Natural tonic: Who needs the gym or medicines when there's a garden waiting for you?

摘要

I have a fail-safe measure of how angry, distressed, exhausted or just plain ill I am. I put on my boots (an important part of the ritual this - I am symbolically strapping on my necessary armour), go outside and start to garden. This might be gentlepottering about, a little light pruning, watering the greenhouse, thinning a line of beetroot, mowing or perhaps vigorously turning the compost or digging the vegetable garden. The point is not what I do, but the simple fact I am doing something in my garden. If after 10 minutes I feel less than utterly content, I know that something is seriously wrong.