Gardening as a Soulful Activity
Gardening is one of the most favorite hobbies of many people, therefore, so many of us like gardens and find something special and peculiar in them. One may admit that garden is not merely a place, where plants and trees grow. It is a part of the universe, where the person may put her soul and create the masterpiece, consisting of beautiful flowers and bushes. Positive changes in mood and general psychological state prove that gardening is an excellent activity that promotes the person’s unity with the nature and improves health. A person in the garden does not always realize that his mood has changed for the better. For example, only 10 minutes in the sun produces 10,000 international units of vitamin D. It is enough to satisfy the daily norm in the vitamin and raise the mood. Some experts also admit that being in close proximity to gardening reduces the level of depressiveness, while the contact with soil bacteria causes a release of serotonin. This reason is an excellent motivator to state gardening.
Benefits for Health and Well-being
In addition, working in the garden, not only positively affects the overall condition of a person, but can also increase income and self-esteem (Kaplan 143). In order to explain the reasons why people garden, it is necessary to explain what is garden and why it is so important for many people to the extent that gardens and gardening have become the best time for leisure or even profession for many gardeners. In this research paper, the two important questions are going to be discussed: what is garden and why do people garden?
Exploring Different Types of Gardens
The difference of gardens, their values designs and aims will be discussed on the example of the four most beautiful and famous gardens of the world, namely Keukenhof (Netherlands), gardens of the Château of Versailles (France), Kew Royal Botanic Gardens (United Kingdom) and Summer Palace in Beijing (China).
Defining a Garden
Prior to discussing the reasons why people usually garden, it is necessary to define the term garden. There are many possible definitions of it, however, the most generally accepted is that garden is a piece of land planted with trees, bushes, and flowers and is usually paved with paths. In addition, it is also possible to define garden as a place for recreation and creating green design. As usual, people who live in large industrial cities may find it difficult to provide proper explanation of garden. In this respect, visiting of a huge store, selling plants will help evoke imagination and provide clear vision of the ideal garden. Sloat Garden Center is one of the stores, where beauty of nature is perfectly combined with the noise of a huge city. Looking at the assortment of flowers and plants, presented in the shop, one may conclude that garden is a beauty of nature, collected in one place and presented in a variety of forms, not limited to flowers, vegetables and exotic plants. Garden is a combination of creativity, love to nature and physical activity that people apply in order to create green beauty around. Different departments of the store present diverse types of plants, as if they are trying to show that there are so many types of plants that one cannot even imagine, but all of them can be collected in one garden.
Satisfaction and Pleasure
As far as the reasons why people garden are concerned, they are different for diverse people. Firstly, when one gardens, the feeling of satisfaction and pleasure from working in the soil is impossible to compare with anything. People feel extremely happy, when they get energy from the land and have the opportunity to create a piece of nature with their own hands. It is necessary to note that people, who are fond of gardening, feel some sort of intimacy and close relation to nature, when they garden (Pollan 13). The reason is that gardening is more than the opportunity to plant trees and flowers, but the ability to exchange the energy with the soil (Pollan 14). Secondly, it is hard to deny that gardening is a hobby that enriches mind and body. Gardening can be used as a break from the daily busy and routine life. It is also a rewarding occupation, since one is getting the fruits of his efforts and sees all the beauty of nature, surrounding him. Work in the garden is able to help one to clean mind in the fresh air of a beautifully arranged garden. Thirdly, family work in the garden is also very useful. Everyone can work as part of a single team, which unites and strengthens the family very well. Finally, Gardening is a very exciting and rewarding hobby effort that helps make one’s mind free. People really start feeling good after spending some time in the garden. It is also very interesting to observe the result of one’s work, when the garden grows as one’s personal part of an excellent nature, filling with a feeling of indescribable joy (Appleton 34).
The Importance and Impact of Gardens
It is not a secret that people have been fond of gardening for many centuries, thus making this sort of leisure a useful hobby and even business. People have always been ready to spend much on the feeling of aesthetics, therefore such beautiful places as gardens are the places of mass tourists’ attraction in many countries of the world. This part of the research is devoted to discussion of the four famous gardens, the analysis of which will help identify the major aims of gardening and see the differences in gardens’ designs. These differences demonstrate that gardening have a range of aims and people, who garden, make huge contribution to history, nature preservation, development of aesthetic views, science and love of people to the nature and its beauty. People garden not only to create beauty around them, but to create order, in which beauty of the nature may be clearly seen. No wonder that gardening has become not only an activity for leisure, but a science, which a gardener is a master, able to create masterpieces.
Keukenhof: The Power of Creative Thought
Although, there are many beautiful gardens in all countries of the world, the present research will touch four, which deserve particular attention. The admiration by the beauty of nature and feeling of inspiration and aesthetic fulfillment are difficult to express with words, since these places are magnificent. The first garden to speak about is Keukenhof, one of the largest flower gardens in the world that shutters one’s imagination by the amount of bulbs, which are planted every year (Toquin and Bosser 45). When one looks at this garden, it is possible to imagine the power of creative thought and desire of people to create a masterpiece, where each visitor may feel the unity with the nature. This is one of the reasons why people garden.
Gardens of the Château of Versailles: Showcasing Nature's Beauty
Another masterpiece, demonstrating that gardening is an activity that is able to change the world for better, is famous gardens of the Château of Versailles. They cover almost 2,000 acres, designed by a famous gardener André Le Nôtre, commissioned by Louis XIV in 1661 (Toquin and Bosser 23). These facts show that people have been fond of gardening for centuries and the profession of gardener was respectful and popular, since these people had a unique vision of nature and beauty in it (Toquin and Bosser 23). In this respect, it is possible to state that people garden in order to make others to see the genuine beauty of the nature.
Kew Royal Botanic Gardens: Blending Science and Aesthetics
In addition to demonstrating nature and its beauty, placed in a strict order, gardening serves a scientific purpose. To prove it, one may visit famous Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in the United Kingdom. This garden is more than a picturesque greenspace, but the internationally notorious research institution, where hundreds of scientists and researchers combine the work of gardening with the research activity. The gardens contain about 40,000 species of plants and dozens of historic buildings (Toquin and Bosser 51). On the example of this place, one may state that people garden in order to combine science with the aesthetic pleasure and find new ways how to save the plants and crate new ones to bring more beauty to the world.
Summer Palace in Beijing: Preserving History and Beauty
In addition to being used as scientific centers, gardens may have a real historic value, so one may conclude that people garden in order to create masterpieces to be preserved for future generations in order to show how the craftsmanship of gardening has been developing over the centuries. Summer Palace in Beijing, China is a successful combination of historic pavilions, bridges, and a natural landscape. It is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design, according to UNESCO (Toquin and Bosser 67). This place is a demonstration that people have always been striving for creating gardens for the aesthetic pleasure.
Gardening as an Art and Science
The four gardens that have been discussed in this part of the paper show that gardening serves different purposes and people put different intentions in the process of gardening. William Fitzgerald writes that gardening helps satisfy the person’s desire to bring order to a wild nature in order to be able to know it better, or even mate it. In one of his books, Fitzgerald cites the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz, who asserted that “the garden is a domestication of the wild, taking what can be random and, to a degree, ordering it so that it is not merely a transference from the wild” (13). Thus, the author underlines that gardening is a mere desire to know the nature, its wilderness and master the skills how to communicate with it. Meanwhile, gardens are the results of what people have learnt from nature. Therefore, it is clear that gardening has become a science, to which many works, researches, publications are devoted. People argue about the means for gardening, ways of planting and creating general landscape as well as provide a wide range of opinions on how the ideal garden should look like. Michael Pollan has devoted a book to depicting how gardening has become a reason for hot debates, during which people discuss how to garden correctly. Pollan writes that there is no unique opinion and each gardener has his own vision on how the garden of his dream should coexist with the nature and general landscape (Pollan 45). In this respect, the author writes that people are full of prejudices of how the gardens should look like, so it is necessary to remember that gardening is an art, where the gardener is a master (Pollan 46).
Gardening for Physical and Mental Health
In addition to discussing gardening in the frames of aesthetics and opportunity to improve mental health, the group of Japanese scientists asserts that gardening has positive benefits for physical health and can considerable improve state of health of people. Soga, Gaston and Yamaura conducted a huge analysis and reported about positive health changes in people, who are fond of gardening. Researchers have noticed that elderly people, keen on a garden or vegetable garden, have a better quality of life, are more energetic, less likely to experience fatigue, and twice as likely to engage in physical activity. More than 75% of gardeners in the survey rated their health as very good or excellent (Soga, Gaston and Yamaura 94). Amateurs of gardening also eat more fruits and vegetables. All these factors have a positive effect on health and quality of life, especially the in old age. Horticulture can be an effective way for older people to increase satisfaction with life and at the same time increase the level of physical activity. In addition, the researchers report about positive influence of gardening on emotional health and stability of the person. Gardening also helps to improve mental health, as it increases the flow of blood to the brain (Soga, Gaston and Yamaura 94). The body begins to produce hormones of joy, calming and relaxing the mind. Only 20 minutes of physical activity in the garden per day can reduce negative emotional fluctuations, and keep a person fit (Hayashi, Wada and Hirai 235).
Researchers note that simple communication with nature can improve the physical and mental state of a person. When a person creates, admires, just walks through the forest, and breathes fresh air, beneficial effect on his general condition is obvious. Stabilization of blood pressure, sleep, relaxation and tranquility are also noted. It is reported that the Japanese government invested $ 4 million in so-called "forest dives" (Soga and Gaston 96). This research is rooted in Taoism and presupposes walking in the forest and meditating. Thus, Japanese scientists underline that gardens are not simply places for physical activity and cultivation of plants, but for mental health improvement and relaxation.
Conclusion
People have been fond of gardening and working with flowers and plants for centuries, as they were trying to create beauty all around and set friendly relations with nature. Gardens are the places, where people can realize their potential and demonstrate love to soil and nature through planting, while getting energy, relaxation and physical health instead (Hayashi, Wada and Hirai 234). There are many works and researches, underlying positive impact of gardening, among which emotional health is the most important. Gardening provides people with the opportunity to set contact with nature and learn its secrets, while nature, in its turn, demonstrates its gratefulness. Jim Nollman states that despite a great number of books and articles about gardening, one can only master it when doing it (45). Therefore, one of the obvious positive reasons for people to garden is to learn how to cope with nature and get its beauty instead.
Bibliography
Appleton, John. The experience of landscape. New York: John Wiley. 2005
This book focuses on the theoretical approach to landscape aesthetics, nature development, cultivation and includes habitat theory and prospect, which are based on the review of literature on gardening and cultivation.
Kaplan, R., “Some psychological benefits of gardening”. Environment and Behavior. 5 (2003): 145-152.
The article describes a scientific analysis of how gardening and work with soil and plants may change the psychological state of the person. The author underlines such psychological benefits as depression relief and mood improvement.
Michael Pollan’s “Gardening Means War,” The New York Time Magazine. June 1988. https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/gardening-means-war/
In this work Pollan writes about the necessity to demonstrate respect for nature’s fragility. He writes about his personal gardening and cultivating experience and underlines that deploying greater firepower to squash local opposition to my plans for the land was considered as an irresponsible act of environmental imperialism for the author. Therefore, the author focuses on the necessity to develop harmonious relations between man and nature through gardening.
Hayashi N., Wada T. and Hirai H. “The effects of horticultural activity in a community garden on mood changes”. Environ. Control. Biol. 46 (2006): 233–240
The article is an empirical study that investigates how gardening and time that people spend in a community gardens, affects mood changes of people, opt to depressions.
Fitzgerald, William. The Impermanence of Order: The True Nature of Gardens. New York: John Wiley
William Fitzgerald writes about the history of gardening that goes deep into the ancient civilizations and underlines that people used gardens to demonstrate their aesthetic desires in the nature. As a result, Fitzgerald writes, garden like any original creative attempt represented and reflected the human efforts to bring harmony to disorder, through manipulation of nature. As a result, gardens appeared.
Nollan, Jim The How-To Garden. From the book Why We Garden. NY: Sentient Publications. 2005. Print
This book contains some helpful tips from the author’s experience in the sphere of gardening. In addition, it presents the Zen of gardening, describing the real sense of place and purpose that the land should mean to people.
Toquin, Alain and Bosser, Jacques . The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World. NY: Harry N. Abrams. 2004. Print
This book contains descriptions and detailed depictions of the most beautiful and famous gardens in the world. The authors explain their uniqueness and peculiarities as well as show the actions of the government to protect them.
Soga, Masashi, Gaston, Kevin, and Yamaura, Yuichi. “Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis”. Prev. Med Rep. 14.5 (2017): 92–99
This article is an analysis, demonstrating the relation between gardening and benefits for health among the elderly population. The results show that regular gardening helps relieve depression and improve general health conditions.
Soga M. and Gaston K.J. “Extinction of experience: the loss of human-nature interactions”. Front. Ecol. Environ. 14 (2016): 94–101.
The authors state that with the development of technologies and science, people started losing contacts with nature. Gardening in their opinion, is one of the most effective and easiest ways to restore these interactions.
