Thursday, 12 November 2015

FOR THE LOVE OF DIRT!

Today John notified me of a wonderful item that was on BBC Radio 4 yesterday.  It is about, broadly speaking, gardening. The 12 minute program looked at the question: "Why are so many people drawn to gardening?"
 
There were several threads covered but I will expand on one, only, here. It related to the fact that in the field of neuroscience researchers noticed something, namely, "Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy".


I have always responded to people who ask "Are you a (keen) gardener?"  I always reply "Well, I do a lot of it because I just love being out in the garden puddling about, getting my hands dirty!"  Yes, I sit out in it from time to time, and I certainly cut flowers for the house, but this article (reference below) had me nodding my head in agreement as I listened the iPlayer podcast over a cup of coffee.  (Funnily enough, my 85 year old neighbour, from a farming background is exactly the same; that is why we spend a lot of time together!)


Tthe BBC Radio 4 programme is on iPlayer here:

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06nq1fb

For people not in the UK I found this article on the internet which relates to the topic in the first half of the programme:

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm

Maybe all those microbes help gardeners come to terms with gardening failures .... like my strawberry crop this wet summer!  Nothing that a good bottle of vino couldn't sort!


No comments: