Gardening Psychology :

I don't know what it is about a garden t has always drawn humans to them. But they've always been y popular, and an integral part of peoples' lifestyles. Most religions fere gardens as the settings some of the biggest events According to Christianity, humanity was started in a garden and the son of God was resurrected in a garden. The Buddhist build gardens to allow nre to permeate their surroundings. Almost ey major palace and gonment building has a garden. But what's so great about them? They're just a bunch of plants, after all.

Of course, the reasoning is fairly obvious bed why people grow food in gardens. It's to eat! If you live off the fat of the land and actually survive on stuff from your garden, it's easy to understand the reasoning. But I'm tking about those people who plant flower gardens just the sake of looking nice. There's no immediate benefit t I can see; you just have a bunch of flowers in your yard! Howe, after tking extensively about the motivation bed planting decorative gardens, I've conceived seal possible theories.

I tk one of the reasons people love gardens so much is t while we have a nral desire to progress and industrialize, deep wit all of us is a primal love nre. While s desire might not be as strong as the desire modernism, it is still strong enough to compel us to create gardens, small outlets of nre, in the midst of all our hustle and bustle. Since being in nre is like regressing to an earlier stage of humanity, we too can regress to a time of comt and utter happiness. This is why gardens are so relaxing and calming to be in. This is why gardens are a good place to meditate and do tai chi exercises. A garden is a way to quickly escape from the busy world.

I've thought at times t perhaps we as humans feel a sort of guilt driving us to restore nre and care it. This guilt could stem from the knowledge t we, not personally but as a race, have destroyed so much of nre to get where we are today. It's the least we can do to build a small garden in remembrance of all the trees we kill ey day. It's my theory t s is the underlying reason most people to take up gardening as a hobby.

Gardening is definitely a healthy habit though, don't get me wrong. Any hobby t provides physical exercise, helps the environment, and improves your diet can't be a negative tg. So no matter what the underlying psychological cause gardening is, I tk t eyone should continue to do so. In the USA especially, which is dealing with obesity and pollution as its two major problems, I tk gardening can only serve to improve the state of the world.

Of course I'm no psychologist; I'm just a curious gardener. I often stay up hours wondering what makes me garden. What is it t makes me go outside a few hours ey day with my gardening tools, and facilitate the small-time growth of plants t would grow nrally on their own? I may ne know, but in s case ignorance truly is bliss.