Call it a hobby, call it a passion, call it what you will, but gardening is widely recognised as one of the very best ways of maintaining physical and mental health. However, if you are in the exceedingly bad habit of trying, octopus wise, to do everything at once, you’d be stupidly stressing yourself out in the resultantly complicated mess. For example, carefully arranging three different types of kale seedlings in a small basket, instead of sensibly going to find a larger one, then spilling them all over the place whilst slip-sliding down a ‘short cut’ to the next terrace where they were supposed to be planted out type by type but are now mix n’ match surprises!

It is said that gardeners without paid-for malis or other regular help, who spend one to two hours actively working in their gardens each day, are amongst the healthiest people on the planet and often live considerably longer than less active people. I have more than a few doubts about the latter medical findings but accept, without question, that different people go about gardening in very different ways. For instance, when investing in a brand new lawnmower, being extremely environment/climate change conscious, avoiding power tools — including strimmers and powered lawnmowers — I bought one of those good, old-fashioned hand-operated (meaning pushed) lawnmowers. Unless the grass is already manicured to within an inch of its life, it requires the use of arm and shoulder muscles which, in my case, happen to be a little rusty. It would have been sensible to have the too long grass strimmed before launching a ‘keep it under firm control’ programme with the shiny new machine. But I just had to try it out on a small area adjacent to the house. Then, enjoying the massacre, a bit more and a bit more and until it was too dark to see and the dog was singing for her supper. The plan to do the rest the next morning failed miserably: tortured muscles rendered it all but impossible to get out of bed.

Regular bouts of gardening have, among numerous other benefits, been medically proven to reduce high blood pressure, relieve stress, banish headaches, aid digestion and improve muscle tone. It also helps sufferers of arthritis and rheumatism retain flexibility in, for example, their fingers, through the various types of muscular and circulatory exercises performed when doing chores such as repotting plants, dead-heading flowers and weeding. But this should not be done for hours on end — and this cannot be stressed enough — when the end result is painfully immovable fingers and absolutely filthy, broken-nailed claws which refuse to open the house door, let alone clasp a reviving mug of tea.

Good for physical and mental health, gardening, too, can have adverse effects when done in excess

This is to say that, in order to improve their health and well-being, gardeners — irrespective of their age — should not tackle gardening like a hard session in the gym. Nor should they expect to obtain wondrous health benefits from simply wandering hither and thither waving a shiny pair of secateurs in the air. The perfect balance lies somewhere in between and varies from one individual to the next, depending on a number of factors, such as age, weight and overall health.

According to a wide variety of experts who have carried out, or more likely had their ‘underlings’ carry out, a stupendous number of surveys over the last couple of decades or so, the most advisable way to garden is to draw up daily work plans, each day dedicated to a specific task. It should preferably be a task that can be completed in the recommended one or maximum of two hours of daily gardening for all round health and, for good measure and balanced mental health, to undertake each and every gardening task as a pleasant meditational experience.

Being completely serious, one has to wonder which planet the people responsible for compiling these surveys, along with those responsible for putting forward suggestions based on the findings, come from. It appears fairly obvious that their overview of the gardening world is one in which roses have no thorns, weeds are vanquished by the wave of a magic wand, garden beds and terraces make and maintain themselves and accidents never happen.

We real gardeners know better!

Don’t misunderstand … gardening is good for you, good for your health and good for achieving a balanced state of mind. But one of its greatest, most positive, definitely satisfying, benefits is doing it your way and your way alone.

Happy Gardening New Year.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email Emails with attachments will not be opened. Commercial enquiries will be ignored.

Published in Dawn, EOS, December 30th, 2018