Jamie Durie is certainly a gardening hero of mine due to his efforts for earth conservation and the assistance towards underprivilged children and people groups in places like Uganda. He's a qualified horticulturalist and landscaper and won many awards for his designs both here in Australia and throughout the world and everything about him exudes gardens and landscaping.

Yet, for all his accolades it's becoming quite concerning how he preserves himself and what he purports to others as a valid way to rest and relax.

Watching an episode of Sunrise on Friday morning I was excited to see that he was one of the guests. After some discussion of his upcoming documentary on India, Mel inquired how he was able to consistently achieve all that he does with the same amount of time as everyone else. The response: he practises transcendental meditation (TM).

The reason he practises this "art" is because it allows him the equivalent 5 hours of sleep for only twenty minutes of chanting. Basically, he was able to operate on 20 minutes of "Rest" time per day. 20 Minutes!!!!

The notion that concerns me the most is that Jamie is an advocate of gardening environmentally. He hosted the US show "The Victory Garden" for a few years and on his website challenges gardeners to grow their own produce. He's been known to help Planet Ark plant trees and advocates organic methods.

One would presume that someone with this level of understanding nature would be able to realise that 20 minutes of rest per day is like feeding your plants full of chemicals and expecting no adverse problems.

Rest is as much a part of nature as composting your organic waste. If our plants were always growing instead of having down-time through the dormant periods we would have an environment that was insatiable for resources. It just could not replenish itself quick enough.

Our bodies, and the way we look after them, should often mimic nature. Our gardens go through 4 seasons: Spring - Growth; Summer - Harvest; Autumn - Consolidate; Winter - Rest. Historically we've tried to alter this circle but it's never achieved anything more than more problems.

So, Jamie, go grab yourself a pillow and head to bed for a good 7-8 hours of natural sleep. You don't need to impress us anymore, we're already impressed. And, BTW, leave that TM alone bro - treat it like it's one of those chemicals you steer clear of in the garden centre.