Connect with nature this Garden Day

This Sunday, 21 October communities are urged to embrace their green fingers and get stuck in the garden, in celebration of Garden Day.

There’s nothing like the joy of gardening. Connecting to nature, the pride of growing your own plants, flowers, food and of course, the amazing health benefits.

It’s also well documented that gardens, no matter how big or small, have the potential to bring people and communities together, which is why on Sunday, 21 October the call to action for South Africa’s annual Garden Day is to down tools, invite neighbours, friends and family round to celebrate your garden together.

Marvello and Mill’s communication strategist Catherine Pate shared the following with the Sun.

Plants instead of pills

Many studies have shown that gardening can make a significant contribution to health and well-being, not just as a way to get some physical exercise but also to improve mental health. GPs in London have already started to prescribe gardening time to assist patients with mental health troubles.

According to Professor Nox Makunga, a plant scientist at the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa has an incredible flora that has been used by people for health purposes for centuries.

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“Apart from their aesthetic beauty, gardens have many healing properties linked to psycho-spiritual healing,” said Prof Makunga.

“They may provide us with food and medicine and an interconnectedness to nature and the world around us and also to our very self. Benefits are thus psychological, social, emotional and physical. A medicinal garden in some households is a first line of primary health care.”

Gardening is not only beneficial for your mental health but is also the world’s best-kept exercise secret. Whether you spend five minutes or a whole day gardening, all the stretching, pulling and lifting will help you and your garden stay in great shape and increase your physical health by an average of 33 per cent with knock-on benefits for rates of heart disease and diabetes.

You may even live longer.

“When one works in the garden, the physical labour provides good exercise that benefits both the cardio and muscular system; and even, works the brain,” added Prof Makunga.

Read also: Create innovative gardens with old tyres

Social seeds

Gardening does not only lift up your mood, it is also a great way of connecting with people and reducing loneliness, which is why this Garden Day South Africans are once again encouraged to sow the Spirit of Ubuntu.

If you’ve been admiring your neighbour’s garden from afar, intrigued by their rambling roses or eager to learn more about their striking succulents, Garden Day is the perfect time for you to branch out and cultivate relationships with those around you.

Gardener Alan Hulme likes to ‘mix it up’ at his community garden Urban Organic in Blackpool. Local residents work alongside schoolchildren, as well as visually impaired and socially isolated people.

“The garden is the focus,” he says, “but the secret ingredients are tea, cake and bringing people together”.

Ready, set, GARDEN

Don’t let the opportunity pass you by this garden day. Get stuck in and if you document your day’s progress, make sure to share it on social media and add #gardenday, in an effort to strengthen the movement of the gardening community!

DID YOU KNOW?

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