Hokianga Heirloom Tomatoes
So you love tomatoes too!
Let's get growing!
Get in here, get in here!
Ever wondered why you garden? What does the love of growing tomatoes, in particular, say about you?
During lockdown, I dove into the psychology of gardening and unearthed some eye-opening answers for myself. Perhaps you will find a few things that you can relate to, so let's go!
Biophilia: our built-in love for plants
Biophilia is a term that describes the loving relationship we humans have with plants. Some of us experience this relationship more intensely than others, which is more than likely to be you, tomato lover.
Now hold on to your tomatoes because what I'm about to tell you is mind-blowing.
Gardeners bend time
It turns out gardeners can manipulate time. We can speed time up, you head out to do one task, and it leads to another, and before you know it, the night is upon you, and you have no idea where the time has gone.
That garden just absorbed your attention in such a way that you no longer needed to notice the time. You were in a flow state. Flow is only interested in you, focusing on the process of completion. While you are there, you can even resist sleeping or eating; there's less reflection, more direction.
Then we can slow time down, the garden is finally in full bloom, and we can stand there and drink it all in, as we immerse ourselves. It's called mindfulness.
You're experiencing a moment of reflection, becoming more aware of internal processes that lower your arousal. You are moving from human time to natural time; nature is entering your senses. Welcome to the bigger picture; you're getting jiggy with the universe now.
A garden is a time machine of memory
Here's what got me!
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Your gardening experiences and memories are lingering there. You can bump into your grandfather when you bite into that giant strawberry that tastes just as good as his did, or your grandmother as the soft scent of sweet peas lightly kisses you, just like the ones she grew every year without fail. You've a dianthus that your best friend gifted you, and she's right, it is the most gorgeous thing you'll ever see when it blooms.
There are these invisible connections that can be seen and held again. It's pure and good; it's always trying to restore you and make you see things differently, see things better. You've got history, memories, and even better, you can pass them down to your children. Gardening is a gift, a beautiful, muddy, time-altering, interconnecting one.
Gardening is a gift!
There's some great news for those of us who are ageing; the relationship to gardening deepens. Particularly if you are a woman, it may be making you live longer. There's so much more I could ramble on about, but alas, my flow state has come to an end, and I'm ready to find myself back in the garden amongst my memories of loved ones passed, making time stand still.
"Ka mua, ka muri" - "Walking backwards into the future."
This whakataukī acknowledges that we carry our past with us, and as we move forward, we remain in relationship with memory, with ancestry, with what has been.
If you want to find out more about what your garden says about you, how it keeps you sane, and the risk of taking up gardening and it taking over your life, then grab Harriet Gross's book, The Psychology of Gardening.
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