Gardening is a widely practiced activity and intervention used to help connect us to nature, and our purpose. Gardening is our way of saying, “We are investing in our tomorrow, and serves as a reminder that what we nurture will grow. Gardening is used as a way to nurture our mind, body, and spirit. Gardening serves as a way to regulate the brain, and redirect our thoughts. When the brain is regulated, we are able to produce more positive thoughts. Plants are used to feed the body, which powers us to put in the work necessary to bring our dreams in to existence. Being around plants soothes the soul by bringing us closer to nature. When we become closer to nature, we become more in tune with our purpose in life.
Creating Self-Sustainability in Your Home
Upon purchasing my home in 2019, my goal was to turn my home in to a sanctuary filled with many different species of plants to serve as a place of relaxation. I knew this would be very challenging because I was moving my wife, and kids to the desert where individuals have difficulty growing plants. I started off by buying and building two greenhouses. One greenhouse serves as a house for my organic cannabis plants, and the second greenhouse houses my starter plants, and different plants depending on what time of the year it is. I have been pretty successful with growing plants, and harvesting them. I have also had some failures from simple mistakes I’ve made during the winter season. All in all, the whole family have been involved in turning our yard in to a mini agricultural farm, and a sanctuary for plants.
Along with my two greenhouses, I built 6 raised beds using bricks. I filled them with a mixture of organic soil, native soil, and compost. Having 6 raised beds, and two greenhouses gives me endless opportunities to grow many fruits, vegetables, and herbs. I have well over 50 plants and seedlings that are growing in both our greenhouses, and raised beds. They are flourishing, and I am always sowing new seeds. I organize my beds by what grow well together, and I am prepping new areas in my yard for planting. I have a wide range of plants in my yard. Here are the different variety of plants I have to show how you can create self-sustainability in your yard.
Oregano, marjoram, mint, chocolate mint, spearmint, peppermint, sweet mint, sage, rosemary, chamomile, aloe vera, lavender, Spanish lavender, cannabis, parsley, cilantro, purple basil, curly kale, dinosaur kale, swiss chard, arugula, purple tomatoes, strawberries, goji berries, blueberries, watermelons, cucumbers, yellow peppers, jalapeños, lemon tree, lime tree, strawberry guava tree, plum tree, pear tree, almond tree, cherry tree, and more than what I can think of at this current moment.
My goal is to show and teach individuals how to utilize what they have to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Plants can be used as food and medicine. It is important that we learn how to tap in to all that plants have to offer. Plants can be used as a tool to help us deal with our mental health, and overall health.
Gardening: An Intervention for Young Children
Gardening is one of the most fulfilling, exciting, and educational activities parents can do with their children. Gardening offers so many benefits that’s understated in today’s society. Gardening is one of the simplest, and most convenient ways children and adults can connect to nature, and the energy attached to nature. When it comes to activities that that offers a wide range of behavioral outcomes, gardening would be number one on my list. Let’s look at some of the benefits of gardening.
Gardening helps with self-regulation in young children and adolescents
Gardening can be used as an intervention to help children and adolescents with their self-regulation skills. Gardening is a tool to aide children in regulating their thoughts, and emotions to be more at ease. Gardening was my top intervention I used when I worked in mental health as a family specialist. Gardening is a powerful tool for children who have ADHD, trauma, and other developmental issues. Engaging in gardening with your children is important. Having a garden with a large range of aromas such as rosemary, lemongrass, lavender, mints, and other herbs aids in children’s ability to self-regulate. Planting, and up keeping a gardening can offer a sense of pride and responsibility in young children and adolescents.
Gardening encourages positive social interactions with young children
When you think of the impact gardening have on young children, it’s amazing. Children display more positive social interactions when gardening with other children, and adults. Gardening offers a positive stimulation when children are actively engaging in gardening. Gardening offers a lot of opportunities to learn about bugs, insects, plants, fruits, vegetables, and growth. With so many things to do, it is appropriate to engage in gardening in large groups. Some children will naturally be interested in playing with dirt, digging, finding worms, planting, picking flowers, watering, and picking out weeds.
Gardening is a great educational tool for children
There are so many educational opportunities for young children when engaging in gardening. There are so many things to learn about such as the process of plant growth, composting, identifying insects and which insects are good, or bad for plants. There are insects that goes through a transformation stage. Children love learning about those concepts, and children love interacting with insects. Gardening offers education on the role nature plays in our life, and how plants helps us breath in clean air and beautiful scents and aromas.
Gardening increases family bonding time
There is a saying I like, “A family that grows together will grow together.” Families that garden as a family have increased bonding time. Gardening is an everyday activity for my family. We spend at least 20 minutes a day either in our greenhouse, watering plants, tasting herbs, and checking on plants, and seedlings. Gardening brings our family together, and creates happier moments.
Watch the video below to see how gardening impacts children:
Home Gardening for Beginners
Home gardening is one of the best ways to practice self-sustainability. Home gardening allows you to grow your own produce, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, and so much more. There are many ways to create a thriving garden at your home, some which includes:
1. Building raised beds
Building raised beds allows you control the soil. It gives you the opportunity to create what I like to call super soil by either buying soil from your local nurseries, or to do a mixture of native soil, and compost. Either way, plants tend to thrive and do better in raised beds. Raised beds also contains the spread of your plants. For an example, if you are growing mint, you would want to use either a pot, or a raised bed. This will keep your mint contained, and prevent your mint from spreading all across areas you want to utilize to grow other plants.
2. Using pots
Pots are amazing tools to use to grow plants. I especially like the idea of using pots to grow plants if you do not have a lot of yard space, dirt areas, or if you are growing single plants. Pots are great tools to use to help contain certain plants such as mint, marjoram, and oregano. Pots can also be great for plants such as tomatoes, and strawberries which will spread from seeds dropping if not contained.
3. Plant Directly in the Ground
Planting directly in the ground has its advantages, and disadvantages. When you plant directly in the ground it tends to take much more maintenance because there will be weeds growing more frequently. Planting herbs that spread in abundance will take more maintenance, and can take over your garden if not trimmed often. I had my experiences with planting directly in the ground, and it took a lot of work, but was well worth it.
Each tool of gardening can be utilized, and will help you get one step closer towards self-sustainability.
Click on the video for a quick tutorial on a simple way to start your garden.
Must Have Plant in Your Garden: Mint
I will be discussing a must have plant that is essential to building a home garden. This plant is undoubtedly one of the most used herbs. We can find this herb in many of our daily foods and beverages such as salads, soups, smoothies, alcoholic drinks, toothpaste, teas, and ice cream. If you haven’t guessed by now, the herb I am referring to is mint. Mint is one of the most commonly used herbs, and we do not even realize how much of the food, beverages, and medicine we use contains mint. Mint is essential to our health. The nutrients that are packed in a mint leaf will amaze you, and the best thing about mint is that it grows at a very rapid pace, they are hard to get rid of, and they can withstand pretty much any weather. I grow a variety of mint, and they have lasted through extreme heat, and through 25-degree weather. My mint even survived a snowy Thanksgiving. I was very surprised to see how hardy my mint plants were.
There are a variety of mint plants. To name the most commonly used mint plants, we have mint, peppermint, sweet mint, spearmint, and chocolate mint. Each mint brings their own flavor, and can be used for both culinary, and healing purposes. I am going to discuss five common benefits mint plants have. Mint plants share many of the same benefits. Hopefully, after reading this blog, you are inspired to plant a variety of mint plants in your garden.
Benefits of having mint
1. Mint is good for allergies. When you are having symptoms for an allergy, peppermint, either fresh, dry is a good herb to take to get relieve those symptoms. This is due to the antioxidants that are in the peppermint plant.
2. Mint is great for oral health. As we all know, peppermint is a common plant used for oral health. Peppermint leaves can be used as a breath freshener.
3. Mint improves brain function. This has been proven through science. Studies have proven that smelling the aroma improved their brain functionality in memory, calmness, and alertness. Mint also helps aid in decreasing anxiety, and frustration. In other words, the smell of mint has powerful healing power. That is why mint is one of the most commonly used essential oil.
4. Mint is powerful in relieving colds. Peppermint is my home remedy for relieving colds. Whenever I feel like a cold is coming, I make peppermint tea, and it will go away almost immediately. Mint leaves can easily use as tea by drying them, and putting them in a tea bag, or by boiling mint leaves. It works wonders for colds.
5. Mint is easily the easiest herb to grow. It is a must herb to implement in to your daily life. We are already using mint on a daily basis. Why not use it intentionally, and more extensively? It grows rapidly, and you will always have mint once you grow it. Once you have an abundance of mint, you can make your own ointments, oils, and teas. Mint is a must have in your garden. Now let’s live in abundance.