Gardening and Its Health Benefits

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With all the recent restrictions many people feel trapped in their homes. Despite the allowance of one outdoor activity a day, some may feel uncomfortable leaving the house. With summer fast approaching, what would be a better time to get your garden sorted? And it comes with benefits for you, too. By Noora Belgasem

There is growing evidence of the benefits of greenspace, such as public gardens and parks, and gardening on human health and wellbeing . Gardening and greenspaces have been suggested to benefit physical and mental health and social wellbeing . Numerous aspects of health and wellbeing have been assessed in order to establish links, and the list of benefits seems endless; reduced obesity, better academic performance, positive effects on mental health  and effects on cardiovascular outcomes and diabetes  – which can ultimately affect mortality. The mechanisms behind these effects have been suggested to include physical activity, reduced air pollution and noise and increased social interaction, to name a few .

The main benefits of nature have been observed on mental health. For example, horticultural therapy (gardening activities) have been used in psychiatric institutions across Europe and The United States since the 1800s. Several studies have established a link between greenspace and reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression , and simply just looking at a nature view seems to make a difference . Two main theories have been used to explain this: restoration theory (by Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989), that suggests that human cognitive function has two areas: directed attention (for instance, used when we are solving problems) and fascination, which is typically associated with nature. This theory suggests that fascination is needed in order to relieve stress symptoms that are caused by an overload of directed attention.
Another theory (by Ulrich in 1983) believes that the effects of nature are more emotional and physiological – humans are predisposed to find non-threatening stimuli (such as nature) soothing, and thus a nature view triggers the parasympathetic nervous system response, leading to feelings of relaxation . 

Even Mind, a leading UK mental health charity, has stated that “ecotherapy”, therapy involving activities in the nature, should be considered as a clinically valid treatment method for mental health . Mind has been involved in promoting ecotherapy and supported over 130 green mental health projects in the UK, including things such as social and therapeutic gardening and environmental conservation activities . Some studies have shown improvements in anxiety and depression over 3-month  and 6-month programmes .
Overall, gardening therapy has been proven to be effective at restoring touch with nature, increasing social interactions and engaging in a meaningful activity by teaching news kills . These social and occupational factors are thought to play a key role in the therapeutic effect of gardening .

Interestingly, a study by Brindley, Jorgensen and Maheswaran (2018) showed that domestic gardens seem to have an even larger effect on mental health than public greenspaces .

In addition to the mental health benefits, gardening is a physical activity. It requires multiple different physiological efforts, such as stretching, bending, squatting down, pulling and carrying things. For example, there have been proven benefits of gardening activities on hand grip strength and function as well as flexibility . In addition, older adult gardeners are more likely to meet their daily physical activity recommendations (30 minutes of moderate intensity activity most days of the week) compared to non-gardeners . On the other hand, with increased physical activity comes an increased risk of injury – for instance, lower back pain is commonly associated with gardening [4]. Other parts of the body likely to be affected include knees (from kneeling and squatting) and hands, especially with individuals suffering from arthritis . Therefore, it is important to remember to take your own physical capabilities, such as flexibility and strength into account, for example by avoiding lifting things that are too heavy . In most cases, especially with larger gardens, gardening includes plenty of walking, too, which has been proven to improve cardiovascular health and overall body composition .

Spending time and taking care of your garden is one of the easiest and most productive ways of taking care of your health. In addition, gardens need regular care, so it is an easy way of establishing sustained contact with nature. And if you do decide to pick up gardening, it seems that the larger the garden, the larger the benefits – likely due to increased biodiversity (amount of different species and organisms), more space to spend time and do things, such as exercise, in and the feeling of “being away” – an important aspect of mental health restorative environments .

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