Green Therapy: The Science

How nature and gardening can help the mind

There’s increasing scientific and psychological evidence showing gardening has significant human health benefits. 

Mind, one of the leading UK mental health charities, states that “research into ecotherapy has shown it can be a successful treatment for mild to moderate depression”. 

This is thought to be due to a combination of: 

• Doing more physical activity, which is known to have many physical and mental health benefits.

• Getting more regular social contact with people, which can reduce loneliness and boost self-esteem.

• Being surrounded by nature, which can boost your overall mood and sense of wellbeing.

Similarly Gardening is beneficial for health: A meta-analysis shows gardening provides substantial positive effects on the human mind. 

Their meta-analytic results show “most studies reported positive effects of gardening, and none reported significant negative effects.”

Gardening had the largest positive effect on the subjects’ depression and anxiety. However, there were also significant improvements in their mood, stress and anger levels too.