Improve your mental wellbeing by home growing your own veg
Image via Pixabay.
Growing your own food can have huge benefits for your mental wellbeing — and your diet…
From the archive: Mountain Rescue Magazine Autumn issue 78, October 2021: Roger Saxby of the Fire Fighters Charity.
Gardening can have huge health benefits — both physical and mental — and growing your own organic fruit and veg is no different.
Seeking inspiration, I found myself wandering out to my back garden and snapped out of my ruminating thoughts by the tomatoes growing up our garden fence. I was shocked how fast they’d ripened in the sun and it led me on a sensory, mindful experience.
I began looking at them in more detail, touching them and engaging my sense of smell. That inevitably led to me tasting them too. After a few minutes, I’d picked a colander full.
It got me imagining how I’d make the most of them. Maybe a salad, or soup or pasta sauce. In no time, I was out of my overactive mind and into a sensory, body-felt experience. More relaxed and motivated.
This experience is replicated by individuals and families across the world who grow fruit and vegetables for themselves or their community.
It may be a single tomato or salad plant on a window ledge or balcony. Or the more spacious gardens and allotments that require greater effort but enable a range of diverse edible plants.
Step outside and something changes…
Put simply, you step outside and something changes. Add in the sense of achievement and reward, and harvesting your own food can leave us relaxed, restored, revitalised. The biophilia hypothesis recognises that human beings have an innate instinct to connect emotionally with nature.
And research shows that exposure to natural environments has mental health benefits, reducing stress, fatigue, anxiety and depression.
We know mental illness can lead to isolation and social withdrawal. Conversely, time in nature improves social functioning and social inclusion. And this can be achieved through growing our own food.
And by eating a diverse range of plant-based foods, we’re contributing to a healthy gut microbiome and improving our immunity. Not to mention the potential for reducing monthly food costs through the growing season!
Growing our own vegetables can be applied to the Five Ways to Wellbeing, identified by The New Economics Foundation as being daily routines to enhance our wellbeing:
Connect
Gardening and growing our own vegetables offers a real opportunity to create social interaction and connection with other people, whether with our family or other growers. This in turn could boost our mental health. We develop a sense of belonging and self-worth and it gives us an opportunity to share positive experiences and provide emotional support to others.
Be active
The mental health benefits of engaging in physical activity are well-documented, leading to improvements in self-esteem, mood and quality of life, and a reduction in anxiety and depression. Depending on the size of your growing space, it can provide a real workout too!
Take notice
Being aware of the world around you, savouring the moment and noticing nature by connecting through our senses offers the opportunity to be present and practise mindfulness. Our senses are heightened outside as we take in the sights, smells, sounds and contact of the natural world.
Keep learning
Growing our own vegetables is invariably a learning experience, providing the opportunity to learn new skills and knowledge. We learn about what we grow and cook and about the natural world, as each year brings different challenges and rewards.
Give
Take part in community life. Do something for a friend. Do something for nature. Research suggests that acts of kindness by volunteering, joining a community garden or helping a friend or stranger can improve mental wellbeing. It can create positive feelings and a sense of reward, purpose and self-worth through social cooperation.
Why not give it a go?
The evidence is overwhelmingly in support of spending time outside. And these benefits can be replicated when we grow our own vegetables.
My own experience hasn’t always been easy. Weather and availability of time has invariably influenced the outcome of the produce, as well as the presence of other plants that might be referred to as weeds! During the first six months of 2020, having access to a growing space was fundamental to our family’s mental wellbeing and our daughter’s education, for which I have much gratitude.
So, why not give it a go? Start small and simple and choose plants you like to eat, plus ones that grow quickly and easily like lettuces or radishes. Good luck!