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he trouble with exercising is that too many people don't. The beauty of gardening is that more and more people do. Now research shows that you can exchange those highly scented bodies at the gym for highly scented flowers in your garden, and still get the advantage of a good workout. But, in my opinion, physical fitness is not the only benefit.

Gardening uses all the body's major muscle groups. Arms, legs, shoulders, stomach, neck and back all are used during an hour of raking, digging and planting. You may not end up with "buns of steel" but you will get a challenging workout that stretches and strengthens muscles and promotes cardiovascular health. Gardening also improves coordination and burns calories.

Depending on the activity, working in the garden for 45 minutes can burn the same number of calories as 30 minutes of aerobics or jogging. For example, mowing the lawn with a push mower or tilling the vegetable patch expends the same level of energy as swimming or aerobics. Digging or turning compost can burn up to 400 calories per hour. Even something as simple as planting seedlings can burn 160 calories in only 30 minutes.

Experts recommend that if exercise is your goal, your total gardening time should add up to at least 30 minutes per day. As with all exercise programs, warming up is important before you start. Stretch your muscles before you begin and make sure you alternate strenuous activities with lighter tasks. Remember that repetitions are important. You will get more exercise taking smaller loads in your wheel barrow and making more trips than you will by making fewer trips with heavier loads.

I once had a neighbour who went out to his front yard every morning around 7:30 and spent an hour pruning stray shoots off his immaculately neat hedge. He didn't do so because he cared whether his hedge was perfectly shaped. He did so because that was the time people were out, heading for the subway, walking their dogs, taking their kids to daycare. He had a cheery good morning for everyone and most stopped to exchange a few words about the weather, the state of the world or the latest community news. This gentleman's garden was more than a hedge and some lovely flower beds. It was his introduction to the people around him. He built a whole social network over that hedge.

And what better way to get to know people than to stop and admire the prolific blooms of their clematis or the striking blossoms on their rose arbour. Gardeners seem to form their own community, where common interests are shared along with perennials, and friendships are made over ordinary back fences.

In the small rural municipality that I now call home, the Horticultural Society is one of the most active community groups in town. Its monthly meetings attract between 60 and 80 people and their annual plant sale is always a sell-out. Members are responsible for the flower barrels that decorate the town each summer, and recently took on the landscaping of the new library. These people come together to take on such tasks because of their mutual love of gardening. An added benefit, of course, is the social relationships that develop when individuals are drawn together by a shared interest. Together, these people are helping to build a stronger, more beautiful community.

Anyone who has spent time tending a garden knows the soothing, stress-relieving effect that it has. It is relaxing. It takes your mind off work, family problems and all the other troubling issues that prey on us in our everyday lives. When you grow herbs and flowers you have no need for expensive aromatherapy oils for stress relief. Pick and dry some leaves and blossoms and the scents will soothe you all winter long.

And what could be better for one's self-esteem than knowing you have produced a beautiful bouquet or a delicious salad from a patch of plain, brown dirt. What a sense of accomplishment!

For enthusiasts, gardening is a year-round activity. The annual cycle begins in December with the arrival of the seed catalogues, and ends the following November (depending on where you live) when the garden is put to bed for the winter. In between , you plan and dream about your perfect garden. You nurture the seeds and young plants to the best of your ability and even if things don't work out quite the way you hoped, you can always anticipate next year. Meanwhile, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you created something that is uniquely yours. You see tangible results from your efforts that are both beautiful and fulfilling.

Gardening is one of the best means of getting in touch with our environment. As more and more people move away from chemical pesticides and herbicides and turn to other less harmful insect and weed control methods they gain a greater understanding of how their gardens work.

Studies show that pesticides can cause health problems ranging from birth defects to cancer, and that children are at particularly high risk. The use of substances that are harmful to humans for the sake of larger, redder tomatoes seems not only ludicrous but unnecessary. By understanding how the various components of the garden interact naturally, we can reduce and possibly eliminate the need for toxins.

The most effective strategy is prevention. Watch your plants to make sure insect populations don't get out of control. Some plants, such as marigolds, dill and alyssum attract beneficial insects. Providing a dish of water or bird bath will encourage beneficial insects to stay around.

Last but not least, get out the garden hoe and dandelion fork, and dig weeds by hand. As mentioned above, it's good exercise, and you will have the satisfaction of knowing you aren't adding unnecessary poisons to your neighbourhood.

Gardening has been growing in popularity by leaps and bounds during the past decade, but its benefits are neither new nor unrecognized. Many gardeners feel a powerful sense of well-being from being in touch with the earth and its natural cycles. There is a spiritual aspect to gardening that helps us achieve balance and harmony in our everyday lives.

Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emmerson went right to the root of the matter in 1841, when he said "When I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health, that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands".