Gardening is the love of my life. There is nothing that attracts my attention over and over again like the call of harvesting home grown veggies and fruits, moving plants around in my shade garden, expanding garden beds, planting new things around the pond, planting container gardens, planning new rain gardens on the property, cutting some flowers to bring inside, gathering herbs fresh from the garden for use in cooking. Just as I get tired of being dirty, hot, sweaty, sore, tired of weeds, something else pops up in the garden to call me back again. The excitement of winterberries coloring the winter landscape, birds all over the holly trees, something sweet in bloom, new berries ripening. I honestly can’t imagine my life without gardening, I am obsessed.
I am also very interested in sharing this love of plants, gardening and the use of plants for medicine and nutrition with others. To me, there is nothing more satisfying than planting a seed, transplant, flower, perennial, tree and watching it grow and change throughout the years. I believe that plants have healing qualities for me (and everyone) on a mind, body and spirit level.
Spending time gardening, or spending time enjoying gardens has helped me relieve tension and stress. When I garden there is a different zone that I enter, a different world where I process things mentally and emotionally while enjoying getting dirty. It’s sort of like when you get in the zone when you’re exercising. I find irritability and sadness often are acknowledged then fall away. I’m not sure if other gardeners feel this but this connection to mental processing and releasing is that happens when I garden is healing for me.
One study, by Christopher Lowry, Ph.D., an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, proposed that a mycobacterium in the soil is responsible for increasing the release and metabolism of seratonin in the cognitive area of the brain that controls function and mood. This may account for the antidepressant effects of gardening.
Many gardeners report ‘unplugging’ from cell phones, screens, time spent behind a desk while they are in the garden. I think taking up gardening as a hobby is the perfect antidote to unwinding from work, sitting in traffic, the stress of relationships and families. It also offers a place to come together with friends and family sharing tasks together or sharing the bounty of the harvest.
Some more tangible health benefits from gardening are low impact exercise, Vitamin D from the sun and nutrition from eating home grown fruits and veggies.
Here are 4 easy ways to impart the great benefits of gardening into your life, even if you feel you’re too busy or don’t have enough space:
1. Get an earth box
Plant a few of your favorite veggie and/or herbs- Earth boxes make patio and roof top gardening easy! Here is a link to buy your very own:
2. Make a seasonal container garden
Start with a nice evergreen in the middle, like fastigiata boxwood or fernspray falsecypress. Then add in some plants that will spill over the side like vinca, sweet potatoe vine, creeping jenny and many others. Add in some seasonal flowers- pansies for the fall, primrose for the spring, gerber daisies for summer- whatever your heart desires. Get creative! A large pot container garden is also easy to access for those of you who have trouble bending down to garden in the ground.
3. Plant a new garden
Start small if you are new to this. Go to your local nursery and select 3 shrubs that you like and 5 perennials. Place them where you want to plant them. Shape a bed around them with a garden hose- give it some curve! Dig out the grass and dig holes to plant your new plants. Just be sure not to cover the base of the plant with dirt- it should be at the same level of ground as the dirt in the pot it came in. Mulch and make sure to water your new garden and look at it often. If you get the urge to move some things around or add some new plants you’ve been bitten by the gardening bug. Gardens are like fine wines that develop over years!
4. Build a raised bed
Raised beds are easy to build and easy to weed and maintain for new veggie gardeners. I recommend 4ft sides and 8ft lengths, 8-12 inches tall. Fasten the boards together at the corners with screws into a 4×4 post cut to the height of your raised bed. Fill the bed with a mix of leafgro, humus, manure and topsoil. Buy veggie transplants or plant seeds!
Raised Bed