Gardening At Home, More Than A Fad

It is a common image today. Many people have started gardening at home. Now, on the terraces, balconies, galleries or in the windows live small seedbeds where timid cuttings grow. Plants that, with our care, interest and patience, will give some edible vegetable after months.

For many it is little more than a fad. Social networks are filled with images of people, both anonymous and famous, who have begun to show their small home crops. These photos are obtained thousands of likes by making us see how you can create an organic garden with seedbeds, compensating with creativity and care for the lack of space.

Now, for experts this is not a matter of fashion. Nor of an attempt to dedicate ourselves to something creative during those days when we have nothing to do. In reality, this exercise or hobby is also our reaction to return to the most basic, to contact with the earth, to something traditionally basic for the human being.

It is not that we fear that from one moment to the next we will run out of food. Nor is it a desperate attempt to be self-sufficient, to grow garlic and tomatoes on the balcony of the house in case of shortages. It is a return to nature to find calm, to connect with something as primary as it is reassuring.

Gardening at home, the return to the land

The poet Rabindranath Tagore used to say that people have a habit of mistreating the land and that she, in response, offers us flowers. Surely so.

Now, something striking that a large number of people are experiencing these days is the interest to return to it, to have contact with that creative soil that nourishes us, protects us and, after all, gives us life. .

Suddenly, having time and taking a more leisurely, intimate pace, often turned towards introspection, has made us once again curious about it, about the earth and to see the cuttings, the seeds, the flowers, the fruits grow. …

Gardening at home is not a simple fad during bored days. Many are experiencing unusual benefits from this work.

Gardening as a way of connecting with ourselves

Sometimes we need spaces to feel good, to think, to find calm in a world that suffers, that changes quickly.

We survive as best we can, but we also discover things every day. Many believe, others only rest to heal, to calm anxiety. And some others have chosen to spend hours growing at home.

Jennifer Atkinson, a professor at the University of Washington, explains in her research paper Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice that cultivating a garden or garden helps to manage stress, allows us to think about alternatives to problems and also favors the connection with ourselves.

Cultivating a garden not out of fear, but because of having contact with the earth and seeing it germinate

We pointed out at the beginning, gardening at home is not a behavior that we generate in response to fear. We are not afraid of running out of stock.

However, it should be noted that in times of crisis and difficulties, this was a common practice and we may have been left with that little instinctual loophole.

Now, beyond whether someone does it out of necessity or not, there is something undeniable. Sowing seeds, watching them grow and harvesting a fruit or vegetable over time is one of the most rewarding exercises for human beings. It has always been like this. Having contact with the earth brings us back to the most primal and this not only gives us pleasure.

There is a sense of hope to see how the cuttings grow, how the fruit appears and finally hangs from the plant waiting to be picked.

Gardening at home, an alternative to electronic devices

Gardening at home is a break for the brain. Today, technology is our ally, it is evidence. Thanks to her we are in contact with friends, family and co-workers.

The screens of our mobiles and computers fill our hours and create bridges with those who are far away. However, there is something that happens to most of us often: when we hang up the mobile or end that video call we are left with a gap.

That inexplicable emptiness can be filled by gardening and those small terrace or balcony gardens. To cultivate is to create, it is to make contact with the earth, it is to learn to care and be patient.

The days go by faster seeing how this plant grows and unfolds its leaves, its small fruits … We lose nothing by trying it, by immersing ourselves in this ancestral practice that often goes far beyond supplying and feeding.