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Smell the roses: how gardening can improve your health

By Jane Harrison, R.D., Staff Writer, myOptumHealth

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Fighting depression after her divorce, Charlotte saw a therapist who suggested she try her hand at gardening. "Just start with a plant or two," she said. Several months later, a small flower and vegetable garden graced a piece of Charlotte's backyard. More than just fresh flowers and vegetables, Charlotte also felt an inner peace and a sense of control over her life that she had been missing since her marriage ended.

Was it Charlotte's imagination that gardening made her feel better? No, experts say. It's true that gardening may help reduce stress and enhance well being. Gardening (and gardens) can be a retreat, a haven and a source of comfort and renewal. It can help whether you are dealing with the stress of everyday life or a traumatic event or illness.

Horticulture therapy

The latest research on the use of gardens and gardening as therapy has been so positive that a new "branch" of therapy has emerged. "Horticultural therapy" involves a trained therapist who works with people on gardening-related activities to achieve specific treatment goals.

Horticultural therapy typically uses gardens created solely for healing purposes. For some, actually working in the garden provides benefits. For others, just being in a beautiful garden environment is all it takes.

This therapy has been shown to improve the quality of life for many. Therapeutic gardens have become so popular they are springing up in all types of facilities, such as:

• Rehabilitation programs
• Psychiatric and mental health clinics
• Hospitals
• Correctional facilities
• Public and private schools
• Nursing homes and senior centers

How gardens can heal

Whether you tend to your own garden or greenhouse or take advantage of a horticultural therapist, you can reap the benefits of gardening health, which may help:

• Enhance self-esteem. Plants can give elderly people or others who have no family something to care for. When plants respond to care, this helps to make the gardener feel competent and useful. It can also be very satisfying to watch seeds grow into healthy mature plants and be able to eat your own chemical-free produce.
• Ease stress. Simply viewing a garden or another natural vista can quickly reduce blood pressure and pulse rate. Feelings of anxiety and anger can also be relieved in the garden. Rigorous chopping and pruning can relieve pent-up anger and nervous tension.
• Improve mood. The soothing colors, textures and smell of plants can have an uplifting effect on the mind and spirit.
• Speed recovery from illness. Several small studies suggest that hospital patients who either had access to scenic views or gardens or had plants and flowers in their rooms recovered from surgery more quickly and have less pain and anxiety than those without such access. More research is needed on this subject.
• Encourage social interaction. In a nursing home or rehab facility, gardens can bring people together in a peaceful setting. This may help ease isolation, depression and loneliness. Gardening has been more successful than many other therapies in helping to engage people with dementia.
• Increase sense of control. For people who find themselves restricted by a disability, even the simplest gardening experience, such as growing a potted plant from a cutting, can give a feeling of control.
• Promote exercise. Potting or planting seeds can gently exercise aging or arthritic joints. Weeding or raking can be an aerobic workout and a good calorie burner and stress reducer.

In your own backyard

Inspired? If you don't have much of a garden, start with tending a few pots. If that goes well, you may find the desire and energy to make your own garden or greenhouse. Then the next time you are feeling a little down, you can simply head out into your very own therapy room. Restoring a garden can help restore you, too.

View the original Smell the roses: how gardening can improve your health article on myOptumHealth.com 

SOURCES:

• Gigliotti CM, Jarrott SE. Effects of horticulture therapy on engagement and affect. Canadian Journal on Aging. 2005;24:367-377. Accessed: 02/09/2009

• American Horticultural Therapy Association. Frequently asked questions. Accessed: 02/05/2009

• Maas J, Vermeil RA, Groenewegen PP, de Vries S, Spreeuwenberg P. Green space, urbanity, and health: how strong is the relation? Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2006;60:587-592. Accessed: 02/05/2009

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Rooftop garden provides healing environment, enhancing recovery for rehabilitation hospital patients. Accessed: 02/09/2009

• Park SH, Mattson RH. Therapeutic influences of plants in hospital rooms on surgical recovery. HortScience. 2009;44:223-226. Accessed: 02/09/2009