The Psychology Behind Gardening

I don’t know what it is about a garden that has always drawn humans tothem. But they’ve always been very popular, and an integral part ofpeoples’ lifestyles. Most religions feature gardens as the settings forsome of the biggest events According to Christianity, humanity was startedin a garden and the son of God was resurrected in a garden. The Buddhistbuild gardens to allow nature to permeate their surroundings. Almost everymajor palace and government building has a garden. But what’s so greatabout them? They’re just a bunch of plants, after all.
Of course, the reasoning is fairly obvious behind why people grow food ingardens. It’s to eat! If you live off the fat of the land and actuallysurvive on stuff from your garden, it’s easy to understand the reasoning.But I’m thinking about those people who plant flower gardens just for thesake of looking nice. There’s no immediate benefit that I can see; youjust have a bunch of flowers in your yard! However, after thinkingextensively about the motivation behind planting decorative gardens, I’veconceived several possible theories.
I think one of the reasons people love gardens so much is that while wehave a natural desire to progress and industrialize, deep within all of usis a primal love for nature. While this desire might not be as strong asthe desire for modernism, it is still strong enough to compel us to creategardens, small outlets of nature, in the midst of all our hustle andbustle. Since being in nature is like regressing to an earlier stage ofhumanity, we too can regress to a time of comfort and utter happiness.This is why gardens are so relaxing and calming to be in. This is whygardens are a good place to meditate and do tai chi exercises. A garden isa way to quickly escape from the busy world.
I’ve thought at times that perhaps we as humans feel a sort of guiltdriving us to restore nature and care for it. This guilt could stem fromthe knowledge that we, not personally but as a race, have destroyed somuch of nature to get where we are today. It’s the least we can do tobuild a small garden in remembrance of all the trees we kill every day.It’s my theory that this is the underlying reason for most people to takeup gardening as a hobby.
Gardening is definitely a healthy habit though, don’t get me wrong. Anyhobby that provides physical exercise, helps the environment, and improvesyour diet can’t be a negative thing. So no matter what the underlyingpsychological cause for gardening is, I think that everyone shouldcontinue to do so. In the USA especially, which is dealing with obesityand pollution as its two major problems, I think gardening can only serveto improve the state of the world.
Of course I’m no psychologist; I’m just a curious gardener. I often stayup for hours wondering what makes me garden. What is it that makes me gooutside for a few hours every day with my gardening tools, and facilitatethe small-time growth of plants that would grow naturally on their own? Imay never know, but in this case ignorance truly is bliss.

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