GARDEN YOURSELF INTO HAPPINESS

The beautiful lush leaves of a lilac tree, sprouting daffodils, thick green ground cover…  Spring really is the most exciting time for a garden lover {which I am}.

You might not be an outdoorsy person, you might hate bugs, don’t like getting dirty, etc; but gardening not only can be a fun creative way to express yourself or fulfill your scientific curiosity of Botany, it can be extremely beneficial to your health and well-being.  Horticultural Therapy is actually a practice of using plants to promote health, wellness and a balance within individual’s lives. The use of plants and the natural world can improve you; spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally.  Gardening and landscaping is an art form that is used to help individuals and groups such as childhood development facilities, senior citizen facilities, addiction and rehabilitation centers and community facilities to name a few.

Now, on the scientific end, ‘Bio-philia’ is a term that suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and nature. Bio-philia means “the love of life and nature”.  For many people, the word nature means mountains, parks or trees; but nature is everywhere, it is everything.  From mud, to leaves, to rocks, to animals…  It is proven that being out in nature or in your garden can increase a sense of well-being within you.  How you ask?  Probably because we human beings are included in the equation of nature too.  I think all the cement that surrounds us can make us forget.

For most people, when they hear the word “gardening”, the run and hide.  However, I find gardening to be one of the most balanced creative outlets people one can get into.  Not only do I love gardening, but I love the organizing, I love being out in nature, I love the multiple colours of green and I love being outdoors in the rain or the sun.  Some might feel that they don’t get instant gratification from gardening.  However, just knowing that if you spend time preparing something worth-while that will transform before your eyes, you will experience extreme gratification!

Personally I am a ‘flower’ gardener, but the amazing part of it all is truly watching your garden grow into a healthy beautiful natural work of art (whether it is flowers or food).  One of my favorite movies growing up was ‘The Secret Garden’.  I was determined to grow a lush paradise of perennials that the birds and I could enjoy.  I might not have a castle that I have engulfed in greenery, but I do garden more than anyone I know… and love the colors and dimensions you can create in your own foliage masterpiece.

So celebrate your green thumb, celebrate your creativity, explore the science of plants, honor the earth; and build yourself a living breathing oasis of plants and start feeling good. Please tell us your experience with gardening and how it has been part of your life. 

“Gardening is fundamentally an act of enormous hope because everything you do in your garden is for the future.”  – Barbara Frum