Did you know that lightening releases nitrogen into the soil? I knew the legume family did this (beans, peas and lentils) – but I didn’t know about the fertilising benefits of lightening!  This was just one of many fascinating facts I learnt on a recent school tour of the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Our plant educator taught us that a garden grows better when it has a good variety of plants and when the plants are rotated – not planted in the same place each season. “Plants don’t like to be alone,” she told us. “They grow better when they are around other plants.” I learnt how to plant a seedling without digging a hole – just dig in the trowel and push the dirt aside. And we made ‘Sucker Sauce’ – a mixture of grated Sunlight soap and oil which gets rid of aphids and other ‘suckers’. I’m sure my kaffir lime tree will prefer it to the usual chemical spray it’s subjected to! I love the idea of gardening but my skills…..hmm.

What really struck me was how the principles for a healthy garden are the same as for a healthy body – variety, balance and companionship. In the first book of the Bible God said, “It’s not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Like it or not, that’s us, girls!) Scientific research confirms this truth – it’s not good for humans to be alone. We have an inbuilt need for human contact. Babies thrive with it – and psychologically shrivel without it. Older people are healthier when they have a companion – human or animal. Married men are generally healthier than single men. Whether it’s the female companionship or the tempering effect females often have on reckless, unhealthy male behaviour, I’m not sure.

Anyway my health mission this week is to find my lonely parsley plant a companion – and to determinedly be thankful for the companionship of my family – the good, the bad and the ugly!