5 Basic Benefits of Gardening, For Me
By Glo de Castro
When I started this hobby more than a year ago, I really
thought I could save some money by growing my own vegetables. In my over-excitement to try all the new
gardening ideas that I learned about, I
ended up buying all the tools, seeds, fertilizers, pots, etc., some of which I
hardly got to use.
As I got more hooked into it, the more I had to spend on my
gardening tools and materials, not to mention the amount of time I devoted on
gardening every week.
Later on, I realized that the benefits of gardening for me
goes far outweigh the investments of time and money that I had put into it over
the past year. Here are the top 5
benefits of gardening which I found very useful:
Stress relief
I found gardening a really great way to relieve stress. By
nature, I am an introvert, and as such,
gardening is an excellent opportunity for me to spend more time alone
with my plants, and get my mind off all the things that cause me to worry. Like
for instance, just seeing the flowers finally bloom, or the vegetables getting
ready for harvest already gives me such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment.
Exercise, fresh air and sunshine
I look forward to my weekends at home when I get to wake up
early in the morning to start my gardening routine. I love to feel that cold
fresh air brush my face early in the morning, just before dawn breaks. The
sound of birds is an added bonus. I get to do a little bit of exercise as well,
moving pots here and there, transplanting the seedlings into bigger pots,
loosening the soil to apply fertilizer or just inspecting the plants for any
signs of trouble.
Increased tolerance and patience
Gardening requires a lot of patience and since I started
gardening, I developed a higher level of patience and tolerance, especially
with my family and the household staff.
Gardening teaches you to be patient, because nature can not be rushed.
Nature also has its way of healing itself, so some mistakes that I made can be
cured over time. I learned to tolerate raw imperfections in nature, which made
me appreciate its overall beauty.
The biggest plus for me is that I could now resist the urge
of cursing at the woeful traffic situation in Metro Manila where anyone can
spend a minimum of 2 hours everyday going to work in the morning. The traffic
situation in the Philippines is really terrible, and there’s no better way to
handle it but simply to manage how we react to such stress which affects our
daily interactions.
Nutrition from produce
My vegetables and herbs are completely organic. I get to
pick and harvest them at least twice a week. This gives me enough supply of
these vegetables for the family’s consumption, with a little extra to share
with neighbors in the community.
Currently, I have eggplants, okra, pechay (bokchoy), mustard leaves,
green onion, malabar spinach, pepper and various kinds of herbs.
Opportunity for bonding with family, neighbors and friends
Last year, I was able to convince my 11-year old daughter to
enroll in the gardening class with me. It was a perfect mother-daughter bonding
activity. Since then, she would
occasionally help me harvest our produce, which I consider as one of the
highlights of weekends.
A few months ago, I conducted a gardening workshop in
my community. Through this seminar, I was able to inspire my neighbors to start
urban gardening as well. Some of them are now starting to harvest their own
vegetables and herbs, in their own little backyard.
Occasionally, I would see some neighbors visit my garden,
perhaps out of curiosity and fascination. There’s an elderly couple who’d
regularly visit the garden as part of their daily routine, checking to see
what’s new. I have shared a few of my
produce and seedlings with some neighbors, hoping to encourage them to start
their own container garden.
Like any passionate
gardener, you just can’t help but try out more stuff, experiment on new things
and bigger ideas, even if we would fail in some. In gardening, we can only learn by making
tons of mistakes along the way.
But nature is a kind and forgiving teacher. She always gives
you a chance to recover and correct whatever misstep you may have made in the
past. This is precisely why I love
gardening so much.
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