Gardening's Healing Power: Five Spring Tasks to Boost Mental Wellbeing
From a former high-flying advertising executive who discovered her mental health flourished in the garden, Kathy Slack's journey offers inspiration for those seeking solace in nature. Once immersed in a jet-set lifestyle, Slack found herself burnt out, anxious, and consumed by depression in her mid-30s. After moving from London to the Cotswolds for a better work-life balance, she faced a longer commute and eventually gave up work, spending extended periods in bed.
A Transformative Moment in the Garden
It was her mother who coaxed her outside one day, sitting her with a cup of tea among overgrown vegetable beds. Slack describes the scene as reminiscent of Miss Havisham's veg patch, but the sight of weeds, worms, and bugs calmed her. "It wasn't a huge moment where I went, 'My God! Nature! I'm cured!' but it made me feel slightly less awful," she recalls. Her mother gave her seeds to scatter, and within weeks, radishes and lettuces appeared, sparking a fascination with the transformation from seed to edible produce.
Slack, now 47, left advertising to work as a fruit picker on an organic farm and later pursued cooking, teaching, and writing. Her book, Rough Patch, charts this journey from depression to finding solace in gardening. She believes gardening saved her, stating, "I know it would be glib and a massive oversimplification to say, 'Oh, vegetables saved my life', but they really were significant." Through nature, she reconnected with her values, creativity, and a sense of calm, moving away from the fictional world of advertising to embrace real life.
Five Spring Gardening Tasks for Wellbeing
With about 20 metres of growing space in raised beds, an allotment, and additional plots from neighbouring hobby farmers, Slack views spring as her New Year. She recommends five tasks to boost wellbeing during this season.
1. Sow Seeds for Instant Gratification
"Sow something," Slack advises. For March, she highlights radishes and peas as ideal for window boxes, pots, and sheltered spots. Radishes offer quick growth and instant gratification, thriving even in February's gloom. Peas are hardy and versatile; if not grown to full size, they provide pea shoots for multiple harvests. This process fosters a sense of wonder at watching tiny seeds transform into edible produce.
2. Get Your Hands Dirty with Compost
Slack enthuses about compost, calling it "incredible chocolate, loamy, nutrient-rich magic." She suggests turning compost bins in spring and spreading it over vegetable beds, pots, or flower beds. Research indicates that touching soil with bare hands can change brain chemicals, boosting mood. Contact with healthy soil introduces Mycobacterium vaccae, a bacterium that activates serotonin release, known as the happy hormone.
3. Plan Your Growing Year with Hope
Planning involves gathering physical seed catalogues to browse, rather than online versions. Slack finds inspiration in turning pages and dreaming about varieties like pumpkins, viewing this as an act of hope that excites and motivates for the year ahead.
4. Get Physical with Therapeutic Tasks
Venturing outside for physical tasks, such as wheelbarrowing compost or pulling weeds, can boost endorphins and wellbeing. Slack, a proponent of no-dig gardening, emphasizes that even simple pottering can be very therapeutic.
5. Grow Windowsill Herbs from Seed
For those without gardens, growing herbs like basil on windowsills offers a sense of achievement. Adding homegrown herbs to meals, even ready-made ones, incorporates a bit of nature tended and created, which Slack describes as uplifting.
Rough Patch: How A Year In The Garden Brought Me Back To Life by Kathy Slack is published in paperback by Robinson, priced at £12.99, and is available now.
