Can Gardening Improve Your Mental Health? 

Gardening and mental health have a positive relationship. Studies show that those who garden every day have well-being scores 6.6% higher and stress levels 4.2% lower than those who don’t garden.

Therefore, if you have an interest in gardening, now is the time to pursue those interests. You can expect to reap the mental and physical rewards of the most basic gardening activities.

In our helpful guide, we’ll discuss the positive effects of gardening with a particular focus on mental and physical health.

Gardening and Mental Health Benefits: A Closer Look

There are considerable physical and mental health benefits for those who want to start gardening. Below, we’ve explored some of the most significant gardening and mental health benefits.

1. Gardening Improves Your Self-Esteem

The benefits of gardening and spending time in green spaces are almost endless.
To start with, gardening can enhance your self-esteem. Low self-esteem can lead to the development of depression/anxiety symptoms. That being the case, valuing and perceiving ourselves positively is crucial to our mental health. Gardening and horticultural therapy can help those who suffer from the depression/anxiety-inducing repercussions of low self-esteem. Managing such symptoms will automatically help those with low self-esteem reshape their perceptions of themselves.
A study on a 12-week therapeutic horticulture program revealed that its participants experienced significant improvements regarding depression symptoms and social activity. Gardening had a positive impact on the participants mental health. These improvements lasted long after the end of the program. Overall, the positive impact gardening has on depression and anxiety symptoms can result in higher self-esteem.

2. Gardening Promotes Social Interaction and Human Connection

A community garden combines the anxiety-lowering effects of gardening with the positive impact of social support and interaction.
Working in a garden alongside other people can help you build deep connections with your community.
You can foster new meaningful relationships with others who share your passion for gardening. Your fellow gardeners might help you grow plants that help reduce stress and anxiety, like lavender, aloe vera, and snake plants.
Best of all, studies show that community gardeners have higher levels of optimism than individual home gardeners.

3. Gardening Improves Your Sleeping Routine

There is a correlation between disturbed sleep and major depression. Approximately three-quarters of individuals who suffer from depression also suffer from insomnia symptoms.
Without a healthy sleep routine, focus and productivity can become quite challenging.
What’s more, insufficient sleep can result in increased stress, cognitive deficits, weight-related issues, and mood disorders. Thankfully, gardening involves a lot of tiring physical activity and rewarding exercise.
From mowing and digging to raking and planting flowers, gardening is an excellent form of exercise. Needless to say, the more exercise you get, the easier you’ll find it to fall asleep.
Additionally, the exercise you get from gardening doesn’t just help you fall asleep. Gardening can also improve the quality of your sleep because it lowers the risk of short sleep durations.
As a bonus, you can even grow plants and flowers that help induce sleep, like lavender, peace lilies, and jasmine.
Ultimately, by gardening, you can protect yourself from insufficient sleep and its adverse impacts on your mental health.

4. Gardening Can Help Protect Your Memory

Gardening doesn’t just regulate our moods; it also strengthens our cognitive functions.
Evidence for this claim came from a study from South Korea, which recruited senior individuals as its participants. The researchers requested their senior participants to complete a twenty-minute-long gardening activity.
The results show a significant improvement in the participants’ memory-related brain nerve growth factors. Best of all, these improvements came from moderately intense physical activities like digging, raking, and fertilizing. Combine this study’s results with the data that reveals that physical activity prevents cognitive decline and dementia. In this way, gardening can strengthen our cognitive functions and memory.

5. Gardening Can Help Reduce Disease

We need vitamin D to strengthen our immune systems. Gardening outdoors, in the sun, is an easy way to soak up some vitamin D while doing something you enjoy.
Research shows that insufficient amounts of vitamin D can lead to an increased risk of colon, prostate, and breast cancer. Suffering from a chronic illness like this can also make people susceptible to mental illnesses like depression.
Therefore, by spending as little as half an hour in a sunlit garden, you can reduce the risk of disease.
Additionally, you will then also reduce the risk of suffering from mental health disorders. Please note that overexposure to the sun’s rays can increase the risks of skin cancer. We strongly recommend that you don’t spend copious amounts of time in direct sunlight. Try and avoid exposure to the midday sun and always wear a sunhat and SPF protection.

6. Gardening Encourages Healthier Eating Habits

A lack of nutritious food can lead to mood and anxiety disorders. Nutritional deficiencies in B12 and B9 vitamins can even cause symptoms of depression, low mood, fatigue, and cognitive decline. In other words, maintaining a healthy, nutritious diet means protecting ourselves from mental health disorders. By simply growing vegetables like spinach, beetroot, mushrooms, and potatoes, you’ll have access to sources of vitamin B12. For vitamin B9, you can also grow broccoli, sprouts, and peas. Growing your own vegetables is more affordable and allows you to get the exercise you need. What’s more, you can control your diet when you grow your own produce. This means that you can grow food that contributes toward improved mood and mental health.

Mental Health and Gardening: Success Stories To Inspire You

As you’ve seen, mental health and gardening have an incredibly beneficial relationship. To inspire you to incorporate gardening into your daily routine, we’ve shared some stories from other gardeners. These gardeners and their stories stand as a testament to the power of gardening for therapeutic purposes.

1. Dr. Tamasi Basu

2020 was a challenging year for all of us, especially Dr. Tamasi Basu, a GP from England. Working from home and in surgery, Dr. Tamasi Basu cared for thousands of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many other medical professionals at the time, Dr. Basu struggled to cope with feelings of stress and hopelessness.
It wasn’t until she started planting vegetable seeds that Dr. Basu found a way to distance herself from the stresses of her work life.After long shifts, Dr. Basu would nurture and care for her seeds, which grew tiny seedlings in spring. The more progress she made and the more her seedlings grew, the better Dr. Basu’s mood was.
Surprised at the successful growth of her vegetables, Dr Basu’s gardening endeavors soon became a shared family venture. Dr Basu encouraged her son, parents, neighbors, and patients to spend some time gardening.
She claimed that growing vegetables changed her perspective on the pandemic, finding peace and tranquility in her garden. Overall, the time Dr. Basu spent in her garden led to significant improvements in her own mental health. As a result, she was able to care for her patients more effectively.

2. Stephanie Rose

Another individual whose mental health improved after she started gardening is Master Gardener and writer Stephanie Rose. In 2006, Stephanie suffered from peripheral neuropathy, causing her arms and legs to become temporarily paralyzed. For two years, Stephanie suffered from this paralysis, rendering her body and mind weak. As she started to recover, she turned to her garden for healing and support. Stephanie’s garden is where she found her strength, acting as a host for her newfound passion. Stephanie set out to learn more about gardening, researching seeds, perennials, trees, shrubs, and vegetables. At first, she spent no more than five minutes in her garden, but as her morale and strength increased, she would go on to spend up to six hours in her backyard. Five years after Stephanie became an avid gardener, she joined the Vancouver Master Gardeners and began raising charity gardens. Falling deeper in love with gardening and the gardening community, Stephanie wrote twelve books, including The Regenerative Garden: 80 Practical Projects for Creating a Self-Sustaining Garden Ecosystem. Now, Stephanie is a full-time gardener and author dedicated to sharing her story of recovery with others. To this day, Stephanie claims that gardening saved her life.

How to Take Care of Yourself While You Garden

You know that gardening is a great way to boost your mood, improve your physical and mental health, and feel more peaceful overall.
However, like many physical outdoor activities, gardening can pose risks to your physical well-being. The following are some helpful tips that will help you protect yourself while you garden.
If you use chemicals in your garden, make sure to follow the product’s instructions carefully. Some pesticides, weed killers, and fertilizers can have dangerous side effects if you use them incorrectly. If possible, use organic products like diatomaceous earth as a pesticide, vinegar as a weed killer, and chicken manure as a fertilizer.
Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, especially on hot summer days.
Wear gloves, goggles, and other protective clothing, especially when using sharp tools.
Take regular breaks.
Apply an SPF sunscreen.
Tetanus lives in soil. For that reason, we recommend that you have a tetanus injection once every ten years.

Gardening and Mental Health: Final Thoughts

Gardening and mental health improvement go hand in hand. From improved sleeping and eating routines to enhanced self-esteem. The benefits have long been acknowledged by gardeners and health experts.
If you suffer from poor mental health or know someone who does, we recommend spending some quality time in your garden. What’s more, in spring, there is no better time to nurture a prosperous garden full of blooming flowers and sprouting spring greens.
Remember to always take the necessary precautions to protect yourself while you garden. Together, with the help of our gorgeous green spaces, we’ll overcome the struggles of mental health.