Gardening? What has that got to do with my health and well being?

After working for seven years as a gardener and taking care of gardens around the world as well as caring for an acre of garden here in the Forest, I realize that plants and people’s requirements for good health and well being are very similar. If I looked after myself as well as I look after my roses I would be very healthy!

So what are they? – Light, air, a full range of nutrients, water, protection from disease, space, attention, movement and friendship.

Light. Plants manufacture food from the sunlight through the chlorophyll in their leaves. No light = starvation, unless you are looking at fungi, but that is another group.

People need light as well. The obvious one is sunlight on the skin to make vitamin D for strong bones. However a deficiency of this vitamin is linked to some cancers, heart disease, depression, weight gain, diabetes and low immunity. Therefore having enough of this sunshine vitamin would seem critical, especially in our dark winters and if you are inside for most/all of the daylight hours.

Air. How long can you hold you breath for? I can’t hold mine for very long at all. This shows how life-essential air is. Feeling tired? Go outside and take in a few deep breathes, walk round the block, take in more oxygen.

Plants take in CO2and give out O2, which is handy. Some of you may have seen those videos of CO2 disappearing from the atmosphere once trees become green in the spring? How sensible is it for us to cut down forests at the rate we are doing?

 

Nutrients. I’m talking vitamins and minerals here. After the war farmers were told to use concentrated fertilizers, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium (NPK), to increase crop yields. This had the desired result short term but long-term yields began to fall, because the NPK didn’t contain any of the other minerals essential for healthy plant growth – calcium, magnesium, boron, manganese, copper, zinc…

It is the same for people. We need a wide range of vitamins and minerals, as we don’t produce them in our bodies. In addition to protein, carbohydrates and fats, we need calcium, magnesium, zinc, manganese, iron and many more. We may need only a minute amount of some of them, but if we don’t get them a cog is missing in the amazing metabolic pathways – our life giving chemical reactions. Would your analogue watch work if a tiny cog fell out? This why we need so many fruits and veg in our daily diet; why we are encouraged to eat a “rainbow” range of foods, rather than just the beige food of bread, buns, cakes, and deep-fried food – calorie rich but nutrient poor.

Part of this nutrition includes friendly bacteria, of which much is written. Plants also need the symbiotic help of microorganisms. Plant your rose trees with mycorrhyzal fungi and watch them flourish.

 

Water. What happens to your houseplant if you forget to water it? It wilts.

Plants need water to keep them up right. Water is also needed to carry food from leaves to the rest of the plant and as part of their metabolism. If we get even a little bit dehydrated, we “wilt”, brain gets sluggish; we get stressed and cranky. We need to be at least 70% water for everything to work properly. How watery is your internal landscape?

To be continued…

 

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