the well gardened mind. rediscovering nature in the modern world

By SUE STUART-SMITH 

 

Published by William Collins;  

First Edition, 2020: ISBN: 978-0-00-810073-5.  

EBook, 2020: ISBN: 978-0-00-810072-8.  

Reviewed by Eileen Hanaphy  

The well gardened mind was named UK Sunday Times bestseller 2020 and gardening book of the year 2020 though it is so much more. It is virtually ‘common knowledge’ that working with nature, on the land, or in a garden has positive values for mental health. This book explores this subject through science, art and intellectual life, and at the same time values our ‘hand-work’ in gardening. It is concisely and clearly written and doesn’t demand prior detailed knowledge of either gardening or the scientific paradigm which it deals with so interestingly.  

The conceit of the title is clever as is the way the author gently illuminates our understanding of how, as a grassland species, we are primed to thrive in certain environments. When we work with nature outside of us, we work with nature inside. In caring for nature there are neurochemical rewards which accompany this nurturing activity, in the form of oxytocin (the love hormone) amongst others. Speaking of the human brain as a pattern-seeking organ, Stuart-Smith refers to the research which proves that fractal patterning in nature is conducive to rest. Being in nature shapes our neural network while we sleep. Our microglial cells weed out weak connections when our brain shrinks at night. Reading this work is liberating and restorative in itself.  

The author references Wordsworth: “Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.” (Stuart-Smith, 2020, 7). It is good to be invited, isn’t it, and with this gentle invocation, Stuart-Smith invites us to grow, like a seed, dropped into the rich soil and well-ploughed furrows of her unique book. One is enveloped in her soft voice, made human and vulnerable through heartbreak and loss, as she narrates how nature was a restorative force following her father’s death at a young age. “My world had irrevocably changed and I clung to verses that spoke of the consolations of nature and the cycle of life.” (10)  

She further quotes: 

...to look on nature not as in the hour  

Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes  

The still sad music of humanity. 

Like Wordsworth, the author guides us on the path of the healing Light of Nature, the Growth Force which revitalises us as we work the soil. Nature is not rejecting us; instead, it assuages the loneliness of loss. Stuart-Smith’s uncle’s life too had been reshaped through his involvement in horticultural therapeutic garden schemes which helped integrate his brutal experiences during World War Two, the earth moulding his brain’s plasticity as he worked the soil.  

This book was published at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the author, like millions around the world, turned to the garden/nature for solace, “urgent biophilia”, as it has been termed by the sociologist Keith Tidball (155). This book looks at history, psychology, literature, science and neuroscience. The author has spoken of how she drew on her training as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and explores the relevant work of Freud and Jung “We all need nourishment for our psyche” (132) and Winnicott (178), each of whom understood the importance of nature.  

The author refers to Freud’s love for flowers, they are restful to look at, no conflicts or emotions, and tells us of the neuroscience research on the effects of beauty on the brain. Beauty, it seems, has a particular signature within the brain, triggering a true involuntary Duchenne smile! The chapter on Freud’s suffering at the end of his life is both moving and motivating as even in these dark times, nature provides immortality.  

The book weaves together two sides of the author’s life, psychotherapist and gardener. “Seeds have tomorrow ready-built into them. (192) The gardener, like the therapist, helps unlock the client’s resources. Very much in keeping with Dan Siegel’s research and teachings included in his Comprehensive Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) Course through the Mindsight Institute (available in 2022), she states that it is not easy to categorise what is me/not me. How can we tear apart what nature has contributed “. . . nature running in me and through me” (19).  

Stuart-Smith tells stories of other people’s journeys of being helped through gardening, like the young girl at San Patrignano drug rehabilitation centre, who found joy and healing through the reparative act of nurturing cacti back to life. She shares interviews with prisoners involved in the HORT gardens on Rikers Island, and the women involved in the Todmorden ‘Incredible Edible’ community in Northern England who even persuaded the council to rename a street, Pollination street! From her personal and private recollections, to her heartfelt concern for prisoners in New York, to the food collectives of the ‘Incredible Edible’ movement, the author’s love of people is palpable and non-judgemental, as is her love of nature.  

She tells us of the importance of the garden as a transitional space (178) and also of her findings from archaeobotany regarding the first known gardens, such as Ohalo II, by the sea of Galilee, dating from 23,000 BC. A garden is always the expression of someone’s mind, Stuart-Smith explains. She is intrigued that contemporary archaeology is turning around the earlier narratives about cultivation in which farming came first. From Paleolithic times horticulture has been valued as life-enhancing, involved with ‘culture’ in its true sense and not just survival. She refers to how indigenous people brought a continuum of care to nurturing the land, very different to the philosophy of domination which informed the colonialists.  

As we, the human race, are a future-oriented species, she looks at seeds and how psychologically beneficial planting is for people in crisis as the seed holds the promise of hope and tomorrow. Getting one’s hands in the earth, she explains, helps our microbiome and is associated with a rise in our serotonin levels. Salivary cortisol levels have been found to fall after only 20-30 minutes working with earth. The research supporting the effects of gardening at a neurophysiological level are very specific especially in its enhancing of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which contributes to healthy brain function.  

We are always recreating when we create a garden, bringing something into life. The trench gardens of World War One are testament to this holding onto meaning in life, through gardening, even in such dire circumstances.  

It was uplifting to read of the sea change in health care in relation to the therapeutic effects of gardens for patients and visitors in the most moving section on ‘Horatio’s Garden’ (.217). The statistics regarding the effects of garden projects at San Quentin state prison, California, speak for themselves and point again to the immeasurable value of community/prison gardens as reparative, despite social inequalities. Sue strongly urges grants for many more such spaces in our apartment-dominated, green-diminished cities.  

The New York Botanic Garden refugee project provides a blueprint for us all now in building social bridges for Ukrainian and other people fleeing war zones. Working with nature ultimately provides a consolation for our own mortality, in our ‘dialogue with the garden’. The author adds “Seeds give no hint of what is to come” (12) and “new life creates an attachment …the stillness of life coming into being.” (10) 

In the final chapter ‘Green Fuse’, Stuart-Smith reminds us of Voltaire’s exhortation,  

Il faut cultivar notre jardin…  

One must cultivate one’s own garden  

It is a timely reminder.  

Eileen Hanaphy is an accredited Humanistic and Integrative psychotherapist, working in private practice in Kilkenny. She holds a BA H. Dip.Ed. in English, History and Psychology from Trinity College, Dublin, and has taught for over 30 years. She also has a qualification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Her thesis, completed as part of her psychotherapy training, focused on Attachment Theory and has continued to inform her work. She is deepening that understanding in her current IPNB courses with the Mindsight Institute and Bonnie Badenoch. eileenhanaphy@hotmail.com  

References

Siegal, D. (2022).Dr. Dan Siegal’s Comprehensive Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB)Course: Mindsight Institute [MOOC]. The Mindsight Institute. https://www.mindsightinstitute.com/product/june2022-dr-dan-siegels-comprehensive-interpersonal-neurobiology-ipnb-course-live-paymentplan-6-months/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyvKLlZz29wIVA-d3Ch0SfgpkEAAYASAAEgLeEfD_BwE  

Stuart-Smith, S. (2020). The Well Gardened Mind. Rediscovering nature in the modern world (1st ed.). William Collins.  

Stuart-Smith, S. (2021, September 11). Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith: Sense of purpose grows in those who garden. Radio New Zealand. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/ audio/2018811937/dr-sue-stuart-smith-sense-of-purpose-grows-in-those-who-garden