Are you lucky enough to have a garden at your apartment or condominium complex, or even your place of business? Gardens in group settings offer many benefits to individuals, the community, and the environment. Let’s look at some of them.
1. Promoting Healthier Lifestyles
Community-based gardens that feature fresh fruits vegetables will naturally promote healthy eating and ready access to the produce. And if the garden is maintained by the residents or employees, they will benefit from exercise and sunshine. Even weeding can be helpful for stress relief and providing mental health benefits to participants.
2. Cleaning up the Environment
Plants naturally add oxygen to the air that people breathe. At the same time, they contribute to cleaner air by reducing pollutants. Plants further absorb rainwater, leading to less runoff in the streets, and in turn meaning that fewer pollutants are washed into rivers, streams, and lakes.
3. Beautifying the Landscape
Gardens created for businesses or residential living complexes are often built on an empty space or even a rooftop, and can bring the space to life, creating a green, living space to gather for humans, birds, and helpful insects.
4. Building Stronger Communities
When people participate in a garden by either planting, or just enjoying the harvest, they become part of a community. This also fosters a sense of ownership as the gardeners begin to feel more personally invested in their place or work or residence.
5. Making Fresh Produce Accessible
Fresh produce can be a challenge to find in many urban neighborhoods, which means that people do not always eat a healthy and nutritious diet. Obtaining produce simply is too time-consuming and costly. But a garden offered for employees or residents is a great solution to this and studies have shown that when there is a garden available, people consume more fresh fruits and vegetables.
6. Providing Opportunities for Learning
Community-based gardens are great places to learn. People are often happy to share the knowledge they have gained about growing bigger and better produce (as well as environmental issues). The gardens are also a great place to interact with and learn from individuals who may come from different backgrounds. Gardens are especially valuable for children who may know little about where food comes from and how it is grown because it gives them a chance to understand the food supply chain.
7. Serving as a Wonderful Amenity
A garden at a place of work is a wonderful employee benefit and can help distinguish the company to attract top talent. And a garden at a residential community building is a great value-added amenity as well as a source of pride for those who live there.
If you are a manager or owner of a business, or apartment or condo complex, and interested in a garden, please Contact Us.