The Healing Power of Gardens
nytimes.com
The Healing Power of Gardens
1–10 of 115 posts
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#2I miss Oliver Sacks. To see that there are still some writings by him to discover is a treat.
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#3>I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication.
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I have witnessed this with my wife who's neurological disorder causes her to be in a "fright or flight" state virtually all day every day.
When she is either planning the garden, tending to the garden or just enjoying the garden I can see a reduced level of stress and increased ability to focus and multitask. All things which are very difficult outside of the garden.
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#4This article focuses a lot on large, well curated gardens, but I'm an engineer who found a lot of solace and safety in managing my own garden. (As someone who has faced burnout and anxiety from work before.)
There's something about planning, planting, and then caring for a garden that appeals to my engineer brain. It's an exercise in organization and planning that scales from "throw seeds at dirt" to "these plants will attract bees near these other plants, these plants will repel insects. These will bloom early, these bloom late".
You can grow flowers, you can grow vegetables which you can turn into cooked, canned, or pickled food.
There's something about putting food on a plate that came from your yard, from your care. There's something about sitting in a green (or red, or blue, or yellow, etc.) space that you made.
I'm a sucker for games like Minecraft, Factorio, etc. Raising a garden is like a slow motion version of those things. It's a fusion of creative and scientific/engineering brains. It's great.
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#5This article focuses a lot on large, well curated gardens, but I'm an engineer who found a lot of solace and safety in managing my own garden. (As someone who has faced burnout and anxiety from work before.) There's something about planning, planting, and then caring for a garden that appeals to my engineer brain. It's an exercise in organization and planning that scales from "throw seeds at dirt" to "these plants wi…
Well put! I really like the streamlining/automation aspect of the gardening too (drip lines, etc), and the journaling/tracking year over year.
Factorio is next in my queue. Cities: Skylines is my current go to.
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#6I hate having to pay for an article, can this be stopped from promotions on HN?
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#7>I cannot say exactly how nature exerts its calming and organizing effects on our brains, but I have seen in my patients the restorative and healing powers of nature and gardens, even for those who are deeply disabled neurologically. In many cases, gardens and nature are more powerful than any medication. --- I have witnessed this with my wife who's neurological disorder causes her to be in a "fright or flight" state…
That sounds like you'd need a portable garden. (Whether that still works is another question.)
I've seen people talk about car plants, which would be a similar idea. (The feasibility depends a lot on climate of course.) And then of course there are many houseplants enthusiasts, it seems easy to develop some kind of addiction when stressed or mentally not well. Plants everywhere!
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#8This article focuses a lot on large, well curated gardens, but I'm an engineer who found a lot of solace and safety in managing my own garden. (As someone who has faced burnout and anxiety from work before.) There's something about planning, planting, and then caring for a garden that appeals to my engineer brain. It's an exercise in organization and planning that scales from "throw seeds at dirt" to "these plants wi…
Well put! I really like the streamlining/automation aspect of the gardening too (drip lines, etc), and the journaling/tracking year over year. Factorio is next in my queue. Cities: Skylines is my current go to.
Drip lines are cool and helpful when you aren't there all the time. But getting your hands dirty and watering yourself is some kinds of meditation. I feel so relaxing and refreshing when holding garden hose pouring water for all the plants in the weekend.
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#9This article focuses a lot on large, well curated gardens, but I'm an engineer who found a lot of solace and safety in managing my own garden. (As someone who has faced burnout and anxiety from work before.) There's something about planning, planting, and then caring for a garden that appeals to my engineer brain. It's an exercise in organization and planning that scales from "throw seeds at dirt" to "these plants wi…
> There's something about planning, planting, and then caring for a garden that appeals to my engineer brain
Agreed, and it's also not a stressful task in itself for some reason. I'm somebody that's over analytical and tends to succumb to analysis paralysis, but when it comes to garden work I never experience that. (possibly because I know plants are resilient and it's hard to mess up?)
Re: The Healing Power of Gardens
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well put! I really like the streamlining/automation aspect of the gardening too (drip lines, etc), and the journaling/tracking year over year. Factorio is next in my queue. Cities: Skylines is my current go to.
Drip lines are cool and helpful when you aren't there all the time. But getting your hands dirty and watering yourself is some kinds of meditation. I feel so relaxing and refreshing when holding garden hose pouring water for all the plants in the weekend.
That's what I like about gardening. You can approach it as an exercise in automation, or not. Both are available and widely supported. Whatever works for you!