You know that feeling. The gentle caress of a warm breeze against your skin. The earthy scent of soil and blossoms mingling in the air. The way sunlight enters through leaves creating natural patterns on the ground or floor under our feet.
In Lakeland, you will find that at nearly every turn.
While Florida’s reputation for natural beauty often spotlights its beaches and coastal areas, you’ll find that Lakeland harbors its own collection of verdant treasures – perfect for those moments when you crave connection with nature without venturing far from home.
Beyond Your Backyard: Accessible Nature Havens
Lakeland’s suburban atmosphere offers something special—the chance to have both city living and nature nearby. You don’t have to make a big plan to enjoy nature and let it heal you.
Just a few minutes from your doorstep, botanical gardens show off the plants of Florida. Some include winding paths for every mobility level, so whatever your physical ability, you’ll be able to walk down the paths. Gardens that feature wide paved paths and benches are offered for you to choose your pace. Want to power-walk in the morning? Or would you prefer stopping to smell the flowers in the afternoon?
The designs of these spaces are valuable for senior living. You will often find handrails in sloped areas, shaded resting spots, water features in local gardens. It helps relax the place and create cooler microclimate in summer.
Finding Your Green Sanctuary
Everyone connects with nature differently. Some like formal gardens with design control while others like wilder ones that are less formal. Luckily, Lakeland’s parks offer enough variety to suit everyone.
Looking for structure and artistry? You might be attracted to formal gardens with geometric patterns and deliberate plants. This place makes use of seasonal colors so that it looks good all the time.
Prefer something less manicured? You might want to consider natural areas with boardwalks through native ecosystems to see the state’s native plants in their natural settings. Here you might see some of the local fauna doing what it does best.
When you want a little of both worlds, parks with mixed habitats (part garden, part natural area) provide ideal compromises.
Nature as Your Wellness Partner
The advantages of being in nature are more than just enjoyable pastime. Studies show that scientists believe that being in green spaces is very good for our wellbeing as we age.
When you go for a walk among the trees and the flowers, your blood pressure drops. Your stress hormones drop. Your mood lifts.
Regularly being in nature is associated with better sleep, less inflammation, better immunity, and stronger thinking abilities. If you have a chronic condition, the gentle exercise nature encourages in a garden, combined with nature’s benefits, can be very helpful.
But maybe the main benefit is the social aspect that shared open spaces offer. Gardens naturally facilitate conversation and connection. When humans are together with other humans, they are more likely to connect.
Seasonal Delights Throughout the Year
Lakeland boasts a climate perfect for gardening all year long. In other states above and including Georgia, winter brings dormancy to gardens in areas with winter. Florida’s garden offers a continuous cycle of bloom and growth.
Spring brings exuberant flowering trees and shrubs. Summer showcases tropical species at their most lush. Fall introduces subtle color shifts and fruit formations. Even the winter has its beauty of the flowers that choose the cooler days to bloom.
A garden calendar that does not end gives you the opportunity to grow a seasonal routine all year. Summers may be well suited for morning visits, while winters favour afternoons. Everything looks different with the changing seasons, even familiar surroundings. In other words, you can always expect fresh experiences from a garden.
Bringing Nature Home
The ideas you get from visiting a garden don’t have to stay with you there. You can create mini-retreats on your patio or balcony by container gardening.
Small arrangements of flowers, herbs, or ornamental plants can be made even in confined spaces. Your walls and fence sections can be used for growing crops too with vertical gardening options.
Raised planters do away with bending and kneeling for those with arthritis or mobility issues. Modern potting materials help to make moving containers easier than ever.
Taking care of even a few plants connects you with nature and keeps you active. Seeing something grow from the planting of a seed to its flowering is a wonderful thing to experience. The little activity can give you unique psychological benefits that flowers grown in bigger gardens can’t do.
Nature as Community
Garden appreciation creates natural communities. People interested in plants often swap tips and stories, helping to foster and strengthen connections through sharing similar interests.
We may find more sophisticated things to talk about at more formal gatherings like garden clubs or horticultural classes, but these conversations happen just as much in other places. In beautiful surroundings, people open up.
And isn’t that one of life’s greatest pleasures? Ever connected with new people while pursuing interests? Gardens have facilitated such moments for centuries.
In senior living communities, communal garden areas become socialising spaces for residents catching up, sitting quietly together, or taking part in activities. Community green spaces act as natural extensions of interior spaces and offer health benefits that do not stop at the walls.
Your Next Garden Adventure
What local garden would you like to visit tomorrow morning? Which natural path might you explore? Which garden will become your favourite hangout to be?
Lakeland’s hidden gardens await your discovery. Every garden has its own charm, its unique range of plants and its own quality of light and shade.
The only question is which you’ll choose to visit first.
Because in Lakeland, nature’s embrace is never far away. Seniors can spend time outdoors with nature. Nature has many physical, emotional, and social benefits. All of which will make senior living in Lakeland better than ever.
Your next garden adventure begins whenever you’re ready.
Westminster Communities of Florida® is a faith-based, not-for-profit organization serving older adults since 1954, with more than 7,000 residents in 22 communities. Learn more at https://westminstercommunitiesfl.org/
