Gardening is good for the body and
the soul
February 17, 2005
CATHERINE A. PERZ, PH.D.
Humanity is exalted not because we are so far above other living creatures,
but because knowing them well elevates the very concept of life.
- Edward O. Wilson, Biophilia, 1984, p. 22
Why do we garden? Today, few of us really need to garden in order to have
food to eat; even organic produce is easily available at the supermarket, and
may even be cheaper than growing it ourselves. Usually, we work with plants
because doing so fills some other important need. It keeps us busy, allows us
the long-term satisfaction of watching things grow,
and provides a sense of play.
Just looking at a garden can calm and elevate the spirits. Researchers have
found that viewing plants, flowers or gardens can reduce anxiety, anger, blood
pressure and stress. Surgery patients get better faster if their rooms overlook
a garden. Elderly nursing home patients become less passive and depressed when
allowed to choose plants and have responsibility for their garden. Gardeners
have always known that gardening was enjoyable; now it appears it is actually
therapeutic.
Psychology and psychiatry are beginning to acknowledge the therapeutic
benefits of gardening. Gardening has been found to help prevent relapses in
substance abuse patients and aid treatment of brain injury. Taking care of a
plant has been found to be beneficial for nursing home residents' well being.
In fact, one long-term study found that being responsible for taking care of a
plant was actually associated with living longer. Clearly, gardening is good
for us.
What is it about gardening that is so good for us? Is it the quiet time for reflection,
the pleasure of nurturing the growth of a living thing? Is it the visual beauty
of flowers, the satisfaction of the harvest, or could it be the old-fashioned
hard work and sweat that is healthful? One thing seems clear; it is probably
not just the mental activity of gardening (that is, the thinking and planning
and learning) that is most useful - direct involvement in the activity is where
most benefit lies. In a recent study, Hyejin Cho of
Kansas State University found that people actively involved with gardening by
completing projects like indoor landscaping had better interactions with peers,
and experienced more positive emotions than did those who simply heard lectures
about gardening. So planning your garden, dreaming over seed catalogs, and
talking with other gardeners may be fun, but getting your hands dirty is where
more of the psychological benefit lies.
Researcher Hyejin Cho, in
addition to examining whether hearing about gardening was as enjoyable as
actually physically gardening, looked at participants' blood and saliva markers
of stress to see if there was concrete evidence of the stress-relieving effects
of gardening. Cho found that, indeed, there was. The hormone markers
influencing the immune system were reduced for the gardening group. In other
words, gardening was not just more fun, and not just better for one's happiness
and relationships, but actually beneficial for the immune system.
Ecopsychologists, scientists who believe that
psychological health is defined largely by the quality of our relationship with
the natural world, would see the positive benefits of gardening as
unsurprising. This discipline sees alienation from the natural world as a
source of individual ill health and also of many social ills such as crime,
pollution and loneliness. Gardening, or horticultural therapy, has been used to
treat both individual problems such as Alzheimer's disease and urban problems
such as drug use or neighborhood decay.
Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson coined the term
"biophilia" to describe the natural
affiliation between humans and the natural environment, an inborn love of
growing things that is the heritage of our evolutionary history. In other
words,
To look on the surface of the burgeoning scientific and clinical areas now
focusing on gardening, it might seem that these discoveries are entirely novel.
But, despite modern names and controlled studies, the idea that gardening can
help heal the sick and bring happiness to the well is not new at all. Ancient
Egyptians used a form of horticultural therapy. Benjamin Rush, signer of the
Declaration of Independence and the father of American psychiatry, encouraged
gardening as therapy, too. In the 1940s and 1950s, care for hospitalized
veterans often included gardening therapy. We may be coming full circle to a
very old aspect of what it means to be human.
When you get right down to it, what is the magical ingredient that makes
gardening so psychologically healthy? While actively working in a garden is
probably best, even looking at a garden eases our ills. Gardening allows quiet
reflection, eases depression and puts our troubles in perspective. It allows us
to think outside ourselves, enhances our ability to plan and manage, increases
our patience and helps us to feel connected to the larger world. Some would say
it helps us to reconnect to our own evolutionary heritage, a psychological DNA
of sorts. It has direct beneficial effects on our immune system and helps us
manage stress.
Most of us don't garden because of scientific evidence of its salutary
effects, however. My grandfather, a grower of magnificent tomatoes and watermelons,
gardened simply because it was a pleasure. While the scientist in me thinks he
didn't know the half of it, the gardener in me knows he did.
Touring gardens on the upcoming Annual Garden Tour on April 30 and May 1 may
ease some of your ills and stress or elevate spirits and provide calm with a
recreational "state of mind " for you, your
family and friends. The