From a large, city botanical center to a small corner plot in your own backyard, a garden is beneficial for the environment. Not only do gardens and green spaces provide us with food and flowers, they help control urban temperatures—mitigating the effects of extreme heat and cold. They help prevent flooding by absorbing rainwater that would otherwise overload drainage systems, and they support a wide range of wildlife that includes birds, invertebrates and mammals.
Research also shows there are psychophysiological advantages to having gardens and green spaces in your neighborhood. Improved cognitive function, a reduced incidence of illness or reported illness, a higher sense of relaxation, pain relief and the ability to cope with trauma have all been associated with spending time in such spots.
Rarely, however, do we get to peer into our gardens for an intimate and close-up view of the variety of life on the small scale—and the oversize drama—that goes on in them every day. That’s why the short film below, titled My Father’s Garden, created by Mirko Faienza, is so intriguing. Watch this stunning photographic endeavor. Afterward, you may never see your garden—and the small creatures that inhabit it—the same way again.
Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,
Candy
Thank you for posting this. I have been singing the praises of the treasure right under our noses for a while. Beauty in miniature, that which is fragile and such detail can be found in the landscape outside and during walks in the neighborhood – always carry a camera. These moments are fleeting.
Thanks for sharing the video Candice. I can see how devoted you are to your craft and Nature. A great way to inspire others.
Great video and so beautifully timed with the music.
Thanks for sharing this video Candice. Unbelievable photography and superb music.
Absolutely spectacular!
This is an outstanding video of the life of creatures in a garden.Thank you for sharing it!
Much interesting. Let there be a small garden in the courtyard of every home, so that we can pay back the nature at the minimum level at least.
The close-ups are amazing. Thanks so much for sharing!
Truly amazing camera. Love the video, love the music. This is high quality. Thanks for sharing it, Candice. I love showing my children nature, that’s why we go camping every year.
Beautiful
Ah!
Thank you Candice…we should appreciate our nature….not only from the aesthetic and recreational point of view,,,but also for many other reasons…..all the small gardens in our homes contribute to the ecosystem services……maintenance of the species and populations and other numerous functions in their own way.
Also when we grow a plant….take care and appreciate it..it becomes a friend ..a very close friend of ours. Not only that, the garden is a ‘micro ecosystem’ ….an assemblage of species which become related to each other…not a just collection of plants…and animals ..but all are inter-related …like one large living individual. While appreciating our garden, loving it, caring it…keeping it going, we become more a human being……a loving creature.
I enjoyed this short film very much! Although my garden is not in a city, I derive great joy from watching things grow in it. And I like eating food that I grow myself. Tending a garden is a regenerative process.
In the film, there is a diversity of animal life. This is a universal garden phenomenon. Where there are pesticide-free plants, there will be bugs and worms and snails and amphibians and reptiles and birds, and they are beautiful creatures to watch. Some creatures are a nuisance when they eat your food, however. Like cabbage loopers or slugs or the black bear yearling who ate my grapes today. Darn!
Well, if I could offer one single activity that helps the most to calm the mind and reconnect one to the beauty of the earth, it would be gardening. If one is fortunate enough to live in a more wild area, one can of course just enjoy nature’s own garden in the woods and fields and hills and swamps.
Elegantly done piece; what a lovely world in miniature.
beautiful write-up and video.
Great video so peaceful. The World dimension we always ignore and it is an essential part of our daily life. Congratulations for those who has a garden, take care of it and enjoy it.
This was so cool!
What a nice way to start the morning, very calmly! Thanks for including the video.
This is an unbelievable video…give you the sense of sitting in a theatre watching a classical docudrama of nature, if such exist. I love it. Great job.
That brightened my day!