Digging Up Better Health

Gardening is a great way to lift your mood and get fitter. Here’s what you need to know

- Karen Evennett

Imagine a time when, instead of blood pressure pills, sleeping tablets or antidepressants, your GP sends you off with a prescription for a healthy dose of gardening to fix your woes.

Gardening as a form of social prescribing is not yet universally available – but, all going well, we should be able to look forward to more of this kind of drug-free therapy in the future.

And, yes, it really can lower your blood pressure, help you sleep better and improve your mood. It has even been said that the NHS could save billions if we all had equal access to quality green spaces.

Study after study has shown that gardening is good for our health, but it doesn’t have to be heavy-weather work like digging and chopping, according to researchers at Exeter University. Their study, involving 8,000 people, found that just regularly spending time in a garden makes a significant contribution to psychological wellbeing, general good health and greater physical activity levels.

PROVEN EFFECTS

Gardening boosts our general health, promising to reduce stress, anxiety and depression – and it also improves our overall quality of life, according to an analysis of seven studies that compared nongardeners with people who gardened every day.

Hate the gym? Try gardening instead