Friday 21 May 2021
Andrew Montgomery
Over the course of the last year living through a global pandemic, it’s become clearer than ever that the need to sustain ourselves in body and mind is a necessity. And harnessing the power of gardening and its shared language could be the answer. But with one in eight households in Britain having no access to a private or shared garden during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, and food scarcity on the rise, getting into gardens and learning how to grow food should be accessible to all.
From seed sovereignty to the advantages of gardening on our wellbeing, understanding and harnessing the power of plants is truly a form of empowerment. Humans have an “innate connection with nature,” says Sue Stuart Smith, a psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author of
Tuesday 13 April 2021
After my last harvest of the season, I find there is nothing more satisfying than pressing reset. I do this by digging over my vegetable plot to prepare the soil for the year ahead. I feel good about myself for incorporating nutritious compost and enjoying the workout. I then leave the frost to help break down the clods into a beautiful crumb; my vegetables will thank me for this with abundant yields in the year ahead. The time and effort will be totally worth it, or at least, that is what I used to think.
Of course, I had heard of no-dig gardening, championed by Bob Flowerdew on Gardener’s Question Time (along with the importance of regularly urinating on the compost heap), but I needed more convincing. What ever happened to digging for victory? My heavy clay soil needs aeration doesn’t it? I know many organic gardeners who swear by an annual digging routine and produce fantastic results, but there is more and more research these days that unearths the im
Indeed, Stuart-Smith’s stirring summaries of the garden’s history, value in therapeutic settings, and place in literature and culture feel like the best kind of circumstantial evidence for the primacy of the act. But when she digs into the emerging neuroscience, the evidence is breathtaking. Take, for example, what actually lives in the soil. Bacterial actinomycetes, when activated by water, emit an aroma called geosmin that has a pleasing and soothing effect on most people, Stuart-Smith points out. Heart rate and blood pressure drop within minutes of exposure to natural surroundings like parks and gardens. Cortisol the fight-or-flight hormone that assaults our well-being when we endure sustained stress drops within 20 to 30 minutes. The scents of blooms from lavender, rosemary, and citrus summon mood-elevating chemicals. The scent of roses actually allows our body to hang onto endorphin highs longer, extending that blissful inhalation.