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Can gardening make you a happier person?

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Simple question. I say yes. I recently built a raised bed. 40' long, 4' wide. Over the last couple days I finished it, covered it over in sod. Now I spend my free time watering it 3 times a day. It gives me pease and tranquility for 30 minutes.

So I found this article from The Epoch Times and thought it might be of interest.

Full story is at the link above but I think the evidence is clear.


Can Gardening Make You Happier?

Gardening is life-affirming and brings us in direct contact with the magic of creation. No wonder researchers are discovering it also makes us feel good. (Jacob Lund/Shutterstock)
Years ago when we had a big yard, thumbing through gardening catalogs was one way I got through the long Minnesota winters. I dreamed about what I’d plant when the weather warmed up and the ground thawed. I’d look at unusual plants, early bloomers, late bloomers, heirloom tomatoes, and whatever else caught my attention in a given season.
One year, I decided that we needed a raspberry patch in the yard. I couldn’t imagine anything better than walking out the back door and picking my own fresh raspberries, still warm from the sun. During the winter, I poured over several gardening catalogs looking for just the right variety of bush that would yield the sweetest berries and grow quickly. After a great deal of deliberation, I placed my order for two bushes that seemed to fit the bill perfectly.
When my “bushes” arrived, they came in the form of two sticks about 18 inches long with a tangle of roots at one end. In my disappointment, I carefully planted them and resigned myself to having to wait a year or two before I’d be picking any raspberries.
I watered and carefully tended these sticks for a few weeks, waiting for the first leaves to bud out. And then one day, I looked out my kitchen window to watch my two sons playing in the yard, running and tumbling like puppy dogs. They were chasing each other and having a sword fight with what I realized were my two soon-to-be raspberry bushes!
We never did get raspberries right off the bush, but my husband and I continue to garden in a community plot shared with another couple. Over the years, our community garden has been the source of all kinds of greens, bushels of tomatoes, bell and hot peppers, eggplant, onions, and even tomatillos. Last year, we added potatoes and leeks to our list.
Gardening is a lot of work, but it’s also incredibly satisfying on a number of levels. It’s also good for both your physical and mental health. Clearly, growing your own produce can increase your access to nutritious food, but it’s also great exercise and helps build muscle strength. Scientists also report that gardening can decrease your risk for dementia, help you sleep better, and getting outside can increase your body’s levels of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin.
Growing your own food can also boost your emotional health and happiness. In a recent study of 370 home gardeners, Princeton researchers reported that participants who grew their own produce reported higher levels of well-being than those who grew flowers and ornamental plants. Furthermore, the researchers found that out of 15 activities studied, only home gardening was associated with higher emotional benefits for women and people with low incomes compared to men and participants with medium or high incomes.
How is it possible that digging in the dirt, getting sweaty, and taxing your lower back in the garden can make you happier? While the answer may be different for each gardener, there are a number of possibilities.
Gardening removes you from everyday distractions and stressors; it’s a kind of getaway.
It puts you in touch with nature. A great deal of research exists on the physical and mental health benefits of walking in wooded areas or parks. A garden is also a kind of green space in which you mark the seasons through plants . . .
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
The short answer is "NO", not when it's a 100° outside in the shade and the garden sure as hell isn't in the shade. :)

I used to have a large veggie garden but 'way back when I was a youngster, in my mid 60s, we had over 60 straight days of 100° temperatures. I swore that was the last year I was ever going to do that again and it was. I still miss it. I was a veggie grower all my life but I don't miss it enough to get back out there during the Texas summer. My wife is still planting her kitchen COVID garden and starting get some produce.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
I used to write a gardening column for a local weekly paper. It was titled, "Your Garden Matters" I would have to say "yes" to the premise.

100 degrees "F" to 20 degrees, gardening brings us closer to the soil and "beds" our souls to the earth. Whilst not as good a pastime as sex, it is certainly a healthier pastime for body and soul. Unlike sex, there is no rejection, and gardening gets better with age.
 

pixie

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Sure..... if it weren't for the varmints that dig it up causing 'mixed vegetables' and eat green tomatoes.

My raised beds are 2 feet high. Chipmunks and porcupines I've seen. Raccoons and skunks are also suspects.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
We built a smaller garden last year with 3 6x2.5' raised beds and a smaller ground level bed. They didn't do much last year since we didn't get much rain and when you're on a well, priority is keeping the house going. I tried running the sprinkler on it and it would start off as a full stream covering 20ft wide but after 10 minutes, it would be down to a 3ft high trickle coming from the sprinkler so that was a fail. This year, we debated even doing one but a few weeks ago I was bored one day and decided to plant a few seeds to see what happened. We now have lettuce, radishes, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, squash, asparagus, and I'm trying giant pumpkins to see what happens. They're all doing well so far.

I have to agree with you. I'm not much of a gardener but find it quite relaxing out there checking out how things are progressing.
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bczoom

Super Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Where did you put your asparagus? It comes back every year so it's normally kept in a separate area so you don't till it up every year.

We have a few gardens.
The biggest one (about 40x60') has about 30+ tomato plants, cucumbers, zucchini and other large plants.
A 4x16' raised bed - 1/2 has about 120 onions, the other half is peppers.
A 20x20' garden near the house for herbs, cherry tomatoes and other things you grab and go to the kitchen.

Our target is primarily tomato sauces as the commercial stuff gives me a belly ache. With 30+ tomato plants, we normally get around 150-200 quarts.

I don't mind tilling the ground. I don't like planting (too much bending over). I do like to do the canning process.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
My subdivision lot is so occupied with shade trees and flowering shrubs, i don't have sunlight, much less room, for a vegetable garden.

So at work, set side a 40' X 50' space . The soil was so bad I had to bring some in, so I stole several pickup loads from my Iowa B-I-L out of his horse corral and manure pit.
About two feet thick over the whole lot. It is essentially a raised bed

Unfortunately, the last two years it has gone fallow. I just don't have the time.

I am hoping to till it up in the next few weeks and start adding amendments in anticipation of next year. As any gardener knows, no matter the results this season, next year will be better.

Meanwhile, the flowers and trees at home occupy my evenings.
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That is Cecil Creek (named after my gardening grandma) and the statue is of my grandpa Irvin who had a dairy farm and never got to go fishing.
 
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chowderman

Well-known member
gardening is a great 'hobby' for those inclined. at this house I have about 1,000 sq ft - with an advantage that one end goes shady about mid-day, the other end has full sun all day.

the whole place - ready for a winter's nap
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the shady end - good for peas/leafy crops
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the full sun end - here decked out in tomatoes....
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kc3tec

Member
To make a raised bed garden easy and portable, do what i did.
I purchased some plastic 55 gallon barrels and cut them in half lengthwise.
Then built a frame about just above knee
high with large diameter wheels on the legs.
Drill drainage holes in the bottom of the barrel halves, and bolt the halves to the frames.
They can be moved around like a wheelbarrow

Each bed will hold 3 40 lb bags of soil and 1 of crushed stone( for drainage)
They are very easy to tend and move around as needed.( makes it very handy when its time to mow the lawn)
 

Roosterfish

New member
Last year I tried a version of "wicking tubs", see
We have a pretty short growing season and I love my tomatoes.
I cut one of those 330 gallon IBT totes in half to make 2 tubs and built a platform for it so it's at waist level. They're not quite 4' square but with feeding them fertilized water, I managed to grow 6 plants in each one.
I have tractors and equipment so I can move them into the shop overnight early and late in the season during colder nights and even to avoid thunderstorms.
Waist level mentioned above is priceless, so is "finishing" late season tomatoes.
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It didn't take long before I needed to add a trellis to tie the plants to. I'm a believer now in old Leon's wicking techniques.
Check out the YouTube link if you're the least bit curious. 👍
 
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power1

Well-known member
I have tried several different was of gardening. I am just not going to do the work of gardening in the ground. Too much work. I have tried aquaponics, hay bale gardening, and container gardening. Any one of them is better tthan gardening in the dirt.
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I spent almost 30-years trying to develop a "no work garden". Never made it. The closest that I got was a "least work garden" and it was pretty darned good.
 

KitKat2023

Member
I'm not into gardening at all, but I love to eat zucchini and so I do the minimal amount of work I can to grow my veggies. I put down landscape fabric to help reduce the weeds, cut a hole every few feet and put a mount of Miracle Gro over each hole. Then I place a few seeds, cover with more Miracle Gro and water daily. That's the extent of my gardening and I get a lot of zucchini that way!
 

chowderman

Well-known member
not exactly the best approach to bucket gardening . . . they did same last year, left for a couple days, came home to brown things sagging over the buckets. . . .
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FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
Since the main point of urban gardening is happiness doing it, what is the point of "Effortless Gardening?"

Nothing worthwhile is effortless.

Hell, even good sex takes some effort.
 

KitKat2023

Member
not exactly the best approach to bucket gardening . . . they did same last year, left for a couple days, came home to brown things sagging over the buckets. . . .
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You know what helped my container garden when I grew zucchini in them last year? I drilled 5 holes in the bottom of my containers and the roots actually went down into the ground under the container!! The container that I pulled away from the ground died while the one that had the roots still attached to the ground thrived and I got 24 zucchini from one plant!
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Since the main point of urban gardening is happiness doing it, what is the point of "Effortless Gardening?"

Nothing worthwhile is effortless.

It wasn't exactly effortless and it wasn't an urban garden.

I used to till up about an acre every year. I didn't mind working on it in the spring, I just hated working on it during the height of the summer. So, I tried all kinds of different things and methods so that it would be "no work" during the summer months except for picking. Even that got to be a chore as when everything was growing good, I could fill the front-end loader of the tractor every few days and there is only the two of us. We canned, we froze stuff, we made sauces and gave lots of it away.

You have no idea just how much effort that I put into that "no work" garden. :giggle:

Oh! I forgot to mention the raised bed garden with four 40'x 4' beds. That was definitely NOT a no work garden.
 
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FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
It wasn't exactly effortless and it wasn't an urban garden.

I used to till up about an acre every year. I didn't mind working on it in the spring, I just hated working on it during the height of the summer. So, I tried all kinds of different things and methods so that it would be "no work" during the summer months except for picking. Even that got to be a chore as when everything was growing good, I could fill the front-end loader of the tractor every few days and there is only the two of us. We canned, we froze stuff, we made sauces and gave lots of it away.

You have no idea just how much effort that I put into that "no work" garden. :giggle:

Oh! I forgot to mention the raised bed garden with four 40'x 4' beds. That was definitely NOT a no work garden.
Your premise was an attempt at a "no work" garden. My point was that, to me, the effort is one of the joys of gardening. However, good yields with less effort is also plus.
 

REDDOGTWO

Unemployed Veg. Peddler
SUPER Site Supporter
I used to sell at the farmers market. Wife, brother and sistered both my kids helped. The first year that I sold I planted 40 acres. Way to many potatoes threw out at least 10,000 pounds the next spring, Also tossed a lot of other stuff except for cucumbers.
 

KitKat2023

Member
My garden was doing poorly a month ago because of floods, but now we're getting a ton of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. I'm going to start putting veggies on neighbors' doorsteps and then texting them to let them know they're there LOL
 
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