Company Gardens: 3 Ways It's Worth It
- Shannon Harts
- Sep 18, 2019
- 6 min read
When I head to work each day, I have something a bit unusual in my work bag: green, floral gardening gloves.
The gloves are for working in a garden next to the office building where I work.
In the garden, I can escape my computer's piercing blue light, and I am at peace among sprawling pumpkin plants, bright purple eggplant flowers, and the sweet smell of fresh-cut grass.
I take in the sounds of late crickets chirping and bees buzzing, the bees doing their important work of pollinating flowers that will turn into everything from juicy tomatoes and watermelon to vibrant bell peppers.
Yes, there's some physical work involved, such as watering, weeding, and harvesting—but here's something about these tactile acts, often while soaking in the strong noon sunlight, that give me an incredible sense of joy.
Any stress I feel from the workday fades away, and this lift can help carry me through the rest of the afternoon (even the dreaded 3 p.m. doldrums).
While all of this may seem unlikely in an office setting, I believe office gardens can be possible nearly everywhere, and there are immense benefits that can come with them--for your health, your coworkers, and the planet.
1. It may be easier to find space for an office garden than you think
While it may seem impossible to find a place for a garden if you work in a concrete jungle office building or one in a business park, consider this: does your building have a parking lot? A bit of space next to it may be all you need!
You will need to make sure the area gets at least six to eight hours of sunlight, and while access to real soil is best, you can bring in raised beds filled with soil. Access to water is also important to consider, but you may be surprised to learn (like I was) there is an outside hose hook-up somewhere around your office building.
For even more urban offices, a roof or windowsill may also be an option. Or consider a vertical garden using a high trellis, or pots with soil (I found garden boxes worked well to grow cherry tomatoes on my apartment balcony--two years in a row!)
2. An office garden has the ability to unite people in an environment that involves fresh air, exercise, and valuable team building.
When gardening, it's generally accepted it's OK to relax and get your hands dirty! This can be a wonderful way for companies to improve employee well-being and relationships.
Organization is also important to the success of a company garden. This can bring together people who may not usually interact in large office settings, while providing a common interest that can make it easier to break the ice.
There can even be benefits for employee families, as Kohl's demonstrated by opening a garden next to its headquarter's employee daycare center in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Here children can not only play in the garden, but also learn about the importance of growing their own food.
The Kohls corporate headquarters is located next to a well-respected urban gardening organization called Growing Power, according to campusfarmers.org. Kohls employees volunteered with this organization for years. In 2009, Growing Power decided to start a garden at the Kohls headquarters. The garden is about 45 feet by 90 feet and includes eight raised beds.
To raise awareness of the garden, employees posted fliers around the headquarters to ask if volunteers would take turns working 15-minute harvesting and watering shifts--which to me doesn’t sound like too much time out of a busy workday!
And even a short time in a garden can have a long list of benefits to help chronic illnesses that affect a huge percentage of U.S. workers.
The CDC has reported the U.S. spends more than $2.9 trillion a year on medical costs. A huge majority, 86 percent, of those costs are tied to chronic conditions like obesity, heart disease, cancer, stroke, arthritis, and diabetes.
Gardening can help employees become healthier on so many levels, it can be seen as a form of “healthy multitasking” that combines physical health, mental health, and the higher-level health that comes with improving relationships and giving back to communities, according to Michael Finkelstein, M.D., and author of Slow Medicine: Hope and Healing for Chronic Illness. He wrote for Fortune in 2016:
“Gardening excels in this capacity, and for this reason, is an especially compelling choice for a wellness program: When we garden, we step outdoors and expose ourselves to sunshine and fresh air; we dig our hands into the dirt and connect with nature; and we develop a relationship with the food we consume, and therefore, with the earth in which that food grows – among other things, giving us more incentive to increase our daily intake of fresh vegetables and fruits.”
3. It Makes a Difference
No, your one office garden probably won't have profound effects on the climate crisis.
But, office gardens build altruism and connections that employees and communities may need when dealing with natural disasters or other challenges ahead caused by climate change (this profound New Yorker article points out how strengthening many aspects of society can help people deal with the effects of climate change, and it may even be a better approach than trying to singularly stop it at this point. More on that in a future post!)
When it comes to giving back to communities, office gardens can truly shine.
Timberland employees can be seen wearing the company's rugged, outdoor-friendly boots working in an about 1,200 square-foot "Victory Garden" that produces a variety of fruits and vegetables for the New Hampshire Food Bank, the company's website reports. So far, the company's given the food bank about $20,000 in donations, according to its website.
Employees have donated produce from the Kohls garden at its Wisconsin headquarters to the Local Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee (Produce from this garden is also served at the company's dinning facility).
One final example I was able to "dig up": Employees for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Minnesota created a "Community Giving Garden" to provide fresh produce to a local food shelter.
Not only did this garden show off employee altruism and innovation, but the Community Giving Garden sparked a network of around 20 corporate giving gardens across the Twin Cities of Minnesota, according to a Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota press release.
This just goes to show you never know how the impact of one small action may inspire countless other communities to replicate it and build onto an idea--I believe that's how monumental changes can take place.
Unfortunately, we don't know exactly what climate change has in store for us.
However, we do have control over our own choices to prepare and respond.
When I'm in my work garden, one of my favorite feelings is that I might just be doing something that's leading me in the right direction.
It’s also helped me realize I can do much more than I ever thought possible. I recently harvested a full-size, sweet and juicy watermelon from my garden--something I’d never even realized was possible to grow in the climate of Western New York!
Yes, there are days that the garden is more work than I really want to do on my lunch break.
But as with most things in life, I've found I've grown from the challenges and I’m proud of all I am learning--including tricks such as telling if an eggplant is ripe by pressing into its skin to see if it bounces back (if it does, then it’s ripe!).
It’s been a learning experience for sure, but as the growing season winds down for this year, I’m already looking forward to planting again in the spring!
Ready to start your own company garden? Here’s some quick tips to get started from Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota:
"➜ Volunteers, the garden’s most important ingredient. Start with a small, dependable group and build. Your garden will grow in direct proportion to volunteer involvement.
➜ Crops. Think ease of maintenance, volume of produce, location, weather and growing season. Involve your recipient organization in the planning.
➜ Water and irrigation plan. Use existing resources.
➜ Pests. Build a rabbit fence. Research organic pest control methods.
➜ Funding. Worksite support or donations from volunteers? What is the budget? ➜ Mentors. Check with your county’s Master Gardener Program or Agricultural Extension Service."
Sources:
https://eco-officegals.com/how-to-start-a-workplace-garden/ (garden locations)
https://home.howstuffworks.com/gardening/garden-design/community-garden2.htm (6-8 hours of sunlight)
https://www.glumac.com/glumac-sacramento-celebrates-earth-day-office-garden/ (importance of garden organization)
http://www.campusfarmers.org/kohls-garden/ (Kohls garden info)
https://blueprint.cbre.com/how-corporate-gardens-help-grow-employee-wellness/ (Kohls garden, farm-to-table restaurant)
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/dining/12gardens.html (Kohls, garden for kids)
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending?fbclid=IwAR0iyAdcLrxOwRNLcPek1CTIM9X0KIxBQFTIn3CPMPYvfHEL4xZ-8VPLAK4 (New Yorker climate crisis)
https://www.bluecrossmn.com/healthy/public/portalcomponents/PublicContentServlet?contentId=P11GA_11970320 (Minnesota "Giving Garden")
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