Monday, March 12, 2012

Top Ten Benefits of Gardening

1)Magic - Gardening is more than hard work, maintenance and flowers lolling in the breeze.  There are moments every so often when the sunlight is on your face, the soft sound of bees buzzing reaches your ears, and the smell of earth fills your nostrils. Suddenly you open up to another smaller, more wonderful world.  Little moments of magic, I like to call them.  There is something to be said for sitting out on a patio chair early on a May morning drinking your coffee and minding your own business when a hummingbird zips up and stares you right in the face for 30 seconds.

2)Being Present In the Moment - Gardening insists that you be present in the moment, due to the sheer ephemeralness of the pastime. What you notice this very moment well might not be there tomorrow or the next day.  In a broader context though, I find the act of gardening similar to reading in that it focus's the attention down so much that it is hard to be actively gardening while also thinking about x, y, or z.  I tend to be thinking about exactly what I'm doing... and in this day and age that's rare.

3)Hope - No matter what happens out there, I am always hopeful for each and every plant.  That it will survive, get bigger, bloom nicer, quit taking over neighbor plants. I always look at each plant and see in my minds eye its most perfect self.  And, as gardens tend get better with age, I always have hope no matter what the disaster was last season.  I think the reason people like visiting others grand gardens is because it gives us hope of what ours might be someday.  And what's really nice about all this hope: sometimes we do achieve!


4)Passion - Catch someone who gardens in the late February spring fever and you'll see passion along almost fanatical lines.  I almost went to Chamblees.com and ordered two more roses at midnight a few days back, even though my 'rose picks' of the year had already been purchased with great thought and care several months before so they'd have the winter to get well established.  Its a mania.


5)Exercise - Gardening uses muscles that most people do not use.  It is a full body isometric sport.

6)Stress Relief - Part of being in the moment (#2) I think, but a very specific benefit on its own: Stress Relief. When in the garden, because of the physicality of the entire process and the utilization of most of your senses... it tends to disrupt the brain from the circular worry/dwelling/task oriented thinking which goes on contantly in the background without our consious noticing.  It is almost hard NOT to stop and smell the roses in the metaphorical sense because your brain is busy listening to the birds and bees, watching the colors and forms, feeling the gritty dirt, and smelling all the smells that are around.

7)Sense of Accomplishment - Many of us use our jobs to get our daily fix of doing something to move forward in the world. Anyone who has ever lost a job knows exactly how much of this sense of accomplishment and achievement we derive from our jobs; they have obvious rewards.  Granted there are tons of things we do every day that provide us with accomplishments, but family chores and house maintenenance don't provide that immediate sense of satisfaction.   Take weeding though.  An hour out weeding and you can see your efforts.  An hour planting a row of azaleas...instant gratification... as well as future rewards as those plants mature and become better than even your first vision of them had been.  Like a botanical pension plan, really.


8)Alone Time. Gardening is something that is generally best done alone.  Though its nice to share the garden, and I love doing so, I spend most of my time in it just being myself, all by myself, in my yuckiest clothes with no makeup on.

9)Creativity/Individuality... yes nearly everyone has a knockout rose or two, but I can tell you my garden doesn't look a thing like anyone elses around here.  And thats not on purpose really, I just do what I think looks good.  I make mistakes in my mind, and I dig them up and move them or donate them to others.  The sum total collective is a huge expression of what I find pretty.  Its why I like visiting other peoples gardens too.  It expands my vision, but also shows me their unique creative side.

10)Acceptance.  Sometimes you cannot win.  Mother Nature is a really tough mama, and she doesn't really make exceptions.  I have learned to accept that some things take time, for instance.  I have learned to accept that I can't have any more sun, less sun, less 90+ degree days than she's going to give me.

{All Photos from my trip last week to Magnolia Plantation}

25 comments:

  1. You missed out the most important one (for us vegetable growers, anyway)...

    FOOD!!!

    I may be a philistine, but I'll take a bucket of spuds over a pretty outlook any day.

    Mind you, you'rte still right about your 10!

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    1. {head hanging low} You have called me out... I obviously don't grow a lot of food here, though I do appreciate my herbs during the season. I am about 2 weeks from pesto as often as I can possible eat it!

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  2. You love to throw in big words that no one uses to keep us on out toes( ephemeralness ).Mindfulness in the gardening, it is a sanctified experience. Very therapeutic. Great post.

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    1. :) Whats possibly more annoying is to some degree I actually speak like this!!!!

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  3. All of it is so true. Don't know what I'd do if I couldn't garden.
    Jeanni

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    1. I would read, but I know what you mean. I would sit outside and wish I were gardening.

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  4. You're right on every point and these are the reasons I enjoy gardening so much. It's my canvas and I can paint it however I want--within reason of course. What a gift! I love your photos, especially the red bridge and the curvy pathway canopied by bloomers. It must have been fun running in to that peacock. Isn't he something?

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    1. The peacocks at the plantations around here are so tame that they will literally eat out of your hand. So will the deer, for that matter. Its a bizarro land menagerie.

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  5. Hi! I just came across your blog while visiting some other blogs. I saw you were from Charleston and got super excited as I live in Summerville! I have been hoping to find someone with a passion for gardening in my area. I haven't had a chance to look through yours but I love what I see so far! It will be interesting to compare things that grow in our area. I am also a antique rose lover. :) I will happily add you to my blog list.
    ~Meghan

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    1. Welcome Meghan, nice to meet you! There are a few of us in the Charleston area, but that exact thing is what drove me to start blogging a few years ago... I found like souls to share my craziness a bit. Normal friends think your nuts, garden friends know exactly what you mean!

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  6. Jess, This is a wonderful list. The temperature in Maine today went up into the sixties, and I tossed aside all my other plans in favor of starting some work in the garden (in the places where the snow has already melted). Along the way, I think I experienced all 10 of your reasons for gardening. I even had the fanatical passion experience when I cruised by a local nursery while out doing errands. Even though it's much too early to plant anything here (the ground hasn't finished thawing yet!), I had to buy *something*! Happily, that something was a $1 package of morning glory seeds (which I can plant outside 2 months from now). :-)

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  7. Jess what a comprehensive list...I agree with all of them..these are the lessons my garden has taught me over the years and what started me in blogging...wonderful!!

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  8. What a wonderful list of all the great things about gardening. I agree with all of them - especially magic and mania!

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  9. Beautiful post and one I shall reread a few times. I agree with all 10 points...especially that last one...she's a tough mama.
    Heat, humidity, mosquitoes, mud, drought, and still we garden.
    Those scenes are spectacular. Are they all from around your area?
    David/:0)Tropical Texana Houston, Texas

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    1. Yes David, those are from Magnolia Plantation on the outskirts of Charleston, SC.

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  10. I think I dwell on number 3, on the off-chance it brings more of number 1! When my Doctor asks if I work out, I always say yes...I garden, but for some reason they always look at me as if "nice try...no seriously do you actually work out?". Hrumpf. Glad someone else agrees it's exercise, for the body, and the soul. My doc clearly isn't a gardener ;)

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  11. wonderful perfect post, illustrated by gorgeous pics (I wanna go to Magnolia Plantation but I guess in a way I have now). Re CVF's comment, I find I do have to 'train' physically with stretching exercises in order to maintain the flexibility needed to maintain the serious and glorious gardening addiction. At the moment, recovering from surgery, it is mild torture to look at the garden, walk in it, but not act in it. I can still plan though.

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  12. You have obviously done a lot of thinking about this and you have covered all the important points in a very erudite (big word) manner---everything I love about gardening is included.

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  13. Excellent post! Non-gardeneres have no idea what they are missing. Yet even a non-gardener will find pleasure in a place like Magnolia Plantation.

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  14. I've been to Magnolia Plantation a couple of times and I swear I recognize that tree by the water. I saw a pair of bluebirds nesting in a knothole in the tree. No idea if it's really the same tree but it sure does look familiar! lol

    You've listed 10 excellent reasons why gardeners love their gardens so much.

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  15. Hi Jess, I enjoyed my visit to your blog. You've expressed so well so many of the reasons I enjoy gardening. It is absolutely therapeutic and non-gardeners just don't know what they're missing!

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  16. Jess, sometimes we read posts that just seem to stick with us. This is one of those posts that will stick with me for a lifetime. I wasn't going to plant veggies this year because sometimes it just seems like too much work, but you know what? I am so glad I did, and after reading what you wrote here, I find myself hearing your words pass through my thoughts time and time again. I might have to ask you permission to use this sometime on my site!

    Blessings ♥

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    1. Sandy, thanks so much for the compliment and all the comments! I so love when readers come and visit some of the older blog post :) Every year there comes a time, usually about mid August where I go on strike against gardening. I think longingly for December when there is nothing to do but wait until Feb...BUT when December actually rolls around I'm rearin to go. Such is life!

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