Landscape design can have a major impact on not only how your home is perceived by strangers, but how you feel about your land yourself. Looking out at your yard or garden can be either extremely satisfactory, or a little disheartening. Even if your landscape design wasn’t at the top of your priority list, it’s hard not to be a little embarrassed when your grass is yellow instead of green, or when what once was a garden is overrun with weeds. Plus, there’s a lot more to keeping a beautiful landscape than simply planting seeds and trimming hedges. Your landscape is a living, constantly changing thing. And there are plenty of ways that it can benefit you — and plenty of secrets you probably don’t even know about landscape design and gardening.

1. Flowers Help Cure Depression

We often see flowers as somewhat superfluous. They’re beautiful, it’s true, and some of them have health benefits and are even edible. But the fact is that they don’t have the practical applications of fruits and vegetables — or do they? Your flower nursery may be able to help cure your depression. On average, seniors observe an 81% reduction in depression after simply receiving flowers — imagine how much your depression will reduce once you start working with them on a regular basis. Flowers are beautiful, relatively simple to care for, and give a visual result for people working with them. Adding flowers to your landscape is included in some landscaping packages, meaning that you don’t even have to tend to the initial, more difficult growth yourself.

2. Gardening Betters Your Health

Experienced landscapers will be the first to admit that if you want to get a workout out of gardening, you can. This isn’t for everyone, but gardening can be an easy way to achieve the two and a half hours of weekly exercise that most people should aim for. Unlike the treadmill, however, gardening has a clear and enjoyable result. The beautiful appearance of your garden is your reward for exercising, and a great one at that. A Stockholm study even reported that regular gardening cuts your risk for heart attack or stroke after 60 by 30%. It can even reduce the risk of dementia by 36% — with some studies increasing that estimate to 46%.

3. Grapes Have A Storied History

Yes, we all know that grapes are not just fruit — they’re how we get wine! But the fact is that wine isn’t something we started enjoying within the past few centuries. According to archeologists, grapes were grown to make wine as far as 8,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. The process wasn’t recorded, however, until Ancient Egyptians began doing so 5,000 years ago. It’s no wonder wine is so culturally important today — we’ve been enjoying it for longer than anyone could ever remember.

4. Trees Are Borderline Immortal

Maybe “immortal” is stretching it. But if you plan on contacting your landscape services about having trees planted, you may want to consider a type of tree with greater longevity. That way, it will be enjoyed by generations to come. And immortal or not, trees do live for a very long time. The bristlecone pine is the longest lived tree in the world, with the oldest growing to elevations of 10,000 or 11,000 feet high. The oldest of these trees, “Methuselah”, is 4,789 years old.

5. Bamboo Could Change Your Garden’s Entire Look

Did you know that bamboo can grow 35 inches a day? It’s the fastest growing woody plants in the world, and it can change the entire look of your garden. Can bamboo be a challenge? Yes — it may be a good project for an advanced gardener. But once an experienced landscape designer shows you the ropes, you should be good to go. Bamboo will make your garden look a little more creative, and a bit less like every other boring, “English countryside” garden on the block.