Imagine a garden. Not just any garden, but a garden with trees casting dappled shade over a gently curving footpath. Along that path, larger shrubs and small trees arc up and out towards the light, and small shrubs and herbs cluster together in mounds of flowers and foliage. Birds sing from any of the dozens of branches in the space, butterflies slowly open and close their wings, and the air is cool from the shade.
There’s good reason why gardens are the focus of so many authors, poets, and artists, painting with words – or brush – the rustling quiet and sensory appeal of gardening. Hanna Rion wrote, “The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.” Gardens are places for us to be still, listen, think, and look with soft eyes on the world around us.
More and more, we’re learning about all the health benefits that come with gardening. In research about blue zones – areas where people reach age 100 at ten times greater rates than the United States – one of the main factors that contributed to this longevity was called “move naturally.” “Move naturally” refers to incorporating low-intensity activities, such as gardening, into your everyday routine.
Gardening also provides opportunities to address some increasingly common issues in our cities: urban heat, water conservation, and loss of habitat for our local wildlife.
Plants, from shade trees to large shrubs, are one of nature’s best tools for helping us cool our environments, with shaded surfaces sometimes being 20-45 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than unshaded surfaces. Strategic placement of plants can help keep our houses, recreational areas, and yards cooler at important times of day.
Water supplies are under increasing pressure here in the Rio Grande Valley, so it’s important to choose plants that survive and thrive without as much irrigation as the temperate and tropical exotics we so often plant in our spaces. Native plants, those that have been growing in the region for thousands of years, are often well-adapted to heat and periods of drought. In 2024, the hottest year on record for the Rio Grande Valley, there were still native plants growing green and blossoming without supplemental irrigation, or going dormant only to re-sprout with any rain.
By choosing to garden with native plants, we’re not just getting the health benefits and the environmental benefits, but we’re also growing food for our birds, butterflies, and other wildlife that share the Rio Grande Valley with us. In an area where only remnants of the once-vast mosaic of thornforest, riparian woodlands, and coastal prairies remain, it’s increasingly important to grow gardens that also benefit the other life around us. By simply providing habitat for those animals, we in turn help a robust ecotourism industry that supports many jobs in the area.
Nurturing environmentally-smart, water-wise gardens is one of the best ways we can continue to harvest the health and environmental benefits that nature provides. To quote Jenny Uglow, “We might think we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is really nurturing us.”
