Gardens: Relaxing Therapy

As with any job, stress can undoubtedly affect your health.  Based on personal experience, dealing with stress over a period of time without any form of release may cause headaches, body aches, and restlessness.  It is a silent disease of sorts that slowly creeps up on you unnoticed.

A great stress reliever that we have found that works really well is gardening.  Surely the mundane manual labor that is affiliated with gardening of any sort may be a deterrent for some.   But as with any task, the hardest part is simply starting it.  Convince yourself that this is a task worth venturing into. There is an intangible reward that one gets from harvesting your very first cherry tomato, papaya, eggplant, okra, or even hot peppers.  The feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction can become somewhat addictive!   The results of a simple small garden will inevitably encourage you to slowly, but surely, expand your garden to try other things.

So how exactly does gardening relieve stress.  Once again, I am no in way an expert on the subject, but I chose to share my experience with you.  To begin with, it can be difficult to want to do anything when you come home from a long day at work.  It will take some encouragement.  For my wife and I, we simply set a goal the day before and force ourselves to “get into the mood” and begin setting up the flower pots or grow bed.  After about an hour or so, we take a break, have some lemonade or ice tea, and evaluate the work we completed.  The next day, we complete the setup and plant the seeds or seedlings into the soil.  Each day we take 10 to 15 minutes looking through the garden for any weeds that might have sprouted and eliminate them as soon as they sprout.  We water, fertilize if necessary, and then sit back on our bench and discuss how well the plants are growing or what we think they might need for tomorrow.  In only one week, the growth is noticeable and you begin to appreciate every little improvement you find along the way.  For those few minutes in the garden with my wife and children, nothing else really matters.  In time, we noticed that we no longer cared about how tired we were or how good or bad our day was.  Our focus now turned into what could we do in the garden and what could we harvest for dinner. 

After doing this the first week, my wife and I noticed that we were able to sleep well without waking up periodically in the middle of the night.  Coming home from work wasn’t as tiring as well.  We would come home excited to work with the plants, or at least just observe how well they are doing.  Harvest time is always the best.  Walking out into your garden to pick fresh vegetables and fruits is a priceless feeling you definitely need to experience if you haven’t already.   It was nice to realize that we no longer came home frustrated or complaining about work related issues that we had no control over anyway.  Our kids take turns feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, my wife surveys what needs to be harvested and what needs pruning, and I water, fertilize, maintain or expand where needed. 

Over the past three years, working in our garden has really helped us out mentally, physically, and financially!  We’ve spent less on buying some produce like eggplants, tomatoes, kang kung, pechay, lettuce, peppers, okra, herbs, and fruits like tangerines, grapefruit, mulberries, custard apple (Atis), soursop, star fruit, bananas, pineapples, guava, papaya, sugar cane, avocado, mango and melons.  We continue to add even more varieties of fruits and vegetables by trading with friends and family.   Working in our garden daily, even if just for an hour, brings a sense of satisfaction and closure to our day. 

Please don’t take my word for it.  Try it for yourself.  Start off with a 2 or 3 gallon flowerpot and some soil.  Toss in some tomato seeds of your choice and experience the joy of growing your own food for yourself!  I guarantee it will make you feel better and help relieve your daily stress.  Start small and think big.  In no time, I believe you too will be better able to manage and relieve the stresses of your daily life through gardening.  Who knows, one day you and I could be sharing gardening tips with each other!