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Gardens Provide A Little Bit Of Heaven On Earth

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“The kiss of the sun for pardon, the song of the birds for mirth, one is nearer to heaven in a garden than anywhere else on earth. ” Anybody who has every experienced the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being that gardening provides clearly understands the meaning of that age-old rhyme.

Gardening connects us to nature and provides us with fresh fruits and vegetables and the encouragement to eat them. In addition, it provides improved flexibility, stronger muscles and better cardio fitness. Regular physical exercise such as that associated with gardening has been shown to help prevent heart disease, obesity, adult-onset diabetes and high blood pressure.

Gardening can be especially beneficial for people with special needs or those who are recovering from an illness. Gardening promotes an increased range of motion, develops hand-eye coordination and improves motor skills. Over the past few years special tools have made gardening more accessible to people with limited mobility.

And the benefits are not all physical. There’s a whole field of practice called horticultural therapy, which explores the way that gardening helps people heal, physically and emotionally. Horticultural therapists have discovered that gardening provides a form of emotional expression and release, and it helps people to connect with others.

A very interesting study conducted by the University of Colorado surveyed how gardening, when used in prison systems, can have profound positive impacts. The study provided master gardeners to several prisons, who taught the inmates how to prepare and maintain a garden. Some of the quotes from inmates who participated in the study include:

• “It helped me to start caring about life. I’m more relaxed and see how living things are very fragile and need to be nurtured.”
• “We can be indifferent or even cruel and mean and destroy life or we can help life and take care of it. I guess people are not much different than daisies. We need care, nurturing and balance in our lives.”
• “I have learned to deal with people as people instead of overpowering them or manipulating them as some sort of object to satisfy my wants. I have learned what it feels like to care about something.”
• “I have a feeling of peace that I have never experienced. I was abused as a child so I never learned how to nurture anything. Now I am learning and it is very powerful. It has made a very positive difference in my life.”

During the past few years, there has been an increased awareness in the restorative value of plants in hospitals, homes for the aged and senior centers. In such places many “healing gardens” are being constructed for clients, staff and visitors. Even corporate America is now including landscape considerations in its philosophy. Business owners have found that having trees and plants nearby increases productivity and morale and helps recruit new employees.

Economically speaking, gardening is within everybody’s reach. Growing your own vegetables is very inexpensive. Other than adding soil, buying some tools, watering and purchasing seeds or pre-grown plants, the cost is extremely minimal.

For an increasing number of people, a home garden provides an escape from the pressures of the job and family responsibilities. As Minnie Automonier put it: “When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden.”