The Gardening Club, which Mary Elizabeth Morgan brought back, is a club, with great intentions: to raise student morale and help fight stress and anxiety.
There was a previous club by that name, but it was no longer in service. I had the chance to speak with her. I wanted to know exactly how and why it got started.
Morgan explained, “I came to the school to be a botanist, but things didn’t go according to plan, and I started studying to be a psychologist. I started working on the theory that plants can have a dramatic impact on the mental health of others.” Research shows that there might be some evidence supporting her idea. Morgan says the activities are meant to bring joy to the students.
The National Library of Medicine ran a study 2015, in which a group of young adult men were told to tend to an indoor plant, while a second group was told to work on computer-related tasks. The group that was instructed to tend to the indoor plants reported that they “felt more comfortable, soothed, and natural after the transplanting task than after the computer task.”
What does a club meeting look like? Morgan described chill meetings in which members mostly planned activities for the next month.
“We try to get an activity every month in order to give students something to look forward to or just a moment to relax,” she said.
Now, the club is working with the Learning Commons to get planters set up around campus to help with students’ mental health, stress, and anxiety. With the stress students continue to face daily, this is especially important.
“Anyone can join the club at any time,” she said. We do a lot of different things, and we love it when we have people with different strengths join our club.” She encourages anyone who might be interested to join, even if they don’t have much experience with plants, as it is a great learning experience.
How does environmental sustainability weave into the gardening club?
“Every one of our activities is done by using something,” she explained. “We have already used mugs donated to us during our emotional support plant activity. We clean Starbucks glasses for our bottle painting activity. We try so hard not to buy items but to reuse things.”
Recycling and reusing are extremely important to the club. Another factor is learning to lessen drastic effects on the ecosystem and environment. These effects have proven to have disastrous consequences.
Morgan talked a bit about the challenges of the club. The club is a means of helping students with their mental health, while also being aware of our roles on the Earth.
Finally, with winter dragging on, I was interested in the club’s activities as of today. During the freezing months of winter, the club moves inside. They tend to the indoor plants, such as house plants. They also focus on other sustainable activities, such as bottle painting, rock painting, or even designing old MSJ shirts that are no longer of use.
Resource:
Lee, M. S., Lee, J., Park, B. J., & Miyazaki, Y. (2015). Interaction with indoor plants may reduce psychological and physiological stress by suppressing autonomic nervous system activity in young adults: a randomized crossover study. Journal of physiological anthropology, 34(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40101-015-0060-8