Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for April 14, 2003

Lisa Ferguson

Monday, April 14, 2003 | 8:47 a.m.

Flower powers

It's a couple of weeks into April. Still, we're willing to bet we're the first to wish you Happy National Garden Month.

Here's the back story on this homage to the pride and joy of the green-thumbed among us: In 1986 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation in honor of National Garden Week. Last year, however, the designation was extended to include the entire month of April, thanks to the National Gardening Association, an organization in Burlington, Vt., founded in 1972 to "help gardeners and to help people through gardening."

So, with this being the first

full-fledged celebration and all, the National Garden Month website (nationalgardenmonth.org) is shoveling a bit of trivia about the therapeutic benefits of gardening, courtesy of the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association:

It seems that the simple act of looking at trees, flowers and other foliage can reduce stress and muscle tension and lower blood pressure. Guess there actually is something to that whole "stop and smell the roses" bit.

Keep a plant in your cubicle? It shows: Working stiffs who toil behind computers in offices where plants are present are 12 percent more productive and experience less stress than those in a plant-less workplace.

Need another reason to skip the gym? Here's one: Women age 50 and older who tend to a garden at least once per week boast higher bone density than their peers who jog, walk, swim or do aerobic exercises. Meanwhile the association claims the endorphin highs produced by gardening are similar to those experienced while jogging and cycling. (Gee, could inhaling all of those plant-care chemical fumes have anything to do with that loopy feeling?)

Gardening also does a psyche good. Turns out ancient Egyptian doctors prescribed walks through gardens to help mentally disturbed patients. Flash forward a few thousand years and into space, where working gardens and nature scenes helped keep morale on an even keel aboard the Mir space station.

Weed 'em out

Of course, nothing makes a gardener fly off the (rake) handle like the sight of encroaching weeds.

But just how much do we actually know about this pesky plant strangler? Probably not as much as the makers of Preen 'n Green weed prevention/fertilizer products would prefer. Luckily for the gardening-challenged, the company has compiled a little weed IQ test: