Did you know that doctors in the UK have been ‘prescribing’ gardening for mental health patients since 2013? That the effects of therapeutic gardening on the human brain are akin to meditation? In fact, in our society today, the fundamentals of gardening are taught to us as early as preschool. Gardening lessons for toddlers? Well, they’re predominately to educate kids about how people used to grow and eat our food thousands of years ago.
But, like most things in preschool, there’s also an opportunity for experiential play. When my daughter was in preschool a few years ago, they played a game that was designed to be perceived by touch, as the kids were blindfolded. The kids would place their hands in soft dirt and engage in a tactile lesson, naming objects they found beneath the garden!
That was definitely my favorite part of gardening in preschool, submerging my hands in a flower bed dirt! I loved the feeling of the moist earth between my fingers, although I haven’t ventured into gardening yet as an adult. But there are literally millions of gardeners throughout the world, each gardening for their own reasons (i.e., self-care, therapeutic stress-relief, sustainability, lower food costs, etc).
Don’t let the fact that you’ve never gardened in your life (me!), can’t keep a plant alive, or the fact that you don’t have even a patch of grass to start a garden on, get in the way of trying. Read on to discover five reasons that therapeutic gardening is the best ‘wellness trend’ that will never go out of style!
5 Reasons That Therapeutic
Gardening Is the Best
Wellness Trend
You Can Harvest & Grow Your Own Vegetables
It doesn’t matter what season it is you can plant things all year round. Whether you start with just a window box or move on to a full vegetable garden. Whatever you’ve got to work with, a plant pot or full lawn, they’ll always need new seeds to grow something new.
Flowers, such as tulips, irises, and snowdrops are a safe bet to start in the winter. These flowers can even start growing in wet leaves or mulch if the ground is frozen. There are also lots of cool-season crops that you can plant in preparation for spring. and you can even buy the seeds online.
It’s a Great Form of Mild to Moderate Exercise
In recent years, it’s safe to say that the plants have taken over. Each year, more and more plant-obsessed (I’m totally one of them) and garden-crazy people seem to come out of the woodwork!
Gardening, as a leisure activity, is something that people of all ages, races, and cultures can do together! Even therapeutic gardening is a wonderful exercise, providing that you do it correctly.
According to a professor of sports science at Loughborough University, three hours of gardening burns as many calories as around an hour of a heavy gym session, around 600 to 700 kilocalories.
5 ways to make your gardening more vigorous
- Increase your range of motion
- Learn the “lunge and weed”
- Use large muscles whenever possible
- Remember to balance everything out
- If you want to really commit, think of gardening in terms of repetitions & sets
There Are Many Mental Health Benefits
Getting in touch with nature can be incredibly rewarding and therapeutic. In fact, in a 2010 study, the stress-relieving effects of gardening were hypothesized and tested in a field experiment.
“A study that took place in the Netherlands suggests that gardening can fight stress even better than other relaxing leisure activities. After completing a stressful task, two groups of people were instructed to either read indoors or garden for 30 minutes.
Afterward, the group that gardened reported being in a better mood than the reading group, and they also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.” – CNN.com
Humans have a finite capacity for the kind of directed attention required by cell phones and email. When that capacity gets used up we tend to become irritable, error-prone, distractible, and stressed out. Fortunately this “attention fatigue” appears to be reversible.
It’s a Great Way to Meet People & Socialize
For those of you who want to try therapeutic gardening but don’t have much in the way of a yard, you should look into renting a local allotment in your city. I actually grew up down the street from one of these ‘community gardens’ and to be honest, it was definitely easy to see why gardening is such an excellent hobby!
Most people don’t realize this but gardening, especially within a community allotment, is a great way to meet people and socialize! For example, socializing is incredibly therapeutic, especially for the elderly, disabled, even agoraphobia.
These people, in particular, tend to feel like they don’t contribute much to society. The reason usually being their age, disability, or any personal issue. But when they join their local gardening community and meet other people with their shared hobby, they begin to flourish. And they learn that they’re contributing to society by growing plants and vegetables!
While a community garden is a great place to garden with others, it’s not the only way. If you have the means, you could even build a greenhouse on your property! There are many great designers who can help you discover your personal style. Once you know your style, you’ll be able to plan the look you want for the house and its yard.
One such company is Cachet homes and you can check them out here at Cachet homes – Who We Are. Then, assuming you’re comfortable doing so, you could walk door-to-door, inviting your neighbors to set up their own little space in your greenhouse. For those who don’t garden, you could even offer to teach them!
You Can Design Your Own Therapeutic Garden
The process of designing your therapeutic garden can seem/feel a bit intricate at times. This, of course, depends on whether you’re designing your garden that serves a specific therapeutic function. That said, it’s important to have fun while setting up your garden because fun itself is therapeutic!
Thanks to the popularity of Pinterest, designing your garden has never been more exciting! There are thousands of pictures on every kind of garden and plenty of info in the articles they lead to. In fact, just as animal lovers everywhere (myself included) refer to their pets as their children or “furbabies”, there is now a huge number of people who refer to themselves, simply, as “plant parents” (again, myself included!).
People have always referred to those who garden regularly as “green thumbs”. Lately, though, I’ve noticed that people who aren’t in the know, call us ‘plant parents’ “green thumbs” as well?! I will say, my favorite thing to do in my mother’s garden, was to do all the decorating with whimsical lawn ornaments. However you decide to put your green thumb to use, you’ll certainly feel the positive benefits.
Jessica Rose Adams
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