Gardening and its Benefits
“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Among other things leaving the world a bit better by a garden patch means that you have led a successful life. Surprisingly, our Kashmir valley, known for its beautiful flowery gardens has hardly enthused the common man to adopt gardening as a hobby even as it leads to immense health benefits. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic when many people were cut off from social gatherings, while anxious Americans picked up their rakes and spades, Kashmiris were hardly seen tending to the soil in the gardens around their homes.
In the United States, record numbers of people began cultivating coronavirus victory gardens and in a matter of weeks, seeds, seedlings, and fruit trees sold out online and in gardening centres. As it turns out, the impulse to garden is actually a great idea — whether or not you are coping with a crisis — because gardening is one of the healthiest hobbies you can develop.
In the First World War, British prisoners in the civilian internment camp at Ruhleben in Germany were sent seeds and plants by the Royal Horticultural Society in London to help them to develop a successful garden. At the urban prison in Wandsworth, a collaboration with The Conservation Foundation has seen green areas introduced into the prison and an exercise yard dug up to make way for a vegetable garden where produce can be grown. Such gardens around prisons have a long history of improving the lives of the prisoners and offering training towards employment in the horticulture industry.
Gardening invites you to get outside, interact with other gardeners, and take charge of your own need for exercise, healthy food, and beautiful surroundings. If you are digging, hauling, and harvesting, your physical strength, heart health, weight, sleep, and immune systems all benefit. And those are just the physiological outcomes. Gardening can also cultivate feelings of empowerment, connection, and creative calm.
Gardening isn’t just about planting seeds and watching them grow; it is a timeless practice that connects us with nature’s rhythms, teaches us patience, and fills our lives with beauty and sustenance. Throughout history, poets, philosophers, and gardeners alike have waxed lyrical about the joys and lessons found in the garden. There is a profound connection between humans and the earth, and the happiness and fulfilment that can be found in nurturing life through gardening.
Outdoor gardening helps our body fight disease. We are more like a plant than we may realize. Our body is capable of photosynthesis — the process where plants make their own food using sunlight. Our skin uses sunlight to make one of the nutrients we need: vitamin D. Researchers estimate that a half hour in the sun can produce between 8,000 and 50,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D in our body, depending on how much our clothes cover and the colour of our skin. Vitamin D is essential for literally hundreds of body functions — strengthening our bones and our immune system are just two of them. Studies have also shown that being out in the sun can help lower your risk of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, bladder cancer, prostrate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, multiple sclerosis. If our Vitamin D levels are low, we have a greater risk of developing psoriasis flares, metabolic syndrome (a prediabetes condition), type II diabetes, and dementia, as well. All of these factors have to be balanced against the risk of skin cancer from overexposure to the sun’s rays, of course. But the science is clear: A little sunshine in the garden goes a very long way in your body.
Time spent in the garden can benefit us in many more ways. Cardio exercises include raking leaves, weeding, and gardening. Medical experts recommend at least 150 minutes of cardio a week, or approximately 30 minutes five days a week. That could be the equivalent of planting many beautiful flowers or healthy tomatoes! Studies show that tending to vegetables and other plants reduces stress and boosts mood. Seeing all you accomplished in the garden can certainly raise spirits. According to research published in the journal Clinical Medicine, digging in the dirt may help protect against dementia.
Gardening is a physical, mental, and leisure activity — a combination that can boost memory and reduce the risk of dementia. Cultivating vegetables and herbs encourages your family to eat healthy. Ask each family member to choose a vegetable they want to plant (and then eat when it is grown!). Being active during the day — including sweating it out in your garden — helps you sleep better at night. Getting a good night’s sleep is important for your overall health. It also reduces stress and lowers your risk of serious diseases. On the economy front, growing plants often costs less than buying them at the store. There are many places to buy plants and seedlings in our area. Check out local farms and garden centres.
Gardening is an effective tool if you’re recovering from addiction. Horticultural therapy has been around for millennia, so it probably won’t surprise you to learn that working with plants is part of many addiction recovery programs. In one study, researchers noted that plants provoked positive feelings in people recovering from alcohol addiction, and were an effective rehabilitation tool. In another study, people in an addiction rehabilitation program were given an opportunity to participate in natural recovery, where they were allowed to choose either art or gardening as their natural therapy. People who chose gardening completed the rehab program at a higher rate and reported a more satisfying experience than those who chose art.
Gardening is a mood booster. Studies in the United States and abroad have found that gardening improves your mood and increases your self-esteem. When people spend time in a garden, their anxiety levels drop and they feel less depressed. In a multi-year study published in 2011, people with depression participated in a gardening intervention for 12 weeks. Afterward, researchers measured several aspects of their mental health, including depression symptoms, finding that all of them were significantly improved. And those improvements lasted for months after the intervention ended.
Family and community gardens foster feelings of connection to our psychological advantage. School gardens, family gardens, and community gardens flourishing across a town or a village may have as much to do with human interaction as it does with the produce. In another study students reported that the skills they learned and relationships they formed gave them a sense of personal well-being. Working in a garden with people of different ages, abilities, and backgrounds is a way to expand both what you know and who you know.
Trees, hedges, and other plants counter climate change by trapping carbon and emitting oxygen; and worldwide, forests may offset a quarter of man-made carbon dioxide. They also improve the environment by reducing noise, heat, glare, wind, water run-off, erosion and dust. Cooling from shading and the evaporation of water from leaves can reduce the need for air conditioning in buildings, and cooling also reduces the formation of some pollutants, such as ozone. Even lawns and turf are helpful, also trapping pollutants and passing them on to soil microorganisms, in addition to providing recreational space for exercise. Plants may also help to solve the problem of polluted soils in industrial areas. Architects are reluctant to preserve old trees or add them to their developments, and so trees must be protected or included in planning consent conditions, and later properly maintained.
Let not the sweat, frustration, dirty fingernails and scraped knees deter you from pursuing a worthy goal: healthier, happier lives. The perfect tomato out of the ground, the fresh picked greens not only save a trip to the grocery store but also gave happier feelings and sense of achievement. Gardening can indeed change one’s life. A meta-analysis published in the Journal (March 2017) «Preventive Medicine Reports» found that gardening reduced depression & anxiety and increased satisfaction and quality of life.
Whether your patch is large or small, a raised bed, community garden, or window box, getting dirty and eating clean are good for us all. The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul. (Alfred Austin) The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies. (Gertrude Jekyll) Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas. (Elizabeth Murray)…. And my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. (Wordsworth)
Bhushan Lal Razdan, formerly of the Indian Revenue Service, retired as Director General of Income Tax (Investigation), Chandigarh.
