Cultivating Wellbeing: Gardening for Health

Science tells us that regular gentle activity is crucial for longevity, that meditation is the key to mental health and that going outside can boost your mood, lower your heart rate, increase energy levels and improve digestion. However, with life, schedules, work and family there’s seldom time to do it all. Unless you’re a gardener, in which case you’re likely ticking all those boxes. Beyond individual benefits, effective stewardship of the natural world promotes biodiversity and ecological health, contributing to cleaner air, greener cities and a stronger sense of civic community.

Is gardening the ultimate panacea? Let’s take a look.

Positive Health Impact

The processes involved in gardening shape key facets of physical and mental health, including diet, physical activity, community connections, stress levels and a deeper connection to nature.

Mental health:

If you feel happier when you’ve got your hands in potting soil there’s a scientific reason. Digging in soil stirs up microbes which, when inhaled, can encourage the production of serotonin, leading to increased feelings of happiness.

The soil microbe Mycobacterium vaccae has been shown to potentially simulate the same impact on neurons as antidepressant drugs. Combined with the meditative sounds of nature and the self reflection that accompanies routine tasks, gardening can have direct antidepressant effects.

Physical health:

Beyond mental health and stress relief, gardening as part of a regular routine has been shown to support holistic physical health.

People tend to breathe deeper when outside. This helps to expel pollutants from the lungs, enhance digestion, boost the immune system and elevate oxygen levels in the bloodstream. Spending time outdoors can reduce heart rate and muscle tension. Sunlight lowers blood pressure and increases vitamin D levels and, according to the Center for Disease Control, gardening can burn over 300 calories per hour.

A naturally healthy diet:

When you grow your own food, you have direct access to fresh produce that contains higher levels of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants compared to that which has been stored or traveled long distances to reach your plate. You’ll also avoid commercial pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers if you grow organically.

Nature gazing:

According to a Japanese study, just viewing plants has altered EEG recordings, showing reduced stress, fear, anger and sadness as well as reduced blood pressure and muscle tension.

The medical field has also benefited from ‘green care’. While the studies are new, horticulture therapy, a facet of ‘green care’, is not. In a pioneering study by the environmental psychologist Roger Ulrich, patients in post-operative wards with views of plants and trees experienced improved moods and required fewer painkillers. This exposure also decreased surgical complications and shortened hospital stays.

Community Benefits

Enhancing ecological health:

Community gardens and urban green spaces play a pivotal role in enhancing environmental health and urban livability. They improve air quality and act as carbon sinks for pollutants like carbon dioxide. In return, they release oxygen, thus acting as natural air purifiers.

Green spaces also provide shade in concrete-heavy environments, which helps reduce the ambient temperature. Community gardens can contribute to mitigating noise pollution, where vegetation acts as a sound barrier, absorbing and deflecting noise, creating more serene environments. Projects such as the Brooklyn Grange Farm and Morgan North in midtown contribute to a greener New York City, connecting locals with the environment, providing educational opportunities and widening access to fresh produce.

Encourage healthy eating:

Research from NC State University reveals that community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7 times daily, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times) and nongardeners (3.9 times). Moreover, 56 percent of community gardeners met national recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables at least five times per day, compared with 37 percent of home gardeners and 25 percent of nongardeners.

The Ron Finley Project is a non-profit that repurposes neglected urban patches to create community vegetable gardens in neighborhoods of Los Angeles with high obesity rates and little access to fresh produce, known as food deserts. "If kids grow kale, they eat kale. If they grow tomatoes, they eat tomatoes. But if they’re not shown how food affects the mind and the body, they blindly eat whatever’s put in front of them,” he says.

The ties that bind:

Incorporating more greenery through community gardens not only fosters ecological gains but also bolsters social wellbeing and the ties that bind communities together, making them healthier, and more pleasant places to live.

Community gardens leverage humans’ natural instinct to gather and divide work for a collective result. They offer a coregulation, with studies showing that community gardeners have higher levels of resilience and optimism than the non-gardening control group with increased opportunities for altruism and shared resources.

Once described as a “church without walls,” Detroit’s Oakland Avenue Urban Farm brings people together through youth education programs, cultural gathering spaces and efforts to tackle food insecurity through collective farming practices.

Beyond the garden:

Positive results in community farming grow beyond an individual's mental and physical health. A survey of 29 community gardens across Denver, CO, found that they collectively reinforced social connections across different cultural backgrounds and increased acts of reciprocity and civic engagement in their respective neighborhoods.

How to Start

• Start small: Build up your confidence with a few hardy and easy to grow plants. Build your garden as you learn and build in time and resources to care for your garden.
• Find community: Gathering together to garden can magnify the benefits of growing plants and food. You can also get support and learn from each other's successes and failures. Search for a community garden in your area.
• Know your growing zone: Find plants that grow well in your climate or hardiness zone and research the appropriate plants. Consult with a professional gardener or your local nursery.

Photography: Brooklyn Grange, Westend61/Getty Images, The Ron Finley Project, Oakland Avenue Urban Farm, Margaret Roach