Kathy’s Home & Garden Tips – Garden Therapy

It is interesting how people react differently when faced with a crisis such as the recent pandemic. Many people took the time to work out and improve their bodies, while others sought to learn new things. Many spent more time in the kitchen; I have not seen so many different pictures of homemade sourdough bread in my life! No wonder yeast and flour were in short supply.  

As the pandemic and springtime coincided, there was a crazed interest in gardening. Sales of all things gardening, from plants and seeds to dirt and implements, were up 35% over last year. Internet searches about gardening were 6 times higher than the previous year. Garden centers were declared essential, and lines were around the parking lot. 

I think people understood subconsciously that gardening was just what we needed. There are microbes in soil released when digging and handling dirt. Mycobacterium vaccae may stimulate serotonin levels. It could have the same effect as Prozac on your brain neurons. There is a new book out called “The Well Gardened Mind” by Sue Stuart-Smith, a British Psychiatrist. She goes beyond the thought that simply getting out in the garden is good for you. Stuart-Smith goes deeper into the unconscious aspects like symbolism and metaphor. When we plant a seed, we plant a narrative of future possibilities. Gardening can be that space where your innermost thoughts and the real world can meet. 

Gardening can also be helpful for people suffering from P.T.S.D. and similar afflictions. There are no expectations, just quiet. Working in the soil is restorative to many suffering bereavements. Gardening has reparative power. It can make a person feel they are good, rather than just feeling good. The repetitive and meditative aspects of gardening can be like play for adults who have long stopped playing. 

This interest in gardening during crises is not new. Soldiers in the First World War planted not just vegetables but flowers in their trenches. Gardening allows us to have some control in a world increasingly out of our control. We long for the regenerative power of nature. Your garden can be a fantastic mess or the most manicured, and it will still give you the same benefits. It is a process, sometimes thriving, sometimes hibernating, and even dying. So, get into an in-depth relationship with your garden and see how much better your outlook on life, and this pandemic will improve.

KATHLEEN WEAVER-ZECH AND DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO