Creating a Vegetable Garden at Home during Lockdown
During this confinement, many people have decided to try home gardening and create a vegetable garden.
Now, there are small seedbeds on terraces, balconies, or window sills where people are growing seedlings. They do this with the hope that, under our care and with a great deal of patience, they’ll grow some vegetables in the months to come.
For many, it’s little more than a fad. Social networks are now filled with images of home-grown crops. These photos have gotten thousands of likes and helped us see that it’s very easy to create a vegetable garden with seedlings. Also, they’ve allowed us to see that creativity and the right care can compensate for a lack of space.
However, for experts, this isn’t a question of fads. They feel that it isn’t just an attempt at devoting ourselves to something creative during this compulsory confinement due to the coronavirus. They suggest that this hobby is also a way of us returning to the most basic and traditional thing of all: contact with the Earth and nature.
It’s not that we’re afraid of running out of food, nor is it a desperate attempt to be self-sufficient. It’s really a reconnection with nature in times of crisis to try and find peace and connect to something as basic as it is reassuring.
Creating a vegetable garden at home
The poet Rabindranath Tagore used to say that when people mistreat the Earth, it offers it flowers in response. That’s probably true! However, a very striking fact is that many people are becoming interested in returning to Earth. We want to have contact with the soil that nourishes us, protects us, and that, when it comes down to it, gives us life.
Suddenly, having time on our hands and having to live a more leisurely life has made us more introspective. We’ve become more curious about soil, seedlings seeds, flowers, and produce.
Gardening isn’t just a whim during these days of confinement. In fact, many are experiencing unusual benefits from this activity.
Gardening as a way of connecting with ourselves
During confinement, we all look for quiet places. Places where we can feel good, think, and find peace in a world that’s suffering and changing very fast.
We’re surviving as best we can but we’re also discovering new things. Many have become creative, others are resting, and others are trying to heal and relieve their anxiety.
It’s good to know that home gardening during the pandemic is an exercise that has a positive effect on our mental health.
Jennifer Wren Atkinson, a University of Washington professor, explains in her research paper and book , Gardenland: Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice, that gardening helps people manage stress. It allows us to think of alternatives and different options to face our problems and also favors a connection with ourselves.
Gardening is all about coming into contact with the soil and seeing plants grow
As we pointed out at the beginning, home gardening during the pandemic isn’t something that we’re doing out of fear. We’re not afraid that there’ll be food shortages.
However, it’s also worth taking into account that, in many past times of crisis and difficulty, this was a common practice. Thus, a part of that natural instinct may have remained inside us.
Now, aside from whether someone is gardening out of necessity or not, there’s something we can’t deny. Sowing seeds, watching them grow, and cultivating fruit or vegetables is one of the most rewarding activities for human beings. Touching soil brings us back to the most basic things of all and is very pleasing.
There’s a sense of hope in seeing how seeds grow, fruits and vegetables appear, and, finally, how they hang from the plants or trees, waiting to be picked at the perfect time.
Home gardening during the pandemic, an alternative to electronic devices
Creating a vegetable garden during the pandemic gives our brains a rest. It’s become evident that technology has been our ally during this confinement. Thanks to it, we’ve been able to stay in touch with friends, family, and co-workers.
We look at cell phone and computer screens for hours, creating bridges with loved ones who are far way. However, something is happening to many of us. When we hang up the phone or end the video call, we’re left with a void.
This inexplicable emptiness can be filled by something such as gardening and vegetable gardens. The days pass more quickly as we see how the seeds and plants grow.
Why don’t you give this amazing hobby a try?
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- Atkinson, Jennifer (2002) Gardenland. Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice. New York. Criticism