Using a garden, greenhouse or allotment to cultivate fruit and vegetables is not only a great way to save cash and put food on the table – it can also be used as gentle exercise.
Growers – especially older ones – will benefit physically from the activity, according to Grow Your Own magazine.
Editor Lucy Halsall explained that growing food takes the body through a range of movements that could help keep elderly gardeners in shape.
"You want to be tending your crops fairly regularly, so gentle digging, weeding, sowing, bending and stretching keeps people supple – they are the main activities that you do on the allotment and that must be good for people's health," she said.
Ms Halsall noted that recent research from The Netherlands has shown that those over the age of 60 who keep allotments are much healthier than those who do not.
She added that there has been a real trend developing in the UK for growing fruit and vegetables and that even those without a garden or greenhouse can cultivate food in a window box or hanging basket.
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