Down the Garden Path

I journeyed to San Antonio in August to attend the NGC Inc. Garden School sponsored by District VII at the Garden Center inside the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. We go to learn, to have fun and fellowship with our classmates and Dr. Joe.  I am working on my Master Consultancy.

We are blessed to have Dr. Joe Novak from Rice University as our instructor, giving us classes in botany, soils and propagation. We had hands on class on propagating by cuttings and seed.  I think that was everyone’s favorite part of course – gardeners love getting their hands in the soil.

that encompasses the physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic and more.  Their properties should be viewed as wholes – not just a collection of parts.  He stated that gardening helps fulfill many of our basic and higher needs as listed in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs.

Nature and gardens have a psychological effect on us, reducing mental stress and mental fatigue.  Plants fascinate us along with bird song, wind blowing through trees, water flowing, clouds, sunrise and sunset.  A garden is an ecosystem that has been contrived by the gardener.  A gardener plans and nature happens and interacts with the gardener as well as the garden.  If you are upset, nervous or irritated, take a stroll through a garden and see how life slows and you begin to feel at peace.

There are health benefits to exposure to nature.  Gardening reduces mental stress and fatigue which will lessen depression.  Hospitals are putting in gardens and labyrinths to help patients get better faster.  European studies in the 1800s noted the psychological benefits of contact with nature and gardening.  Patients with a view of nature or gardens healed at a faster rate.  Floral designs or growing plants on tables in nursing home cafeterias increased socialization of residents.  Socialization reduces depression. 

Health Care Facilities are increasingly adding gardens to provide a space for contemplation and healing nature for patients and their visitors.  MD Anderson has gardens for their patients and family.  The gardens relieve the stress of dealing with life threatening disease and harsh effects of treatment. 

Children derive many benefits from exposure to gardening.  Children score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline.  If you involve small children with gardening, they will develop their power of observation and creativity.  It helps children with the development of their imagination and sense of wonder.  How many of you put the blooms of the wild olive on your finger tips and pretended they were witch’s fingernails?  Don’t forget the tree house that served as the crow’s nest of a sailing ship.  Too many children spend their time watching TV, playing X-Box instead of running and playing outdoors.  These children have difficulty interacting with other children, dealing with adversity.  Parents need to turn off the TV and electronics and get their children outside. 

Gardens are a great place to take children with special needs.  It has a huge impact on children with autism, ADHD and intellectual disability.  I enjoy having a sensory garden filled with scent and texture.  Several special ed. teachers have taken advantage and brought their students with vision disabilities to my garden to experience nature.  The San Antonio Botanical Gardens has a section devoted to the blind. 

Gardening programs have been shown to help students at risk of not graduating from high school.  Gardening encourages a positive attitude and coping skills that lead to success in school.  Students will more readily adapt to life’s stresses and problems.  They learn to set goals and use time prudently and efficiently.  It helps students to become successful adults.     

Texas Garden Club’s created Garden Therapy after World War II as a way of helping our returning soldiers.  Our club spends time bringing plants, gardens, and nature to nursing homes and assisted living.  Garden therapy increases socialization, develops outside interests, increases self-esteem.  It helps improve the quality of the resident’s lives. 

The garden has been inspiration to the poet, artist, authors, composers, philosophers, and statesmen.  Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s derived inspiration from nature and his gardens to paint his series of water lilies and scenes from his garden in Giverny.  Teddy Roosevelt’s love of nature led to the creation of the National Park system.  “Nature’s first green is gold” is from Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold Can Stay. 

We all know that a garden is a place where you grow vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers and ornamental plants.  You can create a multitude of garden types using plants.  Most people think of gardening as raising vegetables but you can specialize with a garden filled with fruit trees and bushes or create an herb garden.  If you are into flowers, consider a cutting garden for flower arranging, a rose garden, succulent garden or a perennial garden.  Don’t forget the classic English garden, Chinese garden or the Japanese garden style.  One of my favorite styles is to garden for wildlife and pollinators.  Water gardening has become a popular style of gardening.  Wetland and bog gardening is a style that takes advantage of conditions in the garden that could be a liability - don’t think we have to worry about that.  Wildflowers and native plants take advantage of plants that will thrive in our conditions.  You are only limited by your imagination.

Dr. Novak said holistic gardening is about more than just planting some plants and letting them grow.  It’s about food, economics and nutrition.  Vegetables, fruits, nuts and herbs grown in your garden will be fresher, taste better, more nutritious, with more antioxidants and other phytochemicals.  You will know that they won’t have toxic pesticides sprayed all over them.  It will help provide more veggies and fruit to help us up the number of servings we consume each day.  By upping our intake of 5 to 7 or more servings we can prevent or reduce obesity, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, viral infections, colds, flu, cataracts and macular degeneration.  We are what we eat!

One of the most important reasons to raise vegetables – children need to know where a tomato comes from – not just the grocery store!  The grandchildren love to spend time in the garden and are very proud of their tomatoes, squash and bell peppers.  It’s a great way to share the bounty of your vegetables with family, friends and neighbors.  I remember the huge garden my father always had - I really hated shelling peas when I was young.  I did love those wonderful summer meals of fresh tomato slices, cucumbers in vinegar water, fried okra, mashed yellow squash and black-eyed peas and cornbread.  The perfect summer dinner!

Gardening or the green industry has a large economic impact on Texas.  Dr. Novak provided figures for Harris County for 2008.  For Texas there has been $14.9 billion in output with 171,415 jobs in all sectors of the green industry – doesn’t include produce.  It increases property value 5 to 20%.  Every 5% of investment of a home’s value will potentially increase resale value 15%.  A well landscaped home will sell faster.

The economic statistics of food gardens in the 2013 in the U.S. will surprise you.  42,000,000 (35%) households had a food garden at a cost of $83 dollars per household.  That is $3,500,000,000 invested with a return of $530 net value of produce per household – that’s a lot of tomatoes and zucchini! 

Gardens can bring back a neighborhood.  Studies have shown that gardening increases socialization of residents and improves the appearance of the neighborhoods.  Attractively maintained gardens in a neighborhood inspires residents to take pride in their neighborhood, reduces litter, vandalism and crime.

When a neighborhood improves, small businesses return which improves the lives of the residents.

Urban Agriculture is a new trend in large cities.  People are taking advantage of idle land, buildings and parking lots to create urban farms to grow food crops.  Sale of crops in neighborhoods provides fresh produce to people that wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to purchase high quality vegetables and fruit.

We garden for food, for physical health, mental health, for recreation, challenge, for creative drive.  Most of all we garden to fulfill spiritual needs.  The Holistic is about the whole – it’s a refuge, a place of beauty and peace.