Gardening Australia's Hannah Moloney on the heartwarming and heartbreaking reasons humans continue to lovingly tend to their gardens — for healing, beauty and joy.

For thousands of years, tending to a garden or a small farm meant human survival.

But now, with massive commercial farms, genetically modified crops, refrigerated freight and modern irrigation, we don't need to tend to our own gardens to survive.

So why, then, do so many of us still lovingly plant, water and cultivate flowers, fruits and vegetables? Or watch 'lawn porn' to relax?

It's a question that Hannah Moloney has asked thousands of gardeners from around the world.

Hannah is a permaculture educator, landscape designer and the Tasmanian presenter for ABC TV's Gardening Australia.

Gardening is in Hannah's blood, having grown up in a herb nursery run by her green-thumbed father in the Brisbane suburbs.

For Hannah, gardening remains a lifeline, a way to bond with her family and a joyful act of protest.

Why We Garden is published by Simon & Schuster.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris. Executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores gardening, hobbies, outdoor activities, mental health, grief gardening, why we like being outdoors, gardening as meditation, the beauty of our gardens, Australian native gardens, vegetable patches, how to grow your own vegetables, fruit trees, family origin stories, losing a parent, pregnancy, motherhood, postpartum depression, gardening for healing, creative inspiration, human history, horticulture, climate change, global warming, food scarcity, food supply, drought, flood, famine, Costa Georgiadis, green thumb, meditation.

To binge even more great episodes of the Conversations podcast with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski go the ABC listen app (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. There you’ll find hundreds of the best thought-provoking interviews with authors, writers, artists, politicians, psychologists, musicians, and celebrities.

Growing the goodness of the world—Hannah Moloney on why we garden

Conversations

Growing the goodness of the world—Hannah Moloney on why we garden