by S. Bates

Created on: May 27, 2008   Last Updated: June 09, 2008

Gardening has not always been up there as number one on my list of fun things to do. From the time I was about eight until I married and moved out of my parent's home, I always had to work' in the garden. Since we lived next door to my fathers' parents, it was my father's place to help put the vegetable garden in every spring. This we did religiously, we really depended on the garden for part of our yearly food supply.

Of course, when you are that young you do not realize important events until you are grown up. Then there are those that never realize just how important that one day was, or what it meant to others at that time. We progress through life learning, growing, just like the plants in the garden. Not until we are mature do we produce our wonderful bounty. That is when everything in nature sees what we have been growing into all these years.

I guess that is why I feel so attached to my garden; working so close with the plants, moving them to a more beneficial place so they will flourish and multiply, pampering them when they are sickly. I can find all kinds of things to do while I am working with my plants. In a different way, they are part of the family that needs taking care of too. They listen when you complain, and never talk back to you. Plants will never beg to be fed or watered; they leave it up to you to take care of them. In return, they furnish you with beautiful fragrant flowers and wonderful delicious vegetables. What more could you want or expect?

When I pick up a hoe and head to the vegetable garden, even though it is blazing hot outside, I know when I finish I will have worked out several problems, decided what I was going to cook for dinner, remembered an important meeting, or birthday. Concentrating on cleaning out the weeds and not disturbing any fragile plants is also like cleaning out my mind at the same time. My thoughts wander. Being in the garden is so therapeutic for troubled minds. You have the time to think about just what you want to think about. One thing you can count on, no one is going to volunteer to help you, you can be out there all by your self with no interruptions to your thought process.

I cannot count the times that my garden was the first place I went after a long hard day at the office. No matter how tired I was, I knew I would be in a lot better mood after being in the garden for a while. Even though I started gardening early in life, I did not realize all the benefits. I have grown to realize the healing powers of gardening, mentally and physically. Not only does a garden furnish us with beauty and fragrance for our senses, food and nourishment for our bodies, it offers an endless supply of healing and replenishment for our minds and souls.

Learn more about this author, S. Bates.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.