There are obvious reasons for gardening. One of them is, basically, that mankind has done it for the last 4000 years, just think about the hanging gardens of Babylon, the waterlily paintings in the pyramids, herbgardens in medieval monasteries, the gardens in Versailles and the recent roofgardens in New York.
Gardening is an occupation, which gives you many a good reason to do it.
First of all you are out in the fresh air. Then you get your hands into the soil, which is a deeply satisfying feeling. Just remember playing as a child in the mud and the joy of getting more and more dirty, which then ended in the complete abandonment of mudbattles between siblings or jumping into rainwater puddles until getting totally mudded up and wet. I did it as a child and have seen it all over the world - most beautiful perhaps in India, the day the Monsoon started. I think this is a very deep down human feeling of playing and joying around. Working in the garden, using your own hands, is getting very near there. It is satisfying.
Then there is the joy of achievement: After a day of planting and weeding you see what you have done. It is a good workout as well - no need to pay huge amounts of money to be tortured in a badly smelling gym with 450 other people sweating senselessly around yourself - just work a day in the garden and I bet you feel muscles you never thought you had in your possession. If you are lucky and dressed to the game, you can get a lovely tan for free too on such a day in the garden, working.
But there are two bigger lessons to be learnt in gardening.
First, nothing is ever finished - therefore the Camus saying, that we have to imagine Sisiphos being a happy man, has some truth in it ( hello to all mothers and housewifes: you have just cleaned the kitchenfloor and the dog comes with wet feet from outside.. or the beds are freshly made and you have children jumping happily in them, with the wellies on? Sounds familiar, no? Or just finished a meal, kitchen is done and some people come in and start again to eat out of the fridge?? Well, let us pretend, that we think, good old Sisiphos was a happy man).
But back to gardening.
The second, perhaps even more important lesson is: Patience.
You only can work so and so much on a garden - and it does really not make any difference at all, if you go there every half hour to control whether and where your flowers have grown or not. A daily round in your garden is a very good exercise in anticipation and patience - apart from being a deep pleasure - but the fact is, it just does not help to grow it more quickly, if you want it to grow more quickly. Just not possible - so you are back on your basic feeling: wait and see.
This feeling is a valuable lesson for all things in life: If you want something to badly, it will not work out in this way. Applies also to children, to love, to friendships, to cooking and to buying houses.
You will say, that you do not have a garden, not even a terrasse? You fear not to have any knowledge about plants, nor a "green finger"? Well, no reason not to start in a little way your own gardening experiences. Believe me, plants are much harder to kill than you think. And there is always one species which will be ideal for you. I, for instance, kill orchids very easily. But my Basilikum loves me to bits: it grows and grows and grows. Even if you have no confidence in treating your plants well, just give it a try. You just need a bit of interest in the thing.
Buy yourself a gardenia - smelling so wonderful! - for your bathroom, some nice herbs for your kitchen sill and a good pot of azaleeas for your salon. There you have a good and almost foolproof start. And if there is a terrace, then just get some buxus and some tomatoplants; or some roses - if they are well tended, they can thrive in a pot as well. I have two boxes of white geraniums on my terrace and they need little attention (just water and pruning the old flowers off) and flower all over the summer, without me doing nothing.
No need to have much space for gardening, you can start in a small way - and it is as satisfying as anything in the world. Believe me, it makes you a better person as well.
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