Gardening & The Healing Properties of Nature

This topic is near and dear to me because if you would have asked me how I felt about gardening 10 years ago, I would have told you if you saw me gardening, call a psychiatrist, I've cracked. That's not a lie. I had absolutely zero interest in gardening back then. And I mean NONE. 

But then something happened a few years back. My wife, as I have mentioned many times in my blogs, was diagnosed with breast cancer. We were both devastated with the news. And both our worlds were turned upside down for very different reasons. 

Some backstory. We are both the types of people who love nature. We love to go hiking or just walking in all sorts of settings. We love animals. We tend to visit places like the mountains or the beaches. We love the smell of salt air. Being in Lake Tahoe where you can literally just inhale the pine trees (and now you can smell them too). We've been on hiking trips in Hawaii just to see the many Waterfalls they have to offer. We've done so many things outdoors that it's too many to list. 

My wife always says she gets rejuvenated through nature. She's a bit more reserved than me and just a few minutes of breathing fresh air puts her in a better mood. I, on the other hand, am Italian and love socializing. So I tend to get rejuvenated through interactions with people. And by interactions I mean a lot of yelling and rapid hand motions. Or as I call it, just being Italian. 

Shortly after the covid pandemic, we remodeled our backyard. We put in a small waterfall feature. My wife placed a few small Buddha's in the backyard in strategic places. She planted all these beautiful flowers and plants around it. And it's truly a mini oasis. She still spends hours almost every day out there. Sometimes gardening, sometimes listening to her audio books. But it truly is how she relieves her daily stress. 

When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and spent over a year dealing with the effects of chemo and radiation, it didn't matter if it was summer or winter. She'd take a pillow and blanket out into the backyard, place herself under one of our big umbrellas or our large maple tree, and she'd focus on the waterfall and the sounds around it. She'd spend hours watching the hummingbirds who came to drink from the waterfall. She'd talk to the crows and squirrels in the trees, marvel at the lizards running across our walls and it always made her feel a bit better. There were many days I'd find her asleep out there. And you could just tell in her sleep, she was getting the rest her body needed to heal. Even though most days were tough, I could always find her enjoying the backyard instead of being locked away in our house. Having an outdoor living space also allowed her to enjoy all those animals. To watch the plants she had planted thrive and it made her feel better knowing that we had no chemicals in our garden. 

For me it was a different story. I spent a lot of time that year sitting in the house feeling helpless. I did everything she needed me to do but I didn't know how to help myself. I took a lot of time off of work because I wanted to keep an eye on her, especially those first few days after every treatment. I binged watch more TV shows than I can count. I played games on my phone. I bought a meditation and breathing app. Let's just say, nothing worked and I was completely lost.

And then one day I decided to put together a vegetable and fruit garden in the upper yard because she loves gardening and couldn't do it at that time. I figured organic fruits and vegetables would aid in her healing process, and of course, give me something to focus on for my own mental health.  

Now remember, I wasn't born with a green thumb. In fact, my wife almost killed me a few times when I tried to help her garden because I did stuff like pull all her snapdragons out of the ground thinking they were weeds (that was 20 years ago and she still hasn't forgiven me). So when I started this new gardening adventure, I had to hit the books for a few weeks. I read about the different soils. Tropical. Citrus. All purpose. Organic. Non Organic. And then spent hours digging up the clay soil in our backyard and replacing it with whatever soil we needed depending on our plantings. I read about the different organic fertilizers that each plant requires (and there are a ton). I read about companion planting. Sun requirements. Pests that could affect my crops. I bought a water and soil meter. And then something happened to me. The more time I spent outside with my hands in the dirt and watching the fruits of my labor grow (pun intended), I started to mentally feel better. I felt less stressed. I wasn't having random panic attacks anymore. And I was feeling hope for the both of us again.

That first gardening season was a learning curve. A sharp one. Where we live we have a lot of animals. So even though animals like deer can't get into our backyard, we still have squirrels, rats, raccoons, possum, bobcats and other animals that can tear up a garden. And let me tell you, it happened a lot. It's still happening sometimes now. But it's hard for me to get mad at any animal because I am a huge animal lover. With that said, let me just say, that raccoon that tore up my 6 foot tall heirloom tomato plant into 4 pieces this year and ate 6 almost ripe heirloom tomatoes from it, we need to have a chat. 

A few years later, the wife and I now have a pretty cool vegetable and fruit garden. It's gone through quite the transition. We have 2 good size vegetable cages in our yard now (I'd like to thank that jerk of a raccoon for forcing me to do that this year). My wife is considered recovered (thank the universe) and we spend the mornings having coffee in our yard, talking about which plants we need to take care of, she picks herb from her herb garden for cooking and it has brought us closer together. 

That garden did a lot more than just grow healthy fruits and vegetables. It gave us something delicious to eat, it helped my mental state, it brought us closer together and the most import thing; it helped heal my wife. I am convinced of it. 

Now, I get it. Not everyone wants to garden or has the ability to garden. And organic anything bought in the store can get expensive. And I'm sure some of you are asking, why does it have to be organic? Well when you check out my next blog, Pesticides & Our Produce: The Ugly Truth, what I will share with you will stop you from asking that question.

So whatever we don’t grow, which is quite a bit, we try to keep the costs down when we go to the grocery store or local farmers market. Our rule of thumb is simple. Only buy what you can eat. Sounds simple but how many of you out there just went to Costco and bought a box of peaches and half of them went bad? With organic, that gets expensive quick. If you are one of those bulk shoppers (aka Costco addicts) it is cheaper to buy in bulk to save money but then look into freezing some of your vegetables. We do that often. And there are some great environmentally friendly containers for freezing if you research it. The most popular are silicone, steel and glass. And for small homes or apartments, there are indoor hydroponics kits now that can help you grow organic veggies in a small space. You can Google them and find them sold at a lot of places. It's fun and on a smaller scale, a great inexpensive way to see if gardening and growing some of your own food is for you. I’ve seen kids kits for about $16. Small window sill size kits for about $50. And then large ones that costs hundrends of dollars. But I’ve heard from people, who don’t have a lot of space, they’re fun and relatively easy. 

Now let’s talk about soil: Organic vs Non organic

Organic soil is always the way to go if you’re growing food in it. Organic soil is a living self-sustaining ecosystem. This soil is full of microorganisms and nutrients that nourish the plants and there are no harmful chemicals in it. In organic soil, you will find naturally occurring chemicals, like nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon. but remember, some of that natural soil may contain things like chicken manure. Not that manure isn’t good for some plants, but it will stink up your backyard up for weeks. I learned that lesson the hard way. 

Non organic soil: many of these soils contain synthetic ingredients such as fungicides, insecticides (remember those neonicotinoids I mentioned in my other blog) and disease suppressants. If you haven’t read about neonicotinoids yet, they have been linked to an increase in breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, they are an endocrine disruptor and can cause reproductive harm. They are also harmful to aquatic life and are found in many of our sunscreens.

Non-organic soil also contains time release coatings. Due to the chemical additives such as polyurethane and polyolefin resins these plastic coatings leach micro plastics into our soil which poisons our environment. 

Now, full disclosure. The wife and I do use some non-organic soils but only for contained hanging baskets or pots for flowers like our annuals. Since the soil is contained it doesn’t come into contact with the soil we use for growing our food. And just to keep everybody aware, in the last few years on Memorial Day weekend, stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot have a $2 soil sale. Yes it’s for non-organic soil, but I usually stock up because we have a lot of flower baskets and pots around our house. But when digging into this soil, make sure you wear gloves. Unlike the organic soil, you’re not going to want the chemicals in those soils coming into contact with your skin. 

As for taking time in nature, I do highly recommend it to anyone who experiences a high level of stress or who needs time to heal from an injury or disease. I have had 15 surgeries in the last 20 years and spending time outside recuperating has been very healing for me. Not to mention I am convinced that my wife beat cancer because of her connection with nature.

As always I like to end my blogs with the fact that I am not a doctor, scientist or researcher. I am just a concerned citizen who cares about the chemicals corporations are putting in our food and environment. If just one person reads this blog and it makes a difference in their life, it's all I can ask for.

Hears to everyone's health. 🙏