There is an activity to breathe new life into discarded New Year’s resolutions. It offers cardio training, improves flexibility, builds muscle and helps to prevent osteoporosis. It can also lower stress and create an incentive to eat nutritious food – all without leaving home.

“Spring has arrived, days are getting longer, and gardening season is just around the corner. Gardening helps the pounds and inches melt away,” University of Illinois horticulture educator Martha Smith said.

“Even better, we don’t regard this as exercise because we have so much fun doing it. A quote from a fellow gardener says it all: ‘Gardening is a labor of love. A treadmill is just labor.’ ”