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Weekly Wellbeing: Nurture A Plant
There is a growing evidence (pardon the pun) that connecting with nature does wonders for mental well-being! We explored how being in nature makes us feel in this well being activity.
As much as we know spending time away from the hustle and bustle of daily life is important, it can be really hard to find time to escape to a natural setting. If you’re like me and live closer to a highway than parkland than you know the struggle.
The good news is that we can still get our nature fix from the comfort of our homes. Creating a garden is one of those activities that tick a lot of well-being boxes.
- Spending time in the yard, moving your body around and getting some sun is great for physical well-being. (don’t forget the sunscreen!)
- Studies show that spending 30 minutes gardening each day lowers cortisol levels which is the hormone related to stress. Research also suggests that there’s a healthy bacteria found in soil that can increase serotonin (the happy hormone) when inhaled.
- Gardening with friends or family is a lovely way to connect and being the social creatures we are this is a must. There are often community gardens you can get involved in if you feel like you need to increase your social networks.
- The sense of accomplishment that comes from growing your own veggies or seeing your house plant flourish is amazing. You realise that you have expanded your skill set, learnt a life skill and made your environment lush in the process.
So next time you’re at Woolworth's grab one of those seedling kits or pick up a cheap one from your local nursery. You can even ask a friend to give you a clipping of one of their plants to get you started.
Activity:
Share a gif of your favourite plant/flower!
Have you successfully cared for a plant or garden? How did it feel when you grew your first vegetable/flower/plant?
Comments
Love this thread @Bre-RO
Share a gif of your favourite plant/flower!
Baby's breath! Such a simple flower with versatile appeal, that symbolises many kinds of love.
Have you successfully cared for a plant or garden? How did it feel when you grew your first vegetable/flower/plant?
Yes, I had 2 Cactuses in my past, Spike and Spike Jr. They sadly suffered and passed on as the pots they were in didn't have a good water drainage system :/. For a hardy, drought loving plant, I guess that ain't the best thing...
But in better news, I have a new aloe succulent plant named Arrow, and I plan to grow it strong in the future!
@Tay100 nice!
This is a family picture of some of mine:
Oh, I think @Taylor-RO also asked to see them! Here they are!
Hey @MB95 ,
I was thinking about you and your new plants, and remembered this well-being thread!
I think a lot of people have been discovering, or re-discovering, a love for plants and gardening at the moment. There's something so soothing abouts nurturing something that's alive, and I know that I am getting so much joy from pottering around with my house plants and in our garden.
There's also a bunch of research out there on the mental health benefits of gardening!
I really like the point they make here about how gardening encourages a growth mindset, where we see the value in our mistakes and the fact that we can always use mistakes as the opportunity to learn and grow.
I tried and failed to add images to this so here's one of my dream gardens instead- I don't know if you could achieve this kind of thing where I live in Australia but I'd love to try one day! I've planted a small succulent garden but it's nothing like that- I really fell in love with them in the USA where we saw some incredible ones.
How are your plants going?
This is awesome, thankyou so much for tagging me @Janine-RO 😍 You truly are AMAZING!!
You're not wrong when you say people are discovering a love for plants.. when I went to Bunnings the other day to buy mine it was like people were out madly Christmas shopping! Was so busy!!
I'll have a read of that article shortly, but I can see myself 100% agreeing! I've noticed that since having my plants in my room my moods have started to lift a little. I'm working so hard in so many different ways to push though but have noticed the plants really do make a huge difference! Think I'm gonna scrap the pet idea for now and just go buy more plants on the weekend instead 😂 I will have to take a photo of them tomorrow to show you, but they're doing well! I told my psych about them today too and she was so happy for me so it's been nice being able to share it with you both 😊
Also... I think your dream garden just became my dream garden 😍😍😍
Watching plants thrive is such a joy!! One positive I've taken from social isolation is more time and attention on my plants. I also revived a plant that was definitely on it's way out, so massive sense of accomplishment and pride when I see it coming back to life
No I haven't thanks for the tag @MB95 🙂
I don't have a favourite plant but I have sucessfully kept my succulent alive for a while now! It's in my window and technically I accidentally put two different types of succulents together so they're always fighting each other but they're both still kicking
I might go out into the garden today and pay closer attention to everything 🙂
That's so great! I've been thinking about getting a succulent, but I'm scared because I'm so bad with plants haha! How do you take care of yours?
I'm so bad with plants too @Emily-RO 😅 I have no idea how my succulent is still alive. It got burnt the first time I put it on my window seal so I made a little umbrella for it and it's happier now. I give it water every so often. It's alive but not exactly ✨thriving✨
No way that it got burnt! 😮 I'm sure it looks a lot more fashionable with a little umbrella though! 💙
@Taylor-RO yeah it can be hard to find plants small enough..
Zebra succulents stay small, and are super easy to look after if you're looking for a plant.
Great activity for this week! I love plants, and even though I live in an apartment, my family and I like to grow plants inside our home and on our balcony!
Share a gif of your favourite plant/flower!
There are so many plants that I love!
This is an indian ghost pipe plant, it's parasitic and doesn't have any chlorophyll, so it's completely white!
I also love orchids! They're really elegant and are great indoor plants!
Have you successfully cared for a plant or garden? How did it feel when you grew your first vegetable/flower/plant?
In middle school I remember getting seeds from a capsicum we ate at home and I put them in a pot of soil. The seeds started growing into small plants and it was super exciting to see them gradually grow taller and taller. One time the capsicum plant started having flowers which then started to turn into tiny little capsicums! The capsicums didn't grow very large though since the pot was small, but it was really cool to see it grow vegetables!
This is such a great activity! I've volunteered in some places that have a lot of plants or a garden. A lot of the people I volunteer with have found being around the plants therapeutic. I think it really improves their wellbeing.
Share a gif of your favourite plant/flower!
These are some of my favourite flowers:
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We have them in our front yard. I think they are called Brunfelsia. They have a nice smell.
Have you successfully cared for a plant or garden? How did it feel when you grew your first vegetable/flower/plant?
We have tried growing a few plants over the years. I'd love to grow some more.
We grew strawberries, cucumbers, lemons, tomatoes and some other fruits, but some of them died. The lemon tree has survived to this day though.
It was so much fun to watch the fruits grow! I think that watching a plant grow can be very relaxing.
@Bre-RO not a gif, but I found this adorable idea for a garden in a mint tin:
I cared for a plant for like 6 months - to a slightly ridiculous extent. I took him outside when I woke up and brought him back in when it started getting cold and dark.
He was doing really well but then went missing (yes, missing - I lost my pet plant) for like a month. It turns out mum accidentally put a used tablecloth over him
But before he was "murdered", I really enjoyed looking after him. Plus whenever I gave him water I remembered to drink some as well.
I was very proud of him when he started growing a new branch.
It sounds like you got a lot from looking after your plant- it can be such a satisfying experience and such a sense of achievement to see it thriving! I am so sorry to hear what happened to your plant. My mum is an avid gardener and she is shattered when she loses a plant she put a lot of love into, I can imagine you were also feeling that way!
Do you think you would grow a new plant in the future?
@Jess1-RO this post made me want to try growing something unkillable - like moss or something.
But then I got distracted by aquatic plants and now kinda want to set up a small aquarium for them.
And then I got distracted by the different kinda of aquariums there are and what I might put in it and how filters work.
So probably I will once my brain calms down and stays on the task of figuring out what plants would work.
(btw did you know that not enough people appreciate cold water fish?)