A grandma is getting ready to harvest the vegetables she’d been growing to cook dinner for her family. The girl down the street just started planting various flowers in her yard and noticed bees, birds and butterflies swarming. The local gardeners group is in the park planting the trees that will be purifying the neighborhood air in upcoming years. These people all contribute to the environment and benefit themselves at the same time, all because they decided to plant a seed.

Gardening not only benefits the environment, but it also helps you. “Personally, gardening helps me clear my mind and relieve stress,” sophomore Arjun Ram said.

Additionally, outdoor gardening can help your body fight disease. Your skin uses the sunlight to make the nutrients you need. Vitamins help strengthen your bones and immune system and can help reduce chances of cancer.

Starting your own garden also contributes to mitigating global warming. Growing your own food helps minimize trips to the grocery store, cutting down on greenhouse gas emission from cars. Local produce is also better for the environment because it reduces the amount of goods being shipped on large vehicles. Nothing gets more local than your own backyard. Plus,

“The vegetables my family grows also just taste better to me than store bought ones,” Ram said, Growing plants and trees is also a part of removing carbon dioxide from the air. Soil and trees store carbon and release oxygen into the atmosphere. Further, composting significantly reduces your carbon footprint and provides natural nutrients rather than chemical fertilizers to the soil.

By gardening, you can also ultimately help global wildlife. Local pollinators are attracted to flowers and plants that they use to pollinate. Pollinating leads to more growth of plants and the expansion of species. “Including a pond or small body of water in your garden can inhabitat fish, snails and other animals,” junior Hope Safai said.

Starting a garden is simple. “Someone can start gardening by picking what they want to plant, researching for the right materials to help the plant grow, and making sure you have time to tend to the garden,” sophomore Madison Moorhead said, 

You can plant anything from food to flowers, all for different purposes, such as beautifying your lawn or harvesting vegetables. All it takes is simple steps and commitment to get started. “You can garden at your house, in your backyard, and wherever you can plant a seed exposed to the sun,” Ram said

It could be hard to begin because it adds another thing to do. “The only problem I can think of is that there is barely any time to take care of a garden within my busy schedule,” Moorhead said.

Though a large outdoor garden with a variety of different plants can become a timely activity, it can require as little as a couple of minutes of the day to water small house plants. The benefits of starting a garden heavily outweigh the disadvantages and gardening is a highly recommended activity.