Weeding Out Worry - Two books give perspectives on gardening's importance to mental health

Two books give perspectives on gardening's importance to mental health. One is written by a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who draws on decades of experience as a clinician and a gardener to discuss how gardening and interaction with the natural world benefit us. The other is written by a woman with mental illness whose efforts at becoming well brought her to outdoor activities, including gardening.

- By Mary Purpura

As gardeners, we know we feel better when we're working in the garden. Nothing pulls weeds faster than a few frustrations, but it's much more than that. When we work in our gardens, we get physical activity in the outdoors; we have a front-row seat to insect, plant, bird and animal life cycles; and we enjoy a palette where we use fragrances and colors and textures and design principles to create something uniquely beautiful and uniquely ours. For many of us, our gardens are our canvases where we exercise our imagination and our creativity.

In the September/October 2023 issue of Horticulture, I wrote about the growing body of research that proves gardening's role in keeping us mentally well. I've recently found two books published in the United Kingdom that expand on that idea. One is written by a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who draws on decades of experience as a clinician and a gardener to discuss how gardening and interaction with the natural world benefit us. The other is written by a woman with mental illness whose efforts at becoming well brought her to outdoor activities, including gardening.

My premise here is that mental wellness exists on a continuum: Whether one has a clinical diagnosis of anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, or one simply experiences the everyday stresses of modern life, we all benefit psychologically from time spent outdoors, tending and loving our gardens.

A doctor's take

In The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature, doctor and author Sue Stuart-Smith covers a lot of ground explaining how gardening and the natural world positively influence our well-being. I'd like to focus on three points here: presence; anticipation; and repetition.