So - Why do you Garden??

My husband asked me that question at dinner last week. For me the answer was easy. I have to. I'm obsessed. I love the challenge - me both working with nature and sometimes having nature working against me. (Although she's been amazingly cooperative - sending a tornado that only took out the hated sumacs and left the roses on the arbors - that kind of thing that makes me feel blessedly fortunate.)

Creative Needs
And he knows the other reason I garden - the creative challenge. You start out each season full of hope. You do your cleanup and carefully place all the plants that you have more or less carefully chosen in hope that it will all come together and fit your mental picture. You know that some plants will fail to grow, others will be eaten by rabbits or pecked to death by the chickens or ravaged by slugs, while others will take off with unanticipated vigor obliterating everything in its path.

You can try to persuade the chickens and slugs to feast one those excesses instead - but the effort is rarely successful. So coping with the unexpected and trying to balance it with the anticipated means you've always got a work in progress - a work that changes from day to day. Each day holds new promise - or new problems. But it never gets boring.

Therapeutic Reasons
I can add a new reason to the list these days. Reduced physical strength is forcing me to learn new ways to garden - but with the right tools and attitudes this means that the low impact aerobics that are used in gardening are like physical therapy for my joints and muscles. I mean think about it. Would you rather spend 20 minutes on a treadmill walking - or in a garden where you can walk, bend down to inspect things, straighten, bend again, sniff lovely scents and feel the sun on your back? Would you rather stand counting to 20 lifting 2 pound weights from waist to shoulder? Or lifting one gallon pots of plants and putting them into the soil?

The American Diabetes Society has shown that gardening is excellent as a low-impact aerobic activity if done carefully. Medical research has shown that it also helps prevent osteoporosis and helps us to maintain relatively good flexibility in joints and muscles.

Psychological Reasons
And gardening is good for your mental health. The copyright of the article So - Why do you Garden?? in Virtual Gardening is owned by Carol Wallace. Permission to republish So - Why do you Garden?? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.