Margaret Leahy: as good for the head as it is for the backside

My hot water tank started spewing water one night last week and flooded the place. The next day, while waiting for a plumber, I planted the garlic for next year. Doesn’t everyone plant garlic when they have no water or heat and the house is full of wet clothes?

Growing vegetables, and gardening in general, has far more benefits than what is produced, though I do love growing my own food. It’s also about exercise, fresh air and it really helps my mental health. I often say - it’s as good for the head as it is for the backside!

Feeling angry? Pull a few weeds and let it dissipate. Tired of the dark days of January? Have a close look around the garden and hedgerows and you’ll find some new shoots or buds swelling. Busy running around trying to get everything done? Take the advice of Walter Hagen (a 20th century American golfer) who famously said, “Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”

Smiling

When my daughter, Niamh, was home during the first lockdown, she would tell me to go out to the garden after work while she made dinner. She noticed that I would finish work with hunched shoulders and tired eyes from staring at a screen all day, but after a half hour in the garden, I came back in smiling - with relaxed shoulders. It was the first time someone had pointed out something that I already instinctively knew: the garden is good for me.

There is a growing body of research showing that getting your hands in the soil can increase your serotonin levels. Apparently, there is a specific soil bacteria (Mycobacterium vaccae) which triggers the release of serotonin in our brain. Serotonin is described as a ‘happy chemical’ and strengthens the immune system. I’m not a scientist, but I have seen first-hand the benefits not just of gardening - but also of farming.

I had the great privilege of working with social farmers a few years ago. Social farming provides people - who use a variety of social services - an opportunity to take part in the day-to-day activities on a family farm. I saw first-hand people who had various difficulties in life gain self confidence, skills, increased mobility and fall in love with the animals and gardens. To watch them week on week, enjoying what many of us growing up on farms complained about (such as mucking out sheds), was a real eye opener for me.

Images that will stay with me forever include a young man, who was a wheelchair user and non verbal, smiling while a horse nudged and brushed up against his face and the smiles and craic around the table with some of the social farming participants while enjoying some soup made from the very vegetables they had helped grow and harvest.

If you haven’t tasted a tomato still warm from the glasshouse, or a just-pulled raw carrot, you are really missing something

I know the joy those social farmers felt enjoying that soup. Nearly every day, I harvest some fruit, herbs or vegetables I have grown myself. Knowing they have been grown using only natural fertilizers (like seaweed and liquid comfrey) is as important to me as the taste. Oh that taste. If you haven’t tasted a tomato still warm from the glasshouse, or a just-pulled raw carrot, you are really missing something. And don’t get me started on the first new potatoes of summer - dug, washed, steamed and served with a little salt and a lot of butter.

The magic of gardening is summed up best by Audrey Hepburn: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

You plant a tiny seed or bulb, give it light, water and a little love. And some time later you have carrots, potatoes or the aforementioned garlic. An hour planting and, during the next six months, a few more hours weeding will give me enough garlic for the year.

Oh, and it will also keep the vampires out of Connemara.

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