Can gardening improve your mood? Some say it does. It’s called Horticulture therapy and its been used to help people in all sorts of situations — from prisons to care centers.

“It’s true that gardening may help reduce stress and enhance well being. Gardening (and gardens) can be a retreat, a haven and a source of comfort and renewal. It can help whether you are dealing with the stress of everyday life or a traumatic event or illness.”

Here are the ways gardens can be helpful for breaking depression, lifing your mood, or helping you feel more optimistic.

If you live alone – like many elderly do – you may need someone or something to take care of. Plants respond to care – they grow. In the case of growing vegetables you also get a reward for your work – healthy food to eat. This can help you feel competent and useful. It can also be very satisfying to be part of the process of starting from a seed and watching something grow into food.

It might be from being outdoors or maybe it’s the work but gardening can help relieve feelings of anxiety and anger. Sometimes it’s just the feeling of something bigger than yourself that helps. Gardening in groups are a good way to build community and the exercise is also benefitial.

My uncle finds a lot of satisfaction helping with his local community garden. It brings refugee families together to become more self-sufficient and strengthen ties. It helps him feel needed and that he’s doing something good. All these things are helpful and I can’t help but think of how just being unplugged from TV, iPods, the computer and everything else we have running is good. It causes us to slow down and be in the moment. It can be healing.

“Several small studies suggest that hospital patients who either had access to scenic views or gardens or had plants and flowers in their rooms recovered from surgery more quickly and have less pain and anxiety than those without such access.”

If you’re not sure where to start, look for gardening clubs or register for training through your government extension service.

Read the original article:  Smell the roses: how gardening can improve your health article on myOptumHealth.com

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• Gardening Tip: Plant Tomatoes Early with Wall o’ Water (rubberecycle.com)

I’ve heard so much about the Wall o’ Water product from gardeners recently. Now that it’s Spring we can’t wait to get started. This weekend I planted my peas, lettuce, and beans. You’ll see from the picture that I love getting fresh tomatoes from the garden.

I haven’t even thought about tomatoes but if you have, here’s a tip: use wall o’ water.

As the name suggests, these clear plastic tubes are filled with water. They collect heat during the day, and then release it at night. Wall o’waters can protect tomatoes on nights as cold as 16 degrees. With this you’ll be able to harvest tomatoes 4 to 6 weeks earlier.

A 3-pack is about $10 at major retailers or make your own (see http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lab/msg0516363918431.html)

For more tips for planting tomatoes (specifically for Utah but you can modify to fit where you live) see: http://www.sltrib.com/features/ci_14865829

Happy gardening!

Are you looking for a surfacing option for your playground or backyard? There are several materials which used to cover the playgrounds for increasing their safety and enhancing their beauty. The most common materials used worldwide are pour in place rubber, rubber mulch, rubber chips and wood strips. Some families prefer artificial glass combined with rubber tiles.

Nowadays there is lot of talk about rubber mulch. There are lots of reasons for the increasing popularity of rubber mulch. Rubber mulch gives better safety. The mulch does not harms the environment around you. Rubber mulch can help a lot in decreasing the injuries in the playground area.

Where to buy high quality and durable rubber mulch? Rubber mulch can be bought from many places. You can visit a local mulch store or you can buy through internet. Internet shopping is getting more and more popular. There are several benefits of online shopping. Internet allows you to compare the prices of different products available. In this way one can make best possible choice. But do not forget to read the testimonials before buying any type of mulch. There are many websites which provide honest reviews about several new products in the market.

As caring parents it is your responsibility to look after the safety of your kids. You must be aware of the fact that kids suffer maximum injuries on the playgrounds because of lack of safety measures. Therefore it is very important to provide the kids safe play areas.

If you cover the kids’ play area with rubber mulch, it can provide safe and secure playground or play area for your kids. Rubber mulch is made from used rubber that has been reprocessed. One can use the rubber mulch for the children’s play area or for personal use in backyard or private garden. You can even landscape your garden and backyard using rubber mulch and make your kids’ play area more colorful.

Here are some advantages of rubber mulch:

• If the kids fall down on the rubber mulch while playing they will bounce off it and will not injure themselves severely.
• Its durability makes it long lasting.
• It cannot blow away in the storm.
• It cannot melt or rot, therefore will not smell.
• It does not catch dust
• It does not be a magnet for insects.
• It comes in different colors.

Children’s safety is always a matter of concern for each and every parent. Rubber mulch used to cover the play area will certainly lessen your worries about your kids’ safety on playgrounds. Rubber mulch is very commonly and widely used in the children’s play area for its safety providing character.

Playground safety surfacing, is top priority, it is very important to protect your kids at play area.

Rubber mulch is a wonderful product to use as ground cover for underneath at is highly recommended by the EPA Playground safety Use a shock absorbing material underneath and around the swing set, like rubber bond, rubber mulch with rubber curbs and wear mats. For a safe and effective playground barrier to provide the perfect finishing touch for any playground area .

Cool looking Rubberecycle mulch and rubber bond surfacing inspired products are designed to encourage children to get off the couch and into the outdoors to appreciate the natural world around them.

As mentioned in a blog post from Playground blog:  referring to the recommended rubber bond.  Rubber Bond has raised the bar in unitary playarea surfaces. Although similar in appearance to conventional poured rubber surfaces, Rubber Bond is actually a patent pending breakthrough concept in solid play surfaces.

Rubber Bond surfaces are created by spreading a thick layer of loose Rubberecycle Rubber Mulch and then applying an additional layer of rubber combined with a high quality polyurethane bond.

Rubberecycle gained national fame in 2009, when the company installed rubber mulch on the White House’s first playground. After Barbara Tulipane and Rich Dolesh of The NRPA contacted the White House to emphasize playground safety, staff representatives of the Obama administration contacted Rubberecycle. The company installed the playgrounds surfacing, complete with rubber curbs and wear mats, and was granted a visit to the White House with the President.

Playgrounds are part and parcel of the kids’ life as they enjoy the outdoor games. The injuries are also the part of the childhood as the kids fall down from the swings or slides. One can avoid such injuries by placing the rubber mulch around the kids’ play area.

The Rubberecycle mulch acts as a shock absorber as the kids bounce off it when they fall down. If you want to make your backyard playground safe for your kids’, then rubber mulch is the good option.  Apart from being available in different colors, it has many benefits. The rubber mulch cannot be blown away in the storms or washed away in heavy rains. It does not melt or rot and does not attract the insects towards it.

However when you are concerned about the playground safety, you should thing Rubberecycle mulch is highly safe for kids and great for our environment.

Therefore, if you are planning to buy mulch for your garden or backyard playground, rubber mulch is a perfect playground safety for kids.

• Clean and odor free; reduces dirt, mud, and insects
• Never rots or decomposes
• 99.9% steel-free
• Cost-effective; Lifetime warrantee!
• Non-toxic; Non-abrasive; Non-staining