7 minute read
The Value of Gardening
By Abraham Lizama, Gardener Lead
The activity of gardening is an ancient practice. We could trace our evolution as a species in direct correlation with the cultural practice of environmental modification. The earliest human civilizations were successful because of their relationships to land and interactions with diverse ecosystems. These connections to terrestrial life have been crucial in forming the foundation for the world we live in today.
Let’s Renew Our Natural Bond
In current times, we have lost our way. We find ourselves dealing with a host of environmental consequences due to our climate crises: unmitigated pollution, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, and species extinctions. In addition, we face disappearing wildlands due to over-development — and high demand for access to more. Also to be considered are the effects environmental harm has on public health. And, less contact with the outdoors makes people less inclined to preserve it, most critically affecting young people — the future stewards of the natural world.
But there’s a better way forward if we shift our focus back to plants. Plants have been essential to the people who have inhabited these lands for millennia. Indigenous and ancient cultures have lived with these plants and appropriately modified them, practicing forms of gardening through their land tending. They have used native plants for food, medicine, and utility. Human evolution is in direct affiliation with nature. We are inherently dependent on living organisms and nonliving matter for our survival, just as we always have been.
Bringing Nature Back Through Gardens
We need to change course, but there are challenges developed over generations. The introduction of foreign land-tending techniques and nonnative plants and animals bypassed cultural knowledge. As perceptions of land changed and as people moved away from nature, gardens became associated with spatial design and less with ecological services. And more than half the world’s population now lives in urban areas where true nature is nonexistent. In areas where there is potential for human-nature interaction, there is a lack of resources, infrastructure, and environmental policy. For some people, the only time they spend engaged with nature is in their travel between destinations, passively experiencing local environments. Through human desires, we have designed, landscaped, and progressed ourselves into a dilemma that puts the health of our whole ecosystem at risk.
Why is this distinction important? Because living systems exist outside of human desires. We are guests living in a global garden. Every single thing we do depends on an exchange with nature, whether it be extracting resources for food, fuel, or functions. This is why we need to align. This is where gardening unites the world.
Gardening provides effective ecological solutions and environmental benefits while protecting and sustaining multispecies health. Plants provide essential ecosystem services that cannot be replicated artificially. In fact, plants colonized the surface of the planet hundreds of millions of years before animals, establishing the necessary environmental attributes to support life on Earth. They form networks for food systems, decomposition, and nutrient cycling; provide and protect viable habitats; and, most importantly, store and use carbon dioxide. The presence of plants helps regulate the temperature of the environment at both the micro- and macro-levels. Plants prevent soil erosion and improve water management. Plants act as the bridge between surface and sky, between humans and everything else. Even the smallest garden can have expansive benefits.
The Practice of Gardening as Human Praxis
For humans, it’s also a way to think about how our bodies are holistically engaged with nature. Regular interactions with nature have been proven to reduce stress, inflammation, illness, and fatigue, as well as increase immunity, stabilize body functions, and aid in regulating our biological rhythms. And spending time outdoors, specifically gardening, is an equitable and accessible form of therapy.
Gardening is intentional, and being intentional can help change your perspective. It puts responsibility on humans to learn from nonhumans about cycles, patterns, differences, causes, and effects of the natural world. It puts you in a community of biodiversity. We breathe oxygen produced by plants. We drink water held by the soils. And when you’re working in natural habitats, you see this in progress. The interactions between species have been occurring for much longer than humans have been around. Ecosystems tell the story, and plants bear the weight. Plants show us life and death, in a simple and beautiful way. They teach us to witness life as it occurs. Wherever the garden is, is where we can be too.
The human body was designed to move relative to the environment. In gardening, we continue exploring this trait. It is a physical activity that requires organic contact and regular intimacy with nature, exposure to elements, and experiencing mind-body stimulation. Our bodies move with real purpose when working with plants, our bodies grounded, limbs moving, and senses activated. A gardener is someone aware of their touch, of the reciprocal relationship between themselves and their environment. I am conscious of the dynamics occurring in the places where my body is in proximity to other living things. I am conscious of my body’s ability to move and think. The opportunity is there to change levels and see things from beneath the soils and up into the canopies, to maintain homeostasis and cognitive equilibrium while engaging in active labor, and to perceive time as continuous and anticipate the future based on observations and knowledge, all while taking into consideration the different experiences of other humans and animals.
An Open Invitation: Let’s Garden Together!
Gardeners are actively working to make the world a better place. I encourage you to find opportunities to garden at home or in your community: You can plant food crops, you can renovate a landscape using natives, and/or you can do local restoration work. Here at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, we offer classes for aspiring or professional gardeners, volunteer opportunities, a native plant nursery, summer camps, family activities, and tours and talks year-round. However you choose to garden, make sure it is done with intention. I especially encourage adults to model behavior for younger generations to include gardening in their methods and use it as a nature-bonding experience. The sooner humans understand their connection to nature, the longer their love for it will last.
My perspective has emerged from appreciation, understanding, and curious observation of the natural world around me. As someone who has spent my life on and about these lands — first as a child accompanying my father to work as a gardener, exploring the oaks (Quercus spp.) and creek banks, and eventually as a student studying how different cultures used gardens for so many different purposes — I find myself embraced by, woven into, and devoted to the soils, waters, plants, and animals that make this such a beautiful place. I think of a garden as sacred, where my actions are ceremonial and for a much greater purpose. It is in this affectionate, powerful relationship that gardening has value for me and where I hope you can find value also.
