Gardening helps 'keep body healthy'

16:35 26th October 2011

Greenhouse enhtusiasts might be interested to hear that gardening is the key to keeping your body healthy well into old age, that is according to the Daily Telegraph's gardening expert Bunny Guinness.

Regular panellist on BBC Radio Four's Gardeners' Question Time and presenter of her own horticultural TV show entitled Guinness in the Garden, Ms Guinness said that gardening can help hone core muscles to help support the spine.

In her blog for the news provider Ms Guinness cites founder of Wildfitness Tara Wood, who reportedly said that people need to be doing something useful and creative such as gardening in order to get properly motivated to exercise.

"Think up winter projects, from rejigging a border to making a watercress bog garden, to keep your enthusiasm focused. The better your garden becomes the more you exercise," Ms Guinness adds.

In July, medical officers in the UK launched a new set of guidelines to help the population get the right amount of exercise each week and they suggested that 150 minutes a week in the garden would suffice.