Did you know April is National Lawn and Landscape Month? Green lawns and blooming flowers are an essential part of the lifestyle that residents of Montgomery County enjoy, but the benefits extend beyond having a pretty place for neighborly barbecues and family picnics. While it’s long been said, “a little fresh air will do you good,” recent studies have found a more direct correlation between human health and the surrounding landscape. The results support the idea that access to green spaces decrease stress and improve overall health.
Here’s a look at some of the findings:
• Do you have trouble remembering simple things like where you left your keys or the time of your next meeting? A study conducted at Texas A&M University found that spending time around living plants can improve attention span and memory performance by as much as 20 percent.
• Dutch researchers found that green spaces can be indicative of good health, finding that people who live less than a mile from green spaces, such as parks and botanical gardens, had lower rates of physical and mental illness. A separate study also showed that people who live on streets with more trees had better heart and metabolic health than those on streets with little to no trees.
• Did you know your shrubbery had medicinal properties? More than one study has shown that hospital patients who had rooms with plants or even just views of living landscapes recover as much as one full day faster compared to people recovering in rooms without plants or views of nature.
• In addition to helping heal, the National Institute of Health found that hiking or walking through nature can reduce stress and lower anxiety, as well as boost memory and your brain’s overall performance.
• Don’t live near any parks, gardens or forests? Maybe you should. Researchers in England discovered that the benefits of improved mental and physical health appear almost immediately in people that move or relocate to areas near green spaces and living landscapes. The same study also confirmed that people relocating to more urbanized areas showed decreasing levels of mental health.
These benefits reinforce the importance of maintaining parks and other community green spaces, but, you don’t need to venture far to reap the benefits of nature. Green up your own yard with trees, shrubs and flowering plants. Once you’ve got your landscape how you want it, we can help you create an outdoor living space that will make it hard to leave your own backyard.
Schedule your next remodel or addition with Kitchen and Bath Depot and we will give you a gift certificate to a local nursery to help you on the road to better living. For more information contact us.