make 2019 Your Best Year Yet

2019 is the one: It’s the year you keep your New Year’s resolution. Because, this year, we’ve found the goal that’s going to last (and help you achieve aaall your life goals).

Gardening is a fun and easy New Year’s resolution to help you live the life you always wanted. Growing helps you stay fit and healthy, live life to its fullest, spend time with family, get organized, and learn something new. What else could you want?

By growing daily, you’ll fulfill all of the New Year’s resolutions you have for 2019. Here’s how.

1. Stay Fit

Gardening regularly vastly improves your physical health. By simply being out in the sun for a bit each day, you’ll consume vitamin D — a vitamin everyone needs (especially urbanites). Vitamin D will boost your immune system and help keep you healthy throughout the year.

But there’s more! Gardeners are notorious for having dirt under their fingernails. It turns out that the dirt is more of a health boon than you could imagine. Soil contains a special kind of bacteria called Mycobacterium vaccae, which directly alleviates symptoms of psoriasis, allergies, and asthma, and will keep your body fit.

Plus, the food you grow will be generally low in calorie. With lettuce, tomatoes, spinach, and carrots in your backyard, you’re way more likely to consume your calories in these foods. So if your goal is to lose a little weight, gardening is a great way to begin.

In any case, gardening means movement. It’s not exactly a replacement for working out, but it will help you replace those couch potato hours and encourage a more active lifestyle.

2. Be Healthier

Food grown from your own garden is the freshest food you can eat. There’s no cross-country shipments, no freezing and unfreezing, no picking weeks before the food is ready, and no gene-splicing. When you grow and harvest from home, you’re eating food that is truly natural. Plus, the food you grow is allowed to fully ripen on the vine. So vegetables from your garden are fully developed and therefore achieve their maximum nutrition value.

Things grown in a garden are good for you! With us, you’ll grow vegetables and fruit, which are nutrient-dense. High fat and high carbohydrate foods are simply unavailable on the vine.

Besides, if you grow your own veggies, you’re doubly likely to eat veggies. PRO TIP: if you don’t think you’re fond of a specific veggie, try growing it. You’ll have a new appreciation for the variety, and you’ll be way more willing to try it. (Alright, alright. This tactic is admittedly not quite so effective for adults, but it gets great results for children!)

3. Enjoy Life to the Fullest

It’s the most commonly made New Year’s resolution, and it’s certainly the hardest to achieve. Research shows that people who garden generally increase their life happiness. Specifically, people are generally happier after they garden than before they begin.

The reasons for this are many and varied. Gardening a little every day will stimulate you creatively and cognitively, and it’ll give you something to feel proud about — no matter how you feel about the other aspects of your life. Additionally, the joy one gets from hard work and reward is true fulfillment.

There’s also a theory out there called “the biophilia hypothesis.” It says that humans have a wide-spread and strong desire to interact with other forms of life. In other words, people are wired to love plants and growing — it’s part of our DNA.

All of the above are reasons that gardening can help you live life to the fullest. But there’s one more way gardening will help you achieve your 2019 goals. Growing anything — plants, people, careers — develops an important part of our human capacity: our innate ability to nurture. At Gardenuity, we’re huge proponents of this, and we think that developing that part of ourselves leads to a more full life.

4. Spend More Time with Family

Spending more time with family and friends nearly always makes the New Year’s resolution list. Throughout the year, we’re inundated with work and ambition, and often, our loved ones get left behind. So, this year, set aside time specifically for them by creating a specific hobby meant to be enjoyed with them.

Not only is gardening is extremely healthy for your children’s development, but it’s also an easy and exciting way to get everyone in the family involved. Measure your plant’s progress regularly with your kids, assign specific responsibilities to each family members or roommates, and simply enjoy the sun with your family and loved ones! The good news is that a garden always needs regular tending, so you’ll be motivated to set aside the time regularly to spend with your family.

5. Get Organized

We’re proud to say that gardening with Gardenuity is as easy as possible. But no matter how you garden, plants need your attention. They require love and tending regularly — whatever the day, whatever your schedule.

If getting organized is a New Year’s resolution for you, consider growing as a way to jumpstart that journey. You will simply have to organize your time, resources, and energy so that your plant will survive. We send emails, but you can use gardening as a happy excuse to keep a daily planner and start your to-do list.

7. Learn a New Hobby

Gardening is the perfect hobby to begin in 2019 — it’s one you’ll love for a lifetime. More importantly, learning to grow will develop real skills and increase your know-how. The more you garden, the more you’ll learn about plants, growth, and the environment. After some time, you’ll be able to adjust how much you water and feed a plant-based on your mere observation skills and knowledge.

Make 2019 your best year yet by growing! Keep us updated on your goal progress by contacting us via social media @gardenuity.