Melvin Durai
My wife and I have a flower garden in front of our house and a vegetable garden at the back. I do the digging and planting in the garden, and my wife contributes by asking important questions, such as “Why are there so many weeds?” and “Why are there so few tomatoes?” In other words, I am the gardener and she is the quality control inspector. She plays a critical role that I do not want to diminish in any way.
Without her, we would not have a vegetable garden. It was her desire to create one, overriding my desire to spend more time on the couch. It’s not that gardening takes a ton of work, but you may have to invest quite a bit of time and effort to get started. And once you’ve created the garden, you have to continually water, fertilize and weed your garden. You may also have to do some running: run outside to scare away a wild animal eating your vegetables. And run inside to evade an angry bee. You could pay someone to do the gardening for you, as many people do, but then you’re also giving away most of the health benefits. You get the benefit of admiring a beautiful garden and eating fresh vegetables, but the gardener gets exercise, a boost to their brain health and some stress relief.
Actually, I’m not sure how much stress relief you get from gardening if it’s your actual job. But scientific studies have shown that gardening reduces cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone. One study even showed that gardening is a more effective stress-reliever and more relaxing than reading books, especially if you’re reading Stephen King. Gardening gives you exercise that can vary from low-intensity (weeding or raking) to mid-intensity (digging or pushing a wheelbarrow) to high intensity (jumping or running to avoid some angry ants). Gardening can also improve your flexibility. You sometimes have to bend over backwards to accommodate the weather. You can’t garden during a thunderstorm. And if there’s a drought, you have to be diligent about your watering. What most people overlook about gardening is its positive impact on brain health, as scientific studies have shown. “Beyond physical benefits, gardening provides mental stimulation — planning, remembering plant care and problem-solving — which engages memory and executive function, supporting slower cognitive decline over time,” Dr. Smita Patel, an integrative neurologist and sleep medicine physician at Endeavour Health, told the Washington Post.
Exercise in general has been shown to boost brain health, but here are some ways that gardeners improve their mental health: 1. Counting. Gardeners do a lot of counting. If they’re growing brinjal (eggplant), they know the number of plants they have, as well as the total number of brinjals. If you ask them, they may not be able to give you an exact number, but trust me, if one of the brinjals goes missing, they’ll know. 2. Problem-solving. As a gardener, you encounter all sorts of problems that you need to solve.
One of the most common problems is how to keep your vegetables from being eaten by someone other than you. It’s good to share your harvest, but not with anyone who doesn’t ask first, such as those dastardly rabbits. 3. Connection with nature. Just as owning a pet helps you combat loneliness, so does caring for plants, watching them grow, and occasionally talking to them. Even if you don’t talk to your plants, spending a few minutes with them each day builds a connection. When your plant is droopy, you feel sad. And when it produces a fruit or flower, you feel so good, you want to hug the plant. But that would be strange. The neighbours might be watching.