Gardening Will Grow on You
Quinn and Eleanor Hauf at work in the author's vegetable garden.
As you may or may not know, I own a fitness facility in Stone Harbor. Due to the crazy state of the world this spring, we have been shut down since the middle of March. I have still been going to work and doing some facility maintenance – painting, minor repairs, cleaning and organizing my office, as well offering some online training. I have also taken this opportunity to do some continuing education and work on my programming so that I will be more prepared than ever to deliver results to my clients whenever it is that we are able to get back up and running.
Because all of these things can be done on whatever schedule I like, I have also been able to do some things I normally would not have the time to do. There has been a lot of cooking and baking with the kids. I now know what cookie butter is. I am the new homeschool math teacher. New math isn’t as bad as I once thought.
We have also created a vegetable garden in the backyard. In doing some research for this garden, I have discovered quite a few benefits to home gardening that you might not be aware of. Environmental benefits, economic benefits, and maybe most important right now, health benefits and mindfulness benefits. As “Gangsta Gardener” Ron Finley says, “Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do. Plus, you get strawberries.” I’d suggest checking out Finley’s lessons on masterclass.com.
Health benefits from a home garden are the easiest to see. When your fruits and vegetables are in your backyard, you can pick them at peak ripeness. This is when they will have the most flavor but also when they will be the most nutrient-dense. A lot of the fruits and veggies in the supermarket have to be picked before ripeness so that they will survive the shipping process. This reduces nutrient content and flavor. Saving gas on trips to the supermarket and the shipping of vegetables that you buy will also reduce your carbon footprint. Growing your own food is cheaper than buying it, and gardening gets you out in the sun for some much-needed Vitamin D and a little exercise. But beyond these obvious benefits, there are many you might not have realized.
Mycobacterium vaccae is a beneficial bacterium found in soil and very common in garden dirt. This bacterium is absorbed through inhalation and ingested on vegetables. It has the power to alleviate inflammatory disorders that might arise from an immune system that is out of whack.
“The idea is that as humans have moved away from farms and an agricultural or hunter-gatherer existence into cities, we have lost contact with organisms that served to regulate our immune system and suppress inappropriate inflammation,” says neuroendocrinologist Christopher Lowry. “That has put us at higher risk for inflammatory disease and stress-related psychiatric disorders.” Just getting our hands in the soil can have immense effect on our health.
I don’t know who doesn’t have something to be stressed about these days. Gardening might be the way to alleviate those feelings. In a study in the Journal of Health Psychology, “Gardening Promotes Neuroendocrine and Affective Restoration from Stress,” 30 allotment gardeners performed a stressful Stroop task and were then randomly assigned to 30 minutes of outdoor gardening or indoor reading on their own. Salivary cortisol levels and self-reported mood were repeatedly measured. Gardening and reading each led to decreases in cortisol during the recovery period, but decreases were significantly stronger in the gardening group. Positive mood was fully restored after gardening, but further deteriorated during reading.
Aside from all of the measurable effects of creating your own beautiful backyard food supply, I garden just as much for the indeterminable. There is something about sitting in your own garden that provides peace, mindfulness, accomplishment. Growing something from seed that will be able to provide your family with healthy, nourishing food for weeks or months to come is very satisfying. The act of planting something with anticipation of reward is an investment in the future.
Audrey Hepburn is quoted as saying, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”
We all need to believe in tomorrow. When my garden comes to fruition, it is going to be a new day. Get out in that garden. Get some Vitamin D. Boost your immune system. Reduce your stress. Reduce your carbon footprint. Bring nutrient-rich food to the table. Reap what you sow.
As Ron Finley also says, “If you ain’t a gardener, you ain’t gangsta.” I’m not sure I’m gangsta, but I am now a gardener.
