Gardening as therapy!
The benefits you get from gardening are many and some of them are maybe not the one you first think of!
Fresh air and nature
The obvious benefits you get from gardening are fresh air and the opportunity to be outside. While working in the garden, you notice the seasons and become more aware of the nature and the wildlife that surrounds your home. You can see and hear birds, and you learn to recognize different birds in the garden. With migratory birds, I sometimes feel like it must be "that" same bird I saw the year before, because it looks exactly the same and the bird behave in the same way. After a few years, the birds can feel like old friends, even if the feeling is most certainly pure imagination! Any way, the birds helps to create a living and interesting atmosphere in the garden.
Comply with the seasons and weather
If you spend much time in the garden you will become more aware of the seasons, and the colours change according to season. In the winter the green colour come from evergreens but also trees, shrubs and rigid perennials make the garden interesting. In the spring, trees, shrubs are bursting into flower and their leaves transform the garden with the fresh green of their leaves. In the summer the colours get hotter and the perennials and annuals are at their best, and trees and shrubs seem to retreat and become background. The autumn comes with misty light and fiery colours. Yellows and reds of maples turns into an explosion of colours before the trees lose their leaves and it all starts over gain. The garden also changes its appearance after weather and if you spend time in the garden in all kinds of weather you will discover that the weather will give you different feelings. Gardening in rainy weather can be quit soothing, while gardening in windy weather can be invigorating.
Colours and shape
Colour and shape can have a great influence on people. You can touch and feel an object’s shape, so shape can be experienced with multiple senses. Sensation of colour is mostly experienced with the eyes but it can also affect the experience of a room or an area. Often we are not aware of how much colour affects us, or in what way. Colour has always been important to us, and it is personal which colour we prefer. Some colour suits some better than others. It has to do with your personality, temperament and also a person’s appearance. In the garden you can surround yourself with the colours you like best.
Health and exercise
And of course, by gardening we get health and diversity training. By digging, planting, watering and raking you get excellent exercise that involves all part of the body both physically and mentally.
You decide!
Our daily life’s contains many duties, rules and limitations. We spend a lot of time on obligations like family relations, parenting, other social relations, work. In the garden there aren’t any rules! That is the best of it all! You can create any kind of garden you like. You decide if the flowerbeds should have straight or curved shape, if the beds are to be raised or flat. You decide the flowers, the colours, their height and shape. You can create a flowerbed that looks like an explosion in hot and fiery colors, or one in pure white. If you like dark and Gothic theme you can create a room in the garden s a dark garden with flowers that have almost black colours. The garden can be divided into several different rooms, so you can experience the colour that best suites you for the day or the moment.
My best moments in the garden!
My best moments in the garden are often the times when I end up doing something that isn’t planned. It can occur when I walk around in the garden on one of my rounds, picking up a died leaf, weeding as I walk. Sometimes I then get an idea! The idea can be triggered from a thought, a plant may not thrive where it is planted and need to be moved. In the process of moving the plant, thoughts and ideas flash trough my head. "If I do that, move that plant there", and then to get the plant’s colour to appear more clearly maybe it all need to be complemented with "that" colour. Suddenly, I found myself in a creative flow of ideas, where everything around pales. I think of nothing else than what I just create! It can be a small area, and with just a few plants, gravel, rocks, a bowl of water, sticks or other subjects, a masterpiece is created!
And the good part is; if you are not satisfied, you can reorganize it, over and over again, until maybe the plants give up and refuse to participate in any more moving. And even better, you can in most times, afford to make mistakes. Yes, It is sad when a shrub or perennial dies, but hopefully, you have learned from the mistakes, and you will do it right the next time!
Gardening as therapy
Gardening has recently been recognized as one of the best methods to treat depression and fatigue. We can use the garden to became happier, healthier more harmonious and creative. A small garden is enough! It’s about enjoying the little things. Be able to feel the grass under your feet, snip of a few withered flowers or enjoy the fragrance. To spend time in the garden give us new energy in everyday life. In the garden we found the very essentials of life; to bee needed, to feel like a part of the natural cycle, to be creative and to have something to look forward to. I think gardening is excellent for your mental health. Few things in life can be as rewarding as when you admire the result of your effort. And in the process you have been productive, healthy, creative and you have endured mental relaxation at the same time.
