Community Gardens: Good For The Brain

In my home town, the powers that be had a brilliant idea: turn a historic  farmstead (which now sits in the middle of town) into a community garden.  Citizens can sign up for 10×10 raised plots for vegetable or flower gardens, and the whole thing is  decorated by scarecrows in pioneer outfits, and old farm equipment.  (The 1800’s farmhouse itself is being restored to it’s  original form, and turned into a hands on museum, but that’s a ‘different matter. Today, we’re focused on the garden aspect)

In the same town, my Grandmother (who determined long ago she should never be called “Granny” ) has opened up her empty next-door lot for a neighborhood garden.  My grandfather had always kept it planted with garlic, onions, corn, and so forth… so it’s been great to see it in use again, and the neighbors all cooperating on the project.

Even in the most urban areas, gardeners are learning to create and manipulate cracks in paved areas to create community “crack gardens”. And at the White House, Michelle Obama has planted the first vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt, an act that has seemingly rejuvenated gardening as a hobby among younger generations.

But what’s any of this got to do with tweaking your mind?

Well…   Lots!  Gardening has everything to do with with mood balancing and brain fitness and general good attitudeness.

Look, I even made a list. (Ahem)

1.Gardening gets you outdoors and into the sunshine, helping the  body to produce Vitamin D, repeatedly linked to brain health.  Sunlight is known to reduce depression (which can actually kill off brain cells) and exposure to natural light helps reset and maintain the body’s natural clock - reducing a common cause of insomnia (Insomnia is another common contributor to poor cognitive functions)

2. Gardening gets you physical. Gardening is physically active - whether you’re digging holes and lifting bags of dirt, moving around small pots, or moving around the area with a water hose, it requires motion. And whatever your physical abilities, there are ways to garden within your limits - especially if you’re part of a community of gardeners, some of whom can always be recruited for heavy lifting.

3. Natural environments are good for the brain. Urban environments are naturally stressful, but introducing natural environments  into urban areas through gardens, parks or even indoor greenery helps reduce the stress. That relaxed feeling people describe when gardening? There’s scientific evidence to support the link.  For more information, check this out: How The City Hurts Your Brain

4. Gardening keeps you engaged with the world. There’s an increasing body of evidence that the more connected and engaged we feel to the world around us, the less likely we are to suffer stress and depression, the better our brain functions, and the less likely we are to suffer from cognitive declines and dementia.

5. Community gardens are social. Social activity not only reduces stress and depression, it stimulates our brains in unique ways. We’re built to be social creatures, and our brains are not only adapted for that purpose, but actually seem to need social contact and activity to stay healthy.

And even if your garden space is *not* communal, it’s almost impossible not to have some social contact as a result of it. Neighbors pop over, offering and asking for cuttings, offering advice, asking for help themselves.   And there’s something about being able to give friends, family, or neighbors a bouquet from your own garden,  pickles from the cucumbers and peppers you grew, or just a simple home grown braid of garlic.

6. Gardening encourages creative thinking and requires  visualization/imagination. There’s a lot of creativity required -  from problem solving for troublesome or small spaces, to full blown landscaping that requires you to consider plant shapes, textures, colors and heights not only as they are now, but how they will look a year from now, or two years from now.

7. Gardening encourages ongoing learning. The amount of  information available to soak up is overwhelming.. even if you only need to learn one climate zone, and one soil type for your location, there are always new varieties, hybrids and products to learn about.

8. Vegetable gardening encourages healthy eating. Even if you’re normally averse to veggies, there’s just something tastier about veggies you’ve grown yourself, with your own hands, through your own efforts.  And eating healthier is good for the brain.

9. Gardening can be meditative. Weeding, for instance, can be an almost trance-like experience.  Or check out this post about Weaving The Morning Glories; I know that the author (hi WriterDad!) didn’t specifically seem to see this as a meditation, but it could be. It’s certainly as disciplined as a meditation.   And gardening can also be combined with visualizations to create powerful imagry….plucking weeds, clearing out deadwood, trimming back branches can become a meditation on clearing and shaping thoughts and attitudes.

10. Dirt is an essential mind nutrient, and to be most effective, it must be absorbed from beneath the fingernails.  Or ( as my garden helper demonstrates in the photo to the right) it may be directly ingested.  It’s true, I tell you!  (Ok, maybe not… but I needed an excuse to show you the photo)

This whole thing, of course, is a thinly veiled justification for having played  hookey this week, while fussing with the plants here at home.  And I’m not even sure why this is titled “Community Gardens” because my own little landscaping endeavor isn’t a community effort, by any means… (unless you count my muddy helper, there) and whatever my original “community” idea for this post was,  it got lost along the way.

Still, the sun, wind, greenery and dirt did me and my brain a world of good, and I hope you all forgive my playing hookey.

Maybe some day I’ll even start my own little community garden in the park    across the street.  I’m sure the puppy would love to help.

MindTweak: My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant’s point of view.  ~H. Fred Ale