6 Ways Gardening Is Your Mental Health Ally

We all know the obvious benefits of gardening, such as having attractive plants to look at around your yard or being able to eat food from a vegetable garden, berry patch, or orchard, but gardening can be more that just something to eat or something nice to look at—gardening can be a powerful ally in improving or maintaining your mental health. 

Let’s just start from a place of honesty… whether you think you’re faring well in the Rona times or not, we are all off center in some way or another right now. Many of the things we considered normal and perhaps took for granted have either been eliminated, replaced, or at least modified in this new world. Finding things that give us a sense of being grounded, centered, or simply feeling “normal” can go a long way toward health, whether that be mental, spiritual, emotional, or physical. 

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1) Gardening is a double threat of activities—it ticks multiple boxes with one activity. Firstly, it’s physical. Gardening gets you digging, bending, raking, and hauling. On the downside, it can require a bit of kneeling and contorting, which may be difficult on joints. On the plus side, it’s a generally low-impact physical activity. Secondly, it gets you outside! Numerous studies have been done on the health benefits of simply being outside. Residents of the Pacific Northwest have been shown to be chronically deficient in Vitamin D, so get out there and soak up that sun!

2) Gardening gives you a small sense of control. While trying to be overly in control is generally thought of as a negative trait, it is widely supported that controlling the small things you *are* able to control can be conducive to your mental health. Planting a seed or transplant, watering it, and watching it grow may give you that small sense of control when the rest of the outside world is very much outside of your control.

3) Gardening makes you slow down and remember that humans are not exceptions to the cyclical nature of life. If you’ve ever gardened before, you know it isn’t a fast hobby. You plant a seed and sometimes wait many months to see the fruits of your labor in the form of produce or a flower. Witnessing the life cycle of seed, growth, bloom, and returning to seed again can remind us that we, too, are cyclical. It isn’t feasible for us to always be in “bloom”  or producing. As animals we are just as cyclical as the rest of the world. Give yourself grace that you are not always in bloom. Sometimes you’re dormant, sometimes you’re growing and it doesn’t look like much from the outside. If we fail to feed, water, and nourish a plant, it dies. Similarly, if we want to bloom in a sustainable way, we must also feed, nourish, and care for ourselves.

4) Dirt can make you happy. Research is continuing to evolve on how some soil bacteria, specifically Mycobacterium vaccae, can create a positive physiological response in humans. When this is inhaled or comes in contact with your skin while we garden, research shows it can lead to the release of serotonin in our bodies.

5) Sometimes plants die. Despite all our best efforts, sometimes plants die or don’t do well. If you're a philosophical person, you might equate this to the inevitable disappointments that come along with existence. Try as we might, not everything works out all the time, and that’s completely ok.

6) Gardening is good for the whole family. If you have children, you know that it can sometimes be a challenge to get them interested in eating fresh vegetables. If kids are involved in the process of planting, growing, and harvesting their food they may be more likely to eat something they “made.” Even if they still don't eat their veggies, being outside and off of a screen together as a family is a positive, bonding activity accessible to all ages and skill levels. 

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• mental health
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