Green places

Today’s Prompt: What is your favorite place to go in your city?

I’ve moved around a lot, and I’ve done quite a bit of traveling. Those places where nature is more vitally present have been the happiest places.

In big cities, I love going to botanic gardens. Being amidst the wonderful diversity of flora and fauna really sparks joy, if I may steal a phrase. I love the camphor walk and the cycad forest at Kirstenbosch, Cape Town. I love the glasshouses at Kew, in London. I love the giant bamboo forest at Brisbane’s botanic gardens, and Edinburgh Botanical Gardens was a blessing when I lived there. From our grey, depressing top floor flat overlooking a sad and burnt bit of grass which stank of dog shit, I could take a bus which would drop me at the Botanic gardens. It was heaven.

Then we moved again, to another top floor flat in another town, and gardens were replaced by the pandemic. That experience really underlined the importance of green spaces for my mental health and well-being. In fact, a great deal of research has shown the strong correlation between access to nature and health & well-being. (See here for a recent paper)

Given that strong correlation, and the even more widely-known folk remedy of “getting a bit of fresh air,” I find it astonishing that providing access to safe, well-maintained and enjoyable outdoor spaces is not a routine aspect of civil provision here in the UK. On a purely instrumental basis, better population health (both mental and physical) would have direct, positive, economic impacts. Those cities and urban conglomerations which incorporate nature and nurture it are the most successful. People want to live and work there.