Why Working Moms Should Try Urban Gardening

Like most working moms, balancing work load and family for me is a constant daily struggle.  Add this to the stress of raising a precocious tween who is beginning to assert her own individuality at home.   All these can take their toll on any busy mom.  Often, it is our health and relationship with our loved ones that suffer.  So  how does urban gardening  help mothers like me cope with stress?

Plants can absorb our negative energy

Everyday, I make it my routine to visit the garden before leaving for work. The mere sight of a new growth or flower bud inspires me to start the day on a high positive note.  Most plants are capable of absorbing our negative vibes and  help improve the flow of good energy in homes and surroundings.

As as soon as I arrive from work,  I take a few more minutes to visit the small garden again and check how the plants are doing.  This is my chance to download all the emotional baggage from my daily work grind,  making sure I don’t bring any of it with me when I enter my home.

Urban gardening helps develop our patience

Working moms tend to plan a lot, and when things do not turn out as we planned it, we immediately snap.  Urban gardening taught me a great deal about tolerance and patience.  In gardening,  failure is part of the learning process.  In due time,  my patience  improved.  Before I started this passion,  I would easily lose my temper on almost every little thing: from the snail-paced traffic situation in Metro Manila to  the cable connectivity that took  forever to get fixed.   With urban gardening, I learned to have better control of my own reaction to these situations.

It creates family bonding time

Through gardening, working moms can create opportunities for bonding with the family.  Rather than feel guilty for not spending enough time with the children,  why not ask the kids to help mommy in the garden?   A few years back,    I brought along my daughter who was then about 9 years old to attend a gardening workshop.   Then, I  gave her a few gardening tools and seeds for her to work on. On some occasions, she would help me out in the garden, either by watering the plants or spreading the new seeds.  She then started to have a deep appreciation of the basic principles of  plant science that she would have learned only from reading the  textbooks in school. My relationship with her likewise improved a lot.

Urban gardening doesn’t have to consume a lot of time.  Start with a small garden and a few potted herbs or seedlings. Select plants that do not require a lot of attention and are easy to grow even in small spaces.  For instance, herbs like basil, tarragon, chives and mint are perfect starter plants for working moms.