Growing the Nourishment We Seek

The garden is a profoundly simple setting for reconnecting with the earth, with one another, and with ourselves.

Our world is in desperate need of intervention.

 We are faced with social and environmental crises that feel insurmountable.

 Pressed by increasing demands on our time and attention, we struggle against growing barriers between us and the people and goals that matter most. Within a world that feels overwhelmingly complex, we crave simplicity and healing.

 We need a solution that is easy to implement, flexible, and powerful enough to change both us and our world. We need an elegant solution—described by social psychologist Joshua Aronson as one simple shift that profoundly meets a multitude of needs. We can find the answer growing in the garden.

 Profoundly simple and deeply ordinary, the humble garden targets many of the outcomes we seek to change. Importantly, these benefits can accrue within minutes of stepping foot within its bounds.

 It is also one that works with our innate inclinations, rather than against them. We are intrinsically drawn towards nature, an innate affiliation biologist E.O. Wilson describes as biophilia. The garden is a setting in which we can both act meaningfully and find rest from the concerns and demands of life outside, while simultaneously healing the earth and our food systems.

We Seek Actions that Matter

The garden invites us to actively participate in life’s renewal. Instead of remaining a passive observer, action is evolutionarily important—it’s what we’ve evolved to do. The renowned psychologist William James wrote that “thinking is for doing.” When we are actively engaging, exploring and testing new skills, we build a deeper understanding of our world. This act is evolutionarily adaptive, keeping us flexible and quick to respond to challenges. 

The garden is a space that invites meaningful action—a place in which our actions matter and nourish life.

The Supportive Environments for Effectiveness (SEE) framework describes meaningful action as key to supporting our ability to effectively navigate change and challenges. For many, the garden offers a space of agency and empowerment that may be lacking in other areas of life. By learning and practicing new skills, we can improve our self-efficacy, helping us understand that we are capable and competent. Gardening is a powerful act of activism—both filling a gap in food access for many community members and helping us understand that we can create tangible change in our world. We derive meaning from knowing that our actions matter, and we pursue activities that foster this sense of significance.

The key to this motivation lies in what neuroscientist Kelly Lambert calls the effort-driven rewards circuit.

“Our brains are programmed to derive a deep sense of satisfaction and pleasure when our physical effort produces something tangible, visible, and—this is extremely important—meaningful in gaining the resources necessary for survival.”  

Gardening connects physical effort with tangible, positive rewards, promoting a profound sense of well-being. Planting seeds, tending soil, and watering seedlings creates a real-world impact we can see. Lambert notes this process releases a flood of neurochemicals as powerful as modern anti-depressants. Our mind welcomes these concrete cues that our actions are worthwhile.

We Crave a Refuge

Just as the garden invites our efforts, it also offers respite from the world outside. The late astronomer and poet, Rebecca Elson, captured this sense of refuge in her work. Her collection, Responsibility to Awe, traces the existential draw of nature amidst her own terminal illness. Nestled in her notes are these lines from an unfinished poem, an homage to the comfort she found within its bounds:

Digging Potatoes with my Father

Autumn again

The absolute safety, the understanding

The garden is predictable when the future feels uncertain. When we plant seeds in the soil and tend the slow budding tendrils, we find that life slows to the leisurely pace of growth. We might lose ourselves in the mystery of a ripening fruit or a buzzing pollinator, far from the relentless shocks we experience regularly in modern life. A garden is wildly lacking in traffic jams and tax forms.

Our Attention Grows in the Garden

We are continually beset by demands within the rapid pace of modern life, depleting a critical mental resource—attention. Attention lies at the heart of our ability to shut down competing noise and focus on important issues. Once we notice and recognize the situation we are in, we can better choose the behaviors needed to thrive. In short, attention is the first, critical step in effectively navigating the challenges of life.

To best support this important resource, Attention Restoration Theory (ART) emphasizes how exposure to natural environments can restore our mental vitality. Our ability to direct our attention increases when we step away from life’s demands and immerse ourselves in another world that is both gently fascinating and supportive of our goals. Rather than being a passive environment to be simply enjoyed, ART emphasizes the profound way in which nature improves our ability to think and act effectively in other areas of our life. When we nourish our attention, we are better equipped to address urgent issues like climate change and social injustice—issues that necessitate our adaptive response.

Lasting Benefits for Body and Mind

Nature has long been used as a healing environment, and modern science is beginning to map these effects through a growing body of evidence. We now are seeing empirical support for the use of therapeutic horticulture—the use of gardening as part of mental health therapy—to treat a variety of diagnoses. Studies show that nature can be an effective tool for the treatment of dementia, depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, and PTSD.

Beyond alleviating diagnoses, nature offers a plethora of benefits. Engaging with nature supports overall mental health, improving our sense of well-being and positive outlook on life. Gardening also improves physical health, such as lowering blood pressure and counteracting the effects of stress. Even simply having a window view towards nature improves recovery time in the hospital.

A Place for All

It would be naïve to think that a traditional image of the sprawling backyard garden is accessible to everyone. Research shows that greenspace is distributed inequitably across our land. Individuals also come with differing abilities in navigating spaces and climates. There are times when the advice to go outside can feel jarringly ignorant and invalidating. Some grieve that they cannot simply do so.

Within these limits, however, we still find an invitation to connect. The garden need not be sprawling—a smattering of pots on the windowsill will do. No matter the situation, we can find opportunities to embrace awe and gratitude in response to new life. Awe not only reduces stress and positively affects the way we see ourselves, it also fosters kindness and connection with others—even if experienced alone. Similarly, gratitude improves our relationships and our outlook on life, causing us to be more hopeful and social-minded.

 When facing personal and global challenges, expressing gratitude can feel herculean. In Braiding Sweetgrass, author and scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer encourages us to reframe our perspectives:

“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”

By choosing awe and gratitude, we act as stewards in the cycle of life.

The Garden as a Starting Point

 The garden will not heal all wounds, nor is it the only intervention we need. We face large-scale problems, systemic injustice, and climate crises. Our problems, and our people, are multifaceted. The complexities we face will take will demand a multitude of nuanced approaches at all levels of society. But we must start somewhere. The garden is a place where we can carry out small experiments that lead to small wins that produce the lasting change we need.

When the heavy weight of modernity seems all encompassing, we sometimes lose sight of the earth under our feet—ever present, supporting even the most halting steps. Our minds fixate on the pain in our backs even while staring at the very soil that supports us. Yet, there is hope in every leaf stretching towards the sunlight. There is hope in every hand pressed to the earth around its roots.

Each step we take in the garden, regardless of what lies behind, ahead, or within, is an invitation to connect. The garden is the sanctuary in which we can honor Elson’s Responsibility to Awe. It offers safety amidst a world of uncertainty, where the ground is ever present and not likely to fall from beneath our feet. Surrounded by the tender leaves and wavering flights of insects and birds, our minds find solace and respite. Our mental vitality is restored, and we see ourselves as more capable to navigate the challenges of life.

Finding Our Garden

The simple acts of one person often strike us as insignificant in the face of complex challenges. At times, it can feel as if each effort is simply a drop in a bucket that doesn’t make a bit of difference. But each drop adds up, and each drop holds the precious power to nourish life. E.O.Wilson emphasizes our calling to take an active role in this process:

“There can be no purpose more inspiring than to begin the age of restoration, reweaving the wondrous diversity of life that still surrounds us.”

The garden offers us a starting point—let us begin today:

·      Send gratitude to the lone dandelion in the persistent struggle towards life

·      Plant a fragrant pot of basil near your apartment window

·      Find or start a community garden in your neighborhood

·      Invite a neighbor to share stories over a bowl of vegetable soup

·      Advocate for green space and land conservation

·      Take a shovel to a bare plot of earth and sow some hope for the coming year

With one profound act, we might find it a bit easier to take the next step, and the next. Until we find that, together, we are walking into a future in which we all thrive.