Lto anti-drug mimosa. The cyclamen against anorexia. Geraniums to slow Alzheimer’s. And what if, as in a prophetic song by Sergio Endrigo (1974), it really takes a flower to do anything? Andrea Mati, an ancient family of nurserymen, has been working with for over twenty years therapeutic gardens (giardiniterapeutici.com). With psychiatrists and neuroscientists he documented the positive effects of green on diseases and even serious social problems and in collaboration with universities, research centers and companies specialized in the non-pharmacological therapies sector, he designs gardens dedicated to the physical, psychological and social needs of people affected by various pathologies, such as autism, gambling addiction, addictions. He ensures that what makes us feel good is not the landscape, it is the “taking care”.
Therapeutic gardens: the green that saves us
Of his book Save yourself with green. The revolution of the plant square meter (Joints) It is easier to tell what it is not. It is not a manual of horticulture, gardening, natural medicine. It is rather a “plant novel” full of extraordinary stories lived on the front line. The adventure of Andrea Mati begins in 1999, with the social cooperative Vivaio Italiano. Objective: to reintegrate marginalized people of all kinds, to make them feel part of something. Explains: “I have seen “dead” people, made living zombies by drugs, rediscover joy thanks to roses and over time heal the wounds of the body and memory. And I have seen seniors with Alzheimer’s reduce the use of medicines, and almost smile, stimulated by the scent of geraniums, as well as lettuce and aubergines in a vegetable garden to help a group of children with Down syndrome understand how important we are to each other ». Extraordinary stories, such as those of Gilda, Alice, Mara, Veronica and many others, which deserved to be told.
A detail of the garden dedicated to autism spectrum disorder. Courtesy Mati 1909.
Healing from trauma thanks to aloe
When Andrea Mati talks to her about the anti-violence center that uses gardening as a therapy, Gilda bursts into tears. She has been raped. The terrible memories of that day have a silent witness: the aloe plant that his mother thought was miraculous. And before her, many others. Nefertari and Cleopatra used it to heal face and body. The Templars drank the “Elixir of Jerusalem” (aloe, hemp and palm wine) to guarantee a long life. Gilda has nothing to do with Egyptian queens or knights. She is a girl also wounded in the soul. And here is the memory of her: she and her little sister are alone in the house. The friend of the family, kind as usual, shows up with a tray of sweets and convinces the little girl to go to the super. As soon as her sister leaves, he jumps on her and, as she rebels, hits her in the face with a paperweight. When she goes away, Gilda breaks an aloe leaf, passes the clear sap on her face and does not forget that fresh comfort on the skin. She then decides to take care of the plant which somehow helps her to face and overcome the trauma. She carries it with her, repots it, makes it grow and explains to anyone that you should never break the earthen bread around the roots (right). That trick also has a symbolic value. The earth is its square meter of safety, the link with past affections. Wounds together, she and the aloe healed together.
Be reborn with the tenacity of chicory
A career woman, executive of a large company, Veronica lives in luxury. Therefore her fall and her rebirth have all the air of a modern Greek tragedy. A social worker asks Mati to help her. Simple story, after all. Veronica agrees to create offshore companies where she can bring money. Goes wrong. The Guardia di Finanza discovers the mechanism. In addition to the dismissal, she is affected by trials, shame and the women’s section of San Vittore. She gets house arrest but feels finished, she no longer has a job, a partner, a family. And she needs to work. In prison, the blue chicory flowers gave her comfort, special because they bloom everywhere, despite everything. She sees herself a bit like them. At the Italian nursery, Mati offers her to tidy up the warehouse. Veronica accepts, starts from scratch, and, step by step, becomes responsible for the administration.Tenace, like chicory.
The cover of Save yourself with green the book written by the nurseryman Andrea Mati.
Work in the garden, the value of food
She hides food, throws up in the bathroom, takes laxatives, walks in the sun with weighted anklets to consume calories. When she reaches 35 kilos, her mother admits her to a clinic. Alice stares into space for hours, the infusions give her an extra day. Mati tries to help her: «One day her friend Anna and I bring her a vase of pink cyclamen and arrange it on the windowsill. Alice looks at him imperturbably. I tell her that the power to protect against evil was attributed to cyclamen. And according to John Gerard, an English botanist of the late 1500s, “the cyclamen, crushed and prepared in sfogliatelle, becomes a magical entree of love”. Alice remains apathetic. One day she almost attacks me: “I read on Google that in the language of flowers this thing is given to those who have to develop self-confidence. Do you have to heal me too? Your way? With flowers? ”». But then he shifts the obsessive attention he reserved to the body to the cyclamen, makes him an alter ego, gives him his name. Alice (plant) blooms until March, Alice (person) begins to bloom the following year in a therapeutic garden. Today he is a new person. He works among myrtle hedges and rose beds. She has learned to cultivate the vegetable garden, to collect the fruits and to cook them. Feeding on what she produces made her understand the value of food, a gift of nature and not a punishment.
The osmanthus that saves a life
Mara has a very strong depression. Mati talks to her, asks her: “Isn’t there an object, a perfume, a memory, a plant … that gave you some peace just thinking about it?” Mara replies: “Is there still osmanthus in front of my aunt’s house?” Her paternal aunt, Vittoria, was more than a mother to her. She went to pick her up from school, made her do her homework, cooked, told exotic and mythical fairy tales like that of the Gui hua, the tree of the Chinese lunar paradise. In the garden below the house there was an Osmanthus fragrans. Mara looked out onto the terrace to be enveloped by the scent of the East and transported inside her aunt’s fairy tales. After that desperate evening, Mara often goes back to the garden, cleans the flower beds, reads on the bench next door, she resumes some social life even if she does not give up on antidepressants. «Convinced that nature does nothing by chance, I wonder why this perfume is so pleasant» wonders Mati. «Perhaps osmanthus has understood that this characteristic will stimulate the desire to plant it, favoring its diffusion? Are we the ones who choose the plants or are they the ones who choose us? And here is the revolution of the green square meter, the balcony, the flowerbed of the condominium, the tree in the street, the park near the house. If one can save one person, eight billion square meters can save the world ”.
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