Gardening and Its Impact on Health and Wellbeing
- mclapham9
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
Written by Michelle Clapham, RN, MSN, APRN (retired)
For those persons who tend to a garden, summertime brings with it the promise of an autumn harvest of vegetables and fruits. The act of gardening not only provides food, but it also provides multiple physical and mental health benefits for people of all ages.
Gardening and mental wellbeing
Gardening has been shown to have numerous positive effects on mental health and wellbeing.
Gardening can improve your sense of self-esteem, improve your confidence in your abilities and improve your sense of satisfaction (1, 3).
Gardening has been shown to improve anxiety and depression (1,2, 3). A study published online in 2022 by the journal PLOS One (7), suggested that gardening lowers stress, anxiety, and depression in otherwise healthy women who attended twice-weekly gardening classes for four weeks. None of the 32 women in the study had gardened previously; half were assigned to the gardening sessions, while the other half went to art classes. They self-reported their levels of anxiety, depression, and stress. While both groups reaped mental health benefits, the gardeners reported less anxiety (4).
Tending to a garden can help reduce stress by helping you to focus on something aside from your stressors and help you work towards a goal. Seeing growing and thriving plants may reduce anxiety surrounding illness and death (1). Gardening routines, like watering and weeding, can create a soothing rhythm to ease stress (2). Gardening helps with mindfulness as one sets worries aside to become fully immersed in the task at hand (4).
The physical activity associated with gardening may improve sleep quality secondary to the increase in physical activity levels (1,2).
Digging in the earth may contribute to a state of happiness because of the exposure to good bacteria that lives in the soil. This bacterium, M. vaccae, has been found to increase levels of serotonin and reduce anxiety. (1)
Gardening can improve relationships – the one you have with yourself and the relationships you have with others. Sharing your produce with family and friends may improve relationships as well as bonding with friends and family over gardening (1). Community garden plots bring together people with diverse backgrounds to work on a common goal (6). A strong sense of belonging lowers your risk of depression, anxiety and suicide. (2). Social connections are important because they help lower stress, improve resilience and provide support during difficult times in life.
Gardening and physical health
The CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. Gardening activities can assist in meeting this goal. The CDC lists gardening as a moderate-intensity exercise that burns about 330 calories per hour, a rate similar to hiking or dancing (4)
Gardening is good for your heart as the physical labor involved in gardening provides some cardiovascular benefit (1).
Gardening can improve your physical strength especially the strength in your hands and upper body. A day of gardening includes many functional exercises including lunges and squats as well as pushing and pulling activities (2).
Gardening has benefits for children’s health. Early exposure to dirt has been linked to numerous health benefits including a reduction in allergies and autoimmune disorders (1).
Being in the garden provides exposure to sunlight. Sunlight provides a dose of Vitamin D which has been shown to improve bone and immune system health as well as reduce blood pressure (1,2).
Growing your own produce helps you eat healthier. (1,2). Consuming more fruits and vegetables has been linked to lower inflammation and improved gut health.
A 2021 study published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (8) suggests that people who garden may experience less age-related decline in immune system effectiveness. They also have lower levels of low-grade inflammation common among older adults. Low-grade inflammation can increase risks for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammation-based diseases (4). Gardening has been found to be therapeutic for persons with dementia. Research has shown gardening is an activity that potentially prevents dementia (3).
Get your hands dirty
The benefits of gardening are not dependent on the size of the garden. Whether it is container gardening on a patio or tending to a two-acre garden plot, people of all ages and backgrounds will benefit mentally and physically from nurturing a garden.
The level of self-satisfaction, the enhanced mental wellbeing and increased physical activity that a garden provides is a simple, but significant, contribution to a better life.
Bibliography
3. 5 Benefits of Gardening That Can Improve Your Health – Cleveland Clinic
4. Smith-Carrier TA, Béres L, Johnson K, Blake C, Howard J. Digging into the experiences of therapeutic gardening for people with dementia: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Dementia (London). 2021 Jan;20(1):130-147. doi: 10.1177/1471301219869121. Epub 2019 Aug 19. PMID: 31426675.
5. Cognitive and physical activity and dementia: A 44-year longitudinal population study of women Jenna Najar, MD, Svante Östling, MD, PhD, Pia Gudmundsson, PhD, Valter Sundh, PhD, Lena Johansson, PhD, Silke Kern, MD, PhD, Xinxin Guo, MD, PhD, Tore Hällström, MD, PhD, and Ingmar Skoog, MD, PhDAuthors Info & Affiliations. March 19, 2019 issue 92 (12) e1322-e1330 https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000007021
7. Odeh R, Diehl ERM, Nixon SJ, Tisher CC, Klempner D, Sonke JK, et al. (2022) A pilot randomized controlled trial of group-based indoor gardening and art activities demonstrates therapeutic benefits to healthy women. PLoS ONE 17(7): e0269248. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269248
8. Murroni V, Cavalli R, Basso A, Borella E, Meneghetti C, Melendugno A, Pazzaglia F. Effectiveness of Therapeutic Gardens for People with Dementia: A Systematic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Sep 12;18(18):9595. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18189595. PMID: 34574519; PMCID: PMC8469939.
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