The Nature Fix

Every year my fascination with growing stuff increases. It’s an obsession that is fueled by both the bountiful crops that are picked at the end of a successful season, and the effect it has on my mind and body.

My mother was an excellent gardener. She taught us all how to grow, prune, kill and cook. We had a double block; half of it filled with fruiting trees, raspberry bushes, vegetables and yards of chickens and ducks. We would sit under the prolifically fruiting apple tree while plucking the freshly killed chickens. Our chest freezer was filled by the end of summer with plums, stewed apples, raspberries, peas and every sort of vegetable.

When life as a kid became overwhelming, the garden and the chickens were my sanctuary. I would often sit in the chook yard with my guitar, serenading the bantams while nibbling on cherries or freshly podded peas. As an adult, that sanctuary remains as I plant out my suburban garden with bird attracting and fruiting bushes and trees. I wake to the view of a Japanese maple and flowering exotic plants, look out my kitchen window at the developing vegie garden full of herbs, tomatoes and greens and peg my clothes surrounded by figs, apricots, josterberries and apples. The fig tree rules the yard, as it should. 

My own sense of wellbeing is enhanced by gardening, but a few months ago it was confirmed in a study that identified tangible benefits in gardening. Check out the conclusion in this study that calls on governments and health organisations to encourage and support gardening initiatives. This study and evidence backed up my own experience of how I feel when I dig my hands into the soil. Another story coming out of Japan spoke of forest bathing, a phenomenon that is becoming more and more popular in a country that is known for it’s long working hours and fast pace. The Japanese word for forest bathing or therapy is Shinrin-yoku and it’s described as ‘the medicine of simply being in the forest. Shinrin-yoku means ‘taking in the forest atmosphere’ or ‘forest bathing’ and it was developed in the 1980’s as a preventative health care and healing treatment in Japan.

This morning on Blue Print for Living with Jonathan Green there was a discussion with Florence Williams, the author of The Nature Fix. Williams had moved from a forest environment to the city and it was the impact this had on her that led her to explore what was happening. 

What she found was the undeniable link between well being and nature. It might seem obvious to many of us, but the cold hard reality is that many people are living in cities with no connect to plants, trees or the wilderness. Her research found studies that linked nature to benefits to the nervous and immune system. 

They discussed how we now view nature as a luxury when in fact research has found that it is ‘essential to make us civilised’. 

Studies across the world have identified that walking in forests, or the wilderness, for just 5 hours a month can help ward off depression and even cancer. 

It was an interesting discussion. Instinctively I didn’t really need to learn about the studies to know that Gardening is benefitial to me, but as we as a society continue to be fascinated and seduced by technology that removes nature or replaces it through Apps and virtual reality experiences, it does remind us of the simplicity of living and that it really is at our finger tips.