Gardening is more than a hobby; it's a scientifically proven anti-depressant. No wonder you like to dig in the dirt.
Vegetable gardening is my therapy. I don’t mean that in a lighthearted, print it on a tee shirt with a picture of a dancing beet kind of way. I mean, for real, no joke, gardening is my therapy.
Some people will look at this photo and all they'll see is work. Others? Just looking at a garden calms us.
I can't even explain to you how or why gardening is therapeutic for me. It just is. I go to my garden and I feel better. Even if I'm already feeling pretty good. It doesn't make any difference what I'm doing there. I could be weeding, lugging soil, building planter beds or just walking around to check on things ... they all make me feel ... better.
A whole GROUP of people who love to garden.
And I’m not the only one who feels this way. Gardening (vegetable or not) is proven to be an effective method of improving mental health. There are genuine scientific reasons for this, like the fact that gardening reduces stress by decreasing the production of cortisol. I have no idea why this is such a good thing but it is. Scientific people, who wear lab coats and stuff, say so.
Table of Contents
Gardening Gets Us Out of Our Heads.
Apparently, gardening in a community garden is especially good for anyone who has anxiety, depression or emotional pain. This is because gardening forces us to focus on the external world; things like dirt, bugs, the sun, and seeds. This, as opposed to internal things like worries, pain, and what to watch next on Netflix.
Gardening is Exercise
Community gardening also brings us together with other people (being social has huge mental health benefits) and gets us exercising, which is a mood enhancer unless the exercise you're doing is running, which everyone knows is the number 3 torture technique in the world falling just behind watching someone eat pizza when you can't have any, and listening to a child play the recorder.
If you haven't seen it before, this is my 40' x 40' community mental health facility. I mean garden.
Gardening is officially one of the best things you can do for your mental health. The only people this isn’t true for, are people who genuinely hate gardening. You know, weirdos.
But really. What IS it that is so relaxing about gardening? Why does it make us feel good? For me I know a lot of it has to do with being outside. I did a bit of research into this and found the same quote over and over again.
"Nature Calms Us."
O.K. Fine. But WHY does nature calm us. Why nature and not ... an Ikea warehouse for example?
I gave it a lot of thought and I think I have one of the answers.
We can't control nature. We can't budge it, change it or buy it. If you're in your house your thoughts are probably bouncing around from "I need to do laundry" to "I want to try the couch against the other wall" to "Why does everyone leave their shoes directly in front of the door?". These are all things you feel like you need to deal with at some point.
That doesn't happen in nature. You're rendered ... decisionless. When's the last time you went on a walk in the forest or a field and decided it needed a little rearranging. Maybe a row of Billy bookcases. It isn't an option so you don't even think about it. In nature you completely give up control. And the need to control things is what causes a LOT of stress. Giving up that control is incredibly calming.
Of course in vegetable gardening you're constantly trying to control everything from bugs to blight but that ruins my point so let's ignore that.
Gardening is Nurturing.
Gardening at its most basic level is taking care of living things that don't barf on you. Win win. This makes gardening especially good for people who don't have pets, kids or spouses around to take care of. It's human nature to nurture things. And then eat them. With butter.
If you've always wanted to start a garden, not necessarily on the scale I do it, but just to putter. One garden bed or instance. Or a planter of herbs by your door.
Make this the year that you do it, no matter what year it is that you're reading this.
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→Follow me on Instagram where I often make a fool of myself←
Beckie
Every time someone stops by my fence to admire my garden then proceeds to say "it's so much work" I reply "It's not work, it's what keeps me from killing people"
I'm only half-kidding about the prospect of murder.
Susan Mercurio
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Kat
Gardening saved me years ago from succumbing to depression after surgery for cancer. All I did for the first month was pull creeping charlie out of the lawn. There was something so soothing about sitting in the dirt for literally hours and doing just that while I recovered, thinking those vines were like the bad boys that had invaded my body. Saved me again last year when during Covid closure when I ripped out half the lawn to put vegetable and flower beds in...and they’re staying! Lived in Germany for a while before Covid and every Sunday seemed to be family day! No Sunday shopping and all the families went ‘wandern’, meaning walking on a trail, or up a hill, or in a wild, uncultivated park trail (there were many!) It was wonderful! So peaceful being around trees and untamed grass and wild flowers. And all these hikes always ended up at an outdoor bakery /cafe for Kaffeeklatsch, giving proof to the fact that you CAN have it all and eat cake too! 😉
Quatorze
I’m a big proponent of cycle therapy - and starting the day with your blog. Since I’ve already read your excellent and uplifting blog on gardening, the only thing left to do is get out there and ride!
Janis
Absolutely true - I am digging, germinating, journaling, plotting my way through COVID! Thanks so much for helping with that. J in southern France.
Diana Mackey
Your post says it all! I am allergic to green veggies (for real-tested and everything) but I still have fun putting in a huge garden each year. It used to be my quiet place, then the school next door put in an amusement park (okay, play area) complete with insanely annoying xylophone and zipline just 33 inches from my garden. It's never quiet now...and I'll bet my tone deaf monsters can beat out your child with the recorder any ol'day!!! lol
leo muzzin
yes indeed, gardening is therapeutic! Just thinking that if the therapeutic value of a garden is proportional to it's size, I'm going to need a way bigger plot! LOL
jessie
Love this post, and the manner in which you attempted to clarify why cultivating is theuraputic. Not surprisingly, in an entertaining yet exceptionally important way. you've helped me to remember bowing before my lavender plants, turns in the dirt. Exquisite
WA Reticulation
Well worth a read. Got great insights and information from your blog. Thanks.
LizS
I LOVE this article. And I love to garden, too. But my real therapy is cooking -- long, complicated projects are the best. I find being in the kitchen, chopping and sauteing meditative. Most people look at my weirdly when I admit that.
Susan Mercurio
People think that I am weird so much that I have decided that I'm not an American.
I love to cook long, complicated things also, and that's where gardening comes in: got to grow all that stuff to cook with, right? Many of the ingredients (vegetables) aren't in the grocery stores, or, if they are, they cost a fortune.
Carrie
What a great word to describe gardening....."calming". That is indeed what I felt looking at the photo,and a little jealousy. Lol
I fractured my knee,my leg and ankle and now have a lot of hardware (think bionic woman......oops I'm dating myself....lol) almost 2 years ago and I really wonder if I'll garden again? Anyone that knows me understands how devastating this is for me. I didnt just garden but I can,pickle, make sauce etc. I start a lot from seed in my greenhouse.
I love to watch things grow and give most of it away. Like you say, most people see work but I see joy! I remind myself this when I'm battling flea beetles and larvae from cabbage moths.....you know.....garden control.😁
This past year I was so down about it my hubby planted pumpkins right outside our bedroom window so I could watch them grow.
Anyway, I hope to one day be steady and flexible enough to get back to my happy place.
Enjoy that beautiful garden Karen!
Take nothing for granted because you never know.🌻🌻🌻🌻
Susan Mercurio
Do you have room enough for your husband to put in raised beds? You can garden in them even if you are in a wheelchair. Sites that discuss this are, for example, Johnny's Seeds and Gardener's Supply. (Of course they are trying to sell you something, but still...)
They sell foldable seats, also, so that you can sit down from time to time or the whole time you're gardening.
Put technology to work for you! There's a way around anything.
Grammy
I've always said my garden was my therapy, too. Back when I was starting out in a "blended family" -- newlyweds who both brought exes and kids to the marriage just to make sure there would be added stress to the arrangement -- it most likely quite literally saved all our lives. I was working 40 hours a week, commuting about 8 hours more, and came home each evening to children and spouse who for some reason looked at me like I was supposed to feed them.
I started the vegetable garden for three reasons: because I'd always wanted one, because money was tight and it would help feed all those hungry mouths if I could grow some food, and because it was the only place on earth where everyone left me alone for a bit, lest they be asked to help. Throughout those lovely adolescent years that came later, it was downright critical to keep me from strangling one or more of them a number of times.
The smell of damp soil is the most relaxing scent ever. Getting down on my knees to inspect seedlings, catch weeds before they got a chance to do me harm, deal with bugs (usually by leaving them alone and making notes) and harvest whatever there was to include with the dinner I would make an hour later, I shed all the stress of the workday and actually felt like smiling at my new brood when I entered the kitchen.
Now that the youngest is almost fifty and I'm just growing for two of us mostly, I've reduced the size of the garden, but it still has the same effect on my well-being. I credit having the garden with allowing our blended family to still be happy to be together after more than 40 years.
Sorry, Karen. You got me all nostalgic with your beautiful post and I rambled on again.
Amy G
Karen & Grammy,
This was JUST what was needed this morning, thank you! -AG
Caffeiiinated
Wow~ beautiful
Thanks for sharing ❤️
Laura
I so agree with you Karen...my gardens...veg and flower...are my escape and oasis. Time flies in the garden. I bend down to pull a few weeds and POOF hours have gone by and I've weeded all my gardens and still don't want to come in to make dinner.
Fabulous reply Grammy...love your story.
Kay Kay from Sequim
Saw your article in the Lee Valley Newsletter. You listed djuna zucchini as your choice for zucchini planting. I tested that variety and two others in my community garden last year. I would recommend Mutabile from adaptiveseeds.com. It far outperformed the others in powdery mildew resistance and was tops in flavor, too. Community gardening is my therapy, too.
Lisa G
PREACH, sister. I handle my mental health solutions like I handle feminine products on a bad day: I double up. Garden AND therapist. And I end up talking to my therapist about my garden and that seems to calm her, too. She needs that after I've dumped on her about work for 40 minutes.
Lauren
YES!! Gardening is absolutely therapy for me, too. Even later this month when I get to thinking about seedlings; even though they'll start indoors, I love coming home after work and checking on my little plant babies! I completely feel ya- gardening is an instant calming force.
I'd even add a point about veg and herb gardening- when you harvest tomatoes and basil for your first caprese salad, talk about a sense validation and accomplishment!! It's like a little garden of goodness chanting "Hey, look at you there, you grew us!! We are healthy and soooo delicious! You are awesome!!"
Emily
I love your insight into why nature calms us! I am an artist and a lot of my work deals with exploring nature and facing the unknown, so this is something I've been thinking about a lot, but I hadn't come up with this perspective. It's funny because loss of control sounds stressful, but I think you are right on!
Jane C.
When I was still living with my parents, I would often come home from work and head out to the garden to pull weeds for half an hour. That would get rid of all the stress from my workday (and there was often a lot). Years later I suffered from severe depression but kept up my small flower border at my own house, and a few veggies in the neighbour's yard. It truly was therapy. A few years later, now in another house with a huge yard, I was still severely depressed, but created flower beds because I needed to have them. I now have nine flower beds of various sizes, and a small vegetable garden. I still struggle with a low-grade depression in the winter when I can't get outside. I read somewhere that gardening is beneficial because it's always a positive experience; one does not go out to the garden with the intention of doing harm. Even weeding, pruning and deadheading are done for the benefit of the garden. People ask me why I don't move into a condo. Because then I couldn't have gardens, that's why!!
Nichole
It's certainly therapy! But then again, when you have to text HELO to your daughter to ask her to help you refrain from buying MORE roses, or bargain plants, or seeds, or bulbs (my latest trip to Costco was a total fail...6 bags of summer bulbs I really don't need) what to do? I have zero control. New house last yr gave me an excuse to go bat shit...but really...do you think 52 varieties of tomato seeds are enough to try this yr? Then to top it off I worked as a merchandiser at the local Lowes garden center last yr. so had to buy all those shrubs. Karen, I see now that the therapy is part of a cycle bordering on addiction for me. LOL . At least is a beautiful cycle!!! Love your garden girl, i dream of taming mine and organizing one day. Until then....it's unbridled excess! PS, tackling starting Lisanthus from seed this yr. 13 varieties...
Nichole
I meant text HELP haha
Megan Bell
I live in a place that I can't dig into the dirt. So last year I bought 4 rolling hydroponic planters and 2 smaller planters. I grew 2 types of tomatoes, 6 pepper plants, basil, mint, and chives. I didn't use most of the herbs and they over grew the pots quickly. I did use most of the tomatoes, but I had way too many peppers. I was trying to think of some other things I could grow in the planters that would work - maybe green beans. Any suggestions?
Karen
Hi Megan! You can grow almost anything in containers. Honestly. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, green beans (Mascotte is a good very small growth habit variety), garlic, carrots, beets ... you name it. ~ karen!
Heather
Last year, I got a call from the city's head arborist complimenting me on my front garden, because it's filled with native plants. I've rescued most of them from building sites over the past 16 years, and they've completely taken over the lawn, so there's hardly anything to maintain. Being a lazy gardener, I find that very satisfactory. I love the animals and insects that have followed the plants. Last year, we had a 5 lined skink, Ontario's only native lizard, living in a pot at the end of the front walk. I hope he's back this year! Can't wait for Spring. Your garden inspired me to grow veggies last year, and the whole family loved it. Thanks, Karen! :)
Kris
Gardening is my solace and wonder.... I can recall as a child NEEDING that cool Venus fly trap at the grocery store... and an odd compulsion to foster my mothers dying creeping Charlie plant with those Plant food tabs. It’s manifested from there for over 40+ years.... gardening is just magical... take a seed add water and watch it grow ... and combining my love of gardening with a real challenge has created fun moments like this...
Karen
You grew your own hat?!! ;) That is one amazing pumpkin! How big was the seed, lol! ~ karen