Load Up on Vitamin N(ature) this Spring
March 24, 2023 by Laura M. Stanton
Monday, March 20th marked the first official day of Spring. Now is the perfect time to get outside and commit to increasing your daily dose of Vitamin N(ature). Why should you go outside? The health and wellness benefits of being outdoors are numerous. If you want to dive deep into these benefits, read Florence William’s book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. For now, you might want to watch her short video, What Happens When You Spend 5 minutes in Nature? Her advice: “Go outside. Go often. Bring friends. Breathe.”
Need ideas of things to do to increase your Vitamin N? Here are four activities to try outside this spring:
1. Search for spring wildflowers, also referred to as spring ephemerals. These early bloomers have been blooming for weeks and are a welcome sight year after year. Want to learn more about wildflowers? Visit the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Wildflower website to find the Spring Wildflowers of Ohio field guide, weekly wildflower bloom reports, videos, a wildflower checklist, and featured locations throughout the state.
2. Watch the stars, planets, and moon. Visit What’s Up: Skywatching Tips from NASA, an educational website with monthly highlights, daily skywatching guides, night sky news, and other educational resources about our galactic neighborhood. Have you ever seen the International Space Station in the night sky? You can enter your location on NASA’s Spot the Station website and get a calendar of sighting opportunities in your community.
3. Look and listen for migrating birds to return to your yard and community. Have you noticed the return of the chatty Red-winged Blackbirds? They are often one of the first migrants of the season. The male birds, with their black body and yellow and red shoulder patches, returns to their nesting grounds before the dark brown, streaked females. Be on the lookout for migrating waterfowl, hummingbirds, and warblers. To learn about birds, visit All About Birds and eBird, two websites maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. These websites provide enormous amounts of information about different bird species, their migration patterns, their songs and calls, their behavior, and identification information.
4. Walk, stroll, or ride on the 1,523 miles of bike trails in the Buckeye State. To learn about the different trails and find a trail near you, visit the Ohio Bikeways website hosted by the Ohio Department of Transportation. This site features trail safety tips, a bikeways brochure, and a downloadable map.
If you or someone you love has limited mobility or a difficult time getting outside, consider bringing nature indoors. Sowing seeds indoors is a fun and educational Spring activity. Using a cardboard egg carton is an easy, economical, and environmentally friendly way to plant your seeds.
Every day is an opportunity to get outside and get a healthy dose of Vitamin N. Even better, get outdoors and bring others with you. Be sure to get out and enjoy all that nature has to offer this Spring!
Written by: Laura M. Stanton, Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Warren County, stanton.60.osu.edu
Reviewed by: Shari Gallup, Assistant Professor and Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Licking County, gallup.1@osu.edu
Sources:
Louv, R. (2016). Vitamin N: The essential guide to a nature-rich life. Algonquin Books.
Stanton, L. M. (n.d.) Nature matters. OSU Extension, Warren County. go.osu.edu/nature-matters
Stanton, L. M. (2021, April 19). Get out! Celebrate nature on Earth Day and every day. Live Healthy Live Well. https://livehealthyosu.com/2021/04/19/get-out-celebrate-nature-on-earth-day-and-every-day
Stanton, L. M. (2022, May 2). How’s your environmental wellness? Live Healthy Live Well. https://livehealthyosu.com/2022/05/02/hows-your-environmental-wellness
Tedrow, S. (2022, March 8). Selecting and starting seeds. OSU Extension, Wayne County. https://wayne.osu.edu/news/selecting-and-starting-seeds
Williams, F. (2018). The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. W.W. Norton.
Williams, F. (n.d.). The Nature Fix: What Happens When You Spend Just 5 Minutes in Nature? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwQkTuhId-o
Photo Credit: All photos from AdobeStock.