Those who regularly keep their garden in shape with equipment such as push mowers could enjoy a better degree of heart health and reduced levels of stress.
A new report published in HortTechnology – drawn from research conducted by workers at the Department of Horticultural Therapy at the Catholic University of Daegu in South Korea – has found this could be the case.
It was revealed gardening activities offer a range of significant health benefits and in order to establish this, heart rate variation was monitored over an extended period of time in people at the centre.
The measure would be taken five minutes before and five minutes after each horticultural activity.
One such task participants were given was to plant things, or maintain flowers – which could have involved pruning them with cordless secateurs.
This work was said to nurture significant improvements in the usual deviation from normal interval heart rate variation measurements.
Doing jobs with garden tools more generally can improve physical fitness, mental alertness and an individual's intake of vitamin D, according to experts.
Indeed, celebrity gardener Rachel de Thame and mental health charity Mind recently launched a campaign intended to raise awareness of how simple it can be to improve psychological wellbeing during the colder and darker months.
They cited research that indicated winter blues are usually brought about by the reduced hours of sunlight, with Ms de Thame emphasising the therapeutic effects offered by simply being outside, regardless of the temperature or climate.
Min-Jung Lee, who led the Daegu research, claimed planting can be particularly beneficial in terms of rehabilitation for those who struggle with mental tasks.
"We inferred that activities such as cutting stems with shears and arranging the cut stems in the exact location are difficult jobs for mentally challenged people," she said.
