GARDEN FOR YOUR LIFE
Ask any gardener, and they’ll tell you tending to plants is good for you. Taking time to connect with nature, relax, destress, and reflect brings untold benefits and combined with the gentle exercise and daily shot of vitamin D that gardening provides, it’s a winning formula. Increasingly, there is evidence that growing plants, and spending time outdoors, can aid with recovery from illness or addiction and improve your physical and mental health.
This understanding of the therapeutic benefits of gardens and plants is nothing new. These restorative powers have been employed throughout history to cure ailments and calm the mind. Over centuries, the design of Japanese gardens encouraged meditation and contemplation, and in ancient Egypt, the mentally ill were prescribed walks in the palace gardens by physicians. In nearly every culture, there is evidence of the use of herbs and plants to treat illness and promote health.
More recently, in Norway, people with depression are given the opportunity to work on farms; while in Singapore, mental health patients are prescribed gardening duties on hospital grounds to help reduce stress.
Wonderfully, we are now seeing gardens make a major comeback. Gardens now feature in the design of most hospitals, care centres and assisted living complexes, forming a central consideration in the design of the space. Residents and visitors to these facilities are treated to a sensory feast of fresh breezes, fragrant and vibrant greenery, shady spots to sit, walkways, and hidden sculptures – fascinating visitors of all ages.
Two exceptional local examples of this are the sensory garden for children at Burwood hospital in Christchurch and the Dyslexia Discovery Exhibition on Worcester Boulevard, both providing an opportunity to explore using smell, touch, and movement.
At home, the process of creating a garden brings a bounty of rewards. Picking and eating your homegrown vegetables or admiring a flower bed overflowing with blooms is enormously satisfying, but the process of planning, building, and caring for a garden also creates a unique opportunity that’s therapeutic. The required creativity, spontaneity, and responsibility promote emotional and physical health while encouraging community involvement and social interaction – a kind of magic potion for overall wellbeing.
A garden can give the gifts of health and happiness, and these warmer months are the perfect time to set to work planning, planting, and pottering. All that effort and dirt under the fingernails can bring only good.