The dreadful urban disease - apartmentitis

Lifeless urban buildings

City dwellers like you and me are afflicted by a silent brain-numbing disease called apartmentitis. It does not matter which city of the world you live in, how modern or how old, or even how high its cultural quotient. If you live in buildings which have 'houses' on top of the the other, then chances are you've already caught the dangerous bug and you're probably at a tertiary stage, gradually becoming brain-numb.

Symptoms of apartmentitis: lethargy on reaching home from work, feeling of emptiness, directionlessness, monophobia, TV kinship, insomnia in bed among others.

The taxonomy of the above mentioned disease is an invented one, however the symptoms are not. All urban dwellers face it in short or long stints. While work, play and all types of physical and mental activities give temporary relief from the symptoms, the cause is far deeper and one which can only be rid permanently by bringing the therapy into home - therapeutic home horticulture.

The sheer pleasure of seeing germinating radishes
(the base is the top of my fridge)

Growing plants at home is one of the best ways to cure the mind and body as also to rejuvenate the  spirit and mind. Caring, tending, growing, weeding for plants is proven to have therapeutic benefits (see link http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ep145).

It works even better when what you grow plants that are useful for humans to survive, i.e. to eat, because then the horticultural activity naturally becomes much more important than just a recreational one. Further, when you see the plants germinate, grow, flower and finally fruit, the grower becomes a strong contributor in the process of creation compounding your joy and happiness.

Happiness and life generating
GYF buildings

If this small effort were made into a collective and community effort, it creates a much larger impact of the positive individual effect. It now does not only brings positivity for the people within the apartment, but also those who are outside it. It is through a collective action of Growing Your Food that you can throw the concrete out of the concrete-jungle. And through such a community exercise, the city then has the possibility to get a vertical green foliage with all the trappings of chirping birds and a happier citizenry.