“without the spiciness, the tomato doesn’t really have flavor, so they combine really well,” said balcazar, in spanish, according to sergio ruiz, one of the garden’s organizers. 

run by the little village environmental justice organization (lvejo), the community garden doubled its typical production during a slow, pandemic summer last year, indicating a local affinity for gardening.

“this just means that they love growing, they love harvesting, and they need access to the land,” said edith tovar, lvejo’s just transition community organizer. 

those not tending to their garden beds gathered around long tables under the central pavilion, chatting and playing mexican bingo. 

“we come here to destress. it’s therapeutic to weed and be with nature,” said little village resident gloria jimenez in spanish, according to ruiz.

as the covid-19 pandemic increased the nationwide prevalence of common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, and chicagoans turned to community gardening to counteract the symptoms. 

common mental health conditions during covid-19

studies conducted across the nation over the last year show an overall decline in mental health due to the pandemic’s restrictions. 

one in three people experienced psychological distress during the pandemic according to a study released this august led by elvira solji and a group of researchers in australia. 

solji and her team focused on the age-related differences in mental health impacts of covid-19 lockdown restrictions. they surveyed americans from april 20 to june 8, 2020, asking questions about nervousness, anxiety, depression, loneliness and more to gauge participants’ experiences of moderate mental distress. 

the study found that over half of 18- to 24-year-olds reported experiencing moderate mental distress, and that adults up to 44-years-old were most heavily impacted. 

in younger adults, moderate mental distress was associated with restrictions to public transit, restaurants, and international travel, while working from home lowered distress rates. moderate distress in older adults was related to the ban on gatherings of over 50 people and workplace closures. 

“the results imply that different approaches are needed both in the handling of mental health and restrictions for different age groups,” solji said in an email. 

insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety were the top four mental health conditions seen during the pandemic according to a study released in november. this conclusion resulted from the meta-analysis of 55 peer-reviewed journals conducted by the research team. 

a study conducted march to april 2020 also identified an increase in acute stress and depressive symptoms in the united states, and found that people with preexisting mental and physical health diagnoses experienced these symptoms more than those without.  

bronzeville-based psychologist lasonda a. wilkins-hines made similar observations of the chicagoans she treated. wilkins-hines said she most often diagnosed patients with clinical anxiety and clinical depression. she held appointments via telehealth and did not take on new patients during the pandemic. 

wilkins-hines, whose patients are predominantly african american, said she saw anxiety and depression peaked with the police brutality protests last summer. 

“that’s when things really made a heavy turn in my practice,” wilkins-hines said. “what i was seeing was a lot of people feeling uncertain, unsafe, confused, angry, feeling that hopelessness and helplessness.”

gardens that blossomed

community gardens across the city reported increased participation during the last two summers. 

sarah dugan, program facilitator for the city’s community gardens in the parks program, said in an email, “anecdotally, there was a big increase in inquiries for garden plots during spring and summer 2020, which seems to have tapered off to more typical levels this year.”

prior to last summer, the maxwell street garden in the near west side typically had a waitlist of five people, according to tess kearns, a board member and gardener there. 

“last year, we had a waitlist of 30 people and we had 15 plots available,” kearns said. apartments in the area with pool decks or community outdoor space closed those amenities last summer to prevent the spread of covid-19, she said. 

“there were a lot of people who didn’t get plots, but were desperate for the ability to be outdoors,” kearns said. “this year, our waiting list was 47 people.” 

to manage the increased interest, kearns said they adopted a friends of the garden program during the pandemic to invite volunteers to work on the community plots and take home some produce in return.   

the maxwell street garden became a place for participants to “clear their heads,” kearns said. “a lot of the stories [from last summer] revolve around just wanting to be outside after the mayor shut the lakefront down. last year was really hard.” 

mayor lori e. lightfoot closed chicago’s lakefront beaches from labor day weekend of 2019 through memorial day weekend of 2021 to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, according to a press release. the lakefront trail opened for exercise and transit with limited access and strict oversight june 2020; the status of the riverwalk and 606 was similar, according to block club chicago and nbc chicago articles. 

“we were like, ‘we’re going to the garden because it’s the one place you know you can be safe,’” kearns said. 

at the el paseo garden in pilsen, volunteer coordinator paula acevedo said they increased programming in response to “a spike in attendance.” 

“the space has been well-used during the pandemic,” acevedo said. “a lot of people were really dedicated to the garden. … people were saying the space kept them sane.” 

“it takes a village. it’s beautiful to be that conduit and platform for the community,” she said. 

health benefits of spending time in nature

a growing body of research illustrates the positive impact of spending time in nature on mental health. 

a study released january 2020 identified that spending two hours in nature per week created significant health benefits across age, gender, and geographic differences. the study broadly defined nature and emphasized that the two hours was a cumulative tally.

richard louv coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” in 2005 and has since authored several books on the health benefits of nature. 

“any green space will provide benefit to mental and physical wellbeing, so it mainly depends on individual preference,” louv said in an email. “more importantly is the frequency of those experiences. connection to nature should be an everyday occurrence.”

a 2017 study offered a list of the top impacts of spending time in nature based on an extensive review of existing research: reduced stress, better sleep, reduced depression and anxiety, greater happiness, and reduced aggression. 

different nature-based activities can impact the body in various ways. wilkins-hines shares her nature-based advice with patients based on the mental disorders being treated. in her practice, she focuses on clinical anxiety and depression, stress reduction and relaxation, and reiki, where she said she “manipulates energy to foster healing.”  

for patients with depression, “the [activities] that are most impactful are ones where you’re getting the sun because that’s going to improve your mood,” wilkins-hines said. she said the sun provides vitamin d that boosts serotonin, the “happy hormone.” 

“if you’re feeling suicidal and you’re feeling like you don’t belong, i encourage grounding techniques: to walk barefoot, to plant flowers, to plant vegetables – anything where you’re in the dirt and you’re bringing life to something,” wilkins-hines said. “you cannot change your way of thinking about the beauty of life [in a better way than] watching something grow into something, being responsible for the life of something.”

wilkins-hines said the impact of gardening extends beyond a specific physiological response in the body. 

“i think these community gardens afford people that opportunity to come together and share stories and to build interpersonal relationships, to network and to just give a sense of family, give a sense of connectedness. and all of that is beneficial for mental health,” wilkins-hines said.

the impact of nature and gardening on mental health has been known to many for years and prior to the pandemic.

kearns said she started to garden around the time she and her husband began the process of separation. 

“this is my happy place,” kearns said. “this was the place that i could just go and kind of forget about it. … i feel like it’s nourishment for your soul.”  

gardening can also help seniors and veterans, according to acevedo, who said seniors are el paseo garden’s largest demographic. 

while the pandemic may have intensified certain health conditions for seniors, acevedo said gardening helped their exercise, mental health and, for those who spent time gardening in earlier years, memory loss. 

acevedo also said the garden helped seniors feel less isolated, something the pandemic exacerbated.

“even their own families were afraid to go see them. they didn’t see their children and grandkids,” acevedo said. the garden added most of its new programming to benefit seniors, she said. 

acevedo said an afghanistan war veteran joined the garden from naperville, a 40-minute drive away, to volunteer his construction skills. 

“he said, ‘i’m on disability. i don’t work. i need to keep busy, or i’ll lose my mind,’” acevedo said. 

kearns said she thinks younger people have an easier time talking about mental health than older people. “everybody may be just as anxious, but nobody’s talking about it,” she said.  

louv advocates for children and families to spend more time in nature through his nonprofit organization, children nature network, to benefit all aspects of health within and beyond the context of the pandemic. 

“ironically, the coronavirus pandemic, as tragic as it is, has dramatically increased public awareness of the deep human need for nature connection –– and is adding greater sense of urgency to the movement to connect children, families and communities to nature,” louv said. 

“today, nature connection can be one way to heal psychological trauma of the pandemic. not a panacea, but one way,” he said.

the sunshine state’s underground freshwater reserves are being drained at an alarming rate, threatening the drinking water of millions, and severely damaging the complex ecosystem of the water cycle.

state and local governments already are working on solutions, but experts are calling for firmer action.

“if we just keep going the way we are going now, we are likely to be in trouble in the not too distant future,” said todd crowl, a professor at florida international university in the department of biology and director of the southeast environmental research center.

“the supply is finite, but the access to it is not finite. it’s limitless,” said robert glennon, regents’ professor and professor of law and public policy at the university of arizona. glennon studies water policy around the world and believes that florida is part of a greater water crisis in the u.s.  

“we americans are spoiled. we wake up in the morning, and we turn on the faucet and out comes as much as we want, for less than we pay for cell phone service or cable television,” glennon said. “most of our fellow citizens, when they think of water, if they think of it at all, they think of it as the air, infinite and inexhaustible, when for all practical purposes it is quite exhaustible, so we take it for granted.”

the associate director of the florida springs institute, heather obara, said, “we have a lot of overpumping of our aquifer, meaning that the demand for water in florida is really high, and we are using more water faster than our aquifer can replenish itself.

“we have a lot of water usage here in florida, such as large scale agricultural usage, as well as urban residential usages that are depleting the aquifer at a rapid rate,” she said.

this depletion of groundwater is a problem throughout the state, with both southern and northern florida experiencing shortages and environmental effects, according to the florida department of environmental protection. many of florida’s biodiverse ecosystems are dependent on freshwater to be clean of pollutants and at a certain water level to function.

the florida dep’s most recent water management assessment states that without new planning efforts, “existing sources of water will not adequately meet the reasonable-beneficial needs for the next 20 years.”

springs are a visible health indicator

in north florida, the natural springs are one of the best indicators of the health of the aquifers, obara said. the freshwater flows up from the underground aquifers into these springs through cracks in the limestone.

the florida springs institute, which studies north florida’s aquifers, has documented a significant drop of freshwater flowing into springs. according to a study they conducted in 2018, average spring flows in florida have declined by an estimated 32% from 1950 to 2010.

another consequence of low flow in springs is that nitrogen is polluting the ecosystem. according to obara, runoff inundated with nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and septic tanks is entering the water system, which shifts the balance of the whole ecosystem. nitrogen is fuel for plant growth, and when there is an overabundance of nitrogen in the springs, there are massive algae blooms. obara explains that without a strong flow, the springs cannot flush the algae out of the system, which ends up killing food sources for animals and disrupting the food chain.

“we thought we could just use and use that water, and now we’re dealing with the reality,” obara said.

the everglades is just as vital to the water cycle

unfortunately, the water crisis is not limited to north florida. statewide population growth has caused more and more land to be claimed for residential use. and local governments continue to authorize the drilling of new wells — and to expand development into swamps, despite the wetlands acting as a filter for water entering the aquifer.

like the springs in north florida, the everglades — a unesco world heritage site and a designated international biosphere reserve — is an integral part of south florida’s water cycle. the everglades plays a vital role in the delicate equilibrium required to maintain the aquifers by keeping a pressure counterbalance against saltwater pushing its way into the aquifer, said crowl, the florida international university professor. as the water drains out of the aquifer and the everglades, saltwater begins to intrude into freshwater reserves.

“it’s just a simple pressure problem,” crowl said. but the problem is only worsened by rising sea levels, which are increasing the pressure, he said. crowl studies the salinity of underground well water, sampling more than 100 wells throughout south florida.

crowl was not ready to make any predictions without continued monitoring in the future, but he did say “we are getting higher and higher concentrations in more and more of our wells where we measure saltwater intrusion. watching the rate that’s happening is a little bit scary.”

the government has a plan, but…

the florida department of environmental protection is one of the multiple statewide government agencies that are studying the problem and collaborating with local governments to address the crisis.

in a report published in 2017, the dep projected that between 2015 and 2035, the population in florida will grow by 27%, to 25.2 million, and that public demand for water will increase by 23%.

the dep has formulated a plan to address the increasing dependence on the aquifer. in the same 2017 study, they proposed 747 projects around the state to conserve water, costing $3.7 billion. the majority of the projects either use water reclamation or call for treatment of brackish groundwater.

but these projects seem to only treat the crisis, rather than address the underlying problem. obara and crowl both believe the most crucial step to addressing the crisis and eventually reverse it, is to commit to conserving the natural aquifer.

with one hand, florida’s state and local governments seem committed to fixing the problem, but with the other hand, they continue to take actions that seemingly contradict that first commitment. the miami-dade county commission recently approved the construction of american dream miami, a massive megamall, larger than the mall of america in minnesota. american dream will have 2,000 hotel rooms, an indoor ski slope, an ice-climbing wall, and a water park with a “submarine lake.” the project is now working to secure environmental and water permits for the 174-acre site, which is a previously developed area adjacent to the everglades.

“there really hasn’t been a good emphasis on conservation in florida,” obara said. “we need a shift in the mentality here in florida that we haven’t had before. we have always looked at the environment as a resource rather than something that not only benefits our health for our environment to be healthy, but it also benefits our state’s economy.”

“the point is if we don’t get the everglades restored pretty quickly to have freshwater to push back saltwater, we are going to be in a world of hurt,” crowl said.

so what can be done?

glennon suggests using economics and policy as a possible solution. he believes if the government increases the price of water, the natural economic response will be to conserve the resource. “it is a matter of supply and demand,” he said.

glennon still believes that access to water should be a human right, and suggests that 12-to-15 gallons per person, per day should be subsidized, avoiding penalizing those who cannot afford the price increase. glennon also calls for reform within agriculture, proposing that farms need to change their methods.

“i think the farmers developed their farms at a time when water was plentiful, and they’re doing what they’ve always done, using water the same way,” glennon said.

florida’s water problem is complicated and challenging to fix, but the outlook is still positive. according to crowl, it is possible to reverse saltwater intrusion, the health of the everglades can be restored, and the aquifer can be allowed to refill. for florida, there is still time to reverse the crisis.

“i am optimistic. is there a crisis? you bet there is. but can we do something about it? yes, and what we want to do is act before the crisis turns into a catastrophe,” glennon said.