7 gardening habits to cultivate

Your yard does double duty as a gym and relaxation spa. Shoot for a minimum of 30 minutes of yard work three to five days a week. You'll be controlling your diabetes and raising your property value at the same time.

When you start up a garden, break the soil up yourself with a shovel.

• If you're ambitious and your garden is too big to till in one session, split the job into smaller sessions or rent a tiller, which will still exercise your arms.
• In either case, wear gloves to prevent blisters.

Give the soil in your yard a break from weed-killing chemicals. Instead, pull the weeds out of the dirt by hand.

• All you need are gloves, a weed-digging tool, a bag in which to discard the weeds and kneepads.
• With your right hand, jab the weed-digging tool into the earth at the plant's base to loosen the roots, and then pull it out with your left.
• Every 10 minutes, switch hands. The activity not only beautifies your yard, it'll burn 306 calories per hour for a 68-kilogram (150-pound) person.

Pick a flower bed in your front yard that's prominent and visible from the street.

• Now give that bed the full treatment: well-fertilized soil; a newly installed, handsome border; carefully scheduled watering; and flowers selected for colour, height and season-long blooming.

Besides great exercise, neighbours strolling by will ooh and aah, and you may even strike up friendships that you wouldn't have otherwise.

Compost piles are good for the environment because they return biological materials, such as grass trimmings and banana peels, to the soil.

• But cultivating them can also give you a physical workout.
• A compost pile must be turned periodically to keep the rotting process humming along, which requires a little hoeing, raking, shovelling or pitch-forking.
• You can burn off 250 to 300 calories in just 30 minutes of pile-turning.

The easiest way to water your garden is to set up a sprinkler, but that doesn't do your body any good.

• Take a turn around the yard and aim the hose at each plant individually, as tugging and carrying the hose will work your muscles.
• When this becomes easy, haul out the water can instead of the hose. You'll know that your strength has improved when you're able to fill the can all the way and carry it with ease.

Veggies you grow yourself are as local and healthy as you can get.

• You know that they're fresh as can be, and you know if any treatments have been used on them.
• You'll be so pleased with yourself for having grown them that you're more likely to cook them frequently and you'll make sure that they won't go to waste.

Culinary herbs tend to thrive in hot, dry conditions where nothing else seems to flourish.

• Try sage, oregano, thyme, rosemary, tarragon and basil.
• Feed plants only with compost and water them as little as possible. This encourages compact growth and intensifies the oils that give the herbs their fragrance and flavour.

To dry the herbs, cut sprigs early in the morning, when the fragrances are strongest. Place them in a large paper bag (one for each type of herb), then put the bag in a sunny spot. The herbs will dry fully within a day or two.

According to the University of Alberta, gardening is an excellent stress reliever.

Spend more time in the garden to help combat stress and get some extra exercise, both important habits in the battle against diabetes.