We WANT to talk about mental health & gardening
We invited our lovely greenhouse manager Jill to chat about the benefits of gardening on mental health.
Gardening has come to the rescue for many people confronted by all sorts of challenges to face and overcome in their lives. Many studies have shown how time in a garden space has a massive benefit to our mental, physical and emotional health – gardens and gardening make us feel better, that’s a fact. Those of us who garden already know this, of course. For me especially, it’s the feel of the soil running through my fingers when I’m preparing a seed tray for sowing, that just takes me right off back to my childhood, playing with mud pies and eating tomatoes from my Papa’s greenhouse. My own little bit of escapism from an ever complicated and stressful world.
These small moments of stillness and peace may not seem important at the time, but they are a great way to help you find calmness and feeling like you have more control over your own health and care, when you need it.
Social Prescribing
““It is estimated that 20% of those who visit their GPs are there for a social, rather than a medical health problem.””
Social prescribing does not replace medical treatments or regimes, but it does, however, provide the NHS with a new tool to implement, especially for those who need connection rather than medication to help them through. British physician Sir Muir Gray famously said that ‘everyone needs a Natural Health Service as well as a National Health Service’ and so, there is an opportunity for gardens and gardening to help improve the mental health and wellbeing of a nation, all on prescription from your GP. There is ongoing research by many organisations, including the Royal Horticultural Society and the NHS to better understand how gardening can influence mental health wellbeing. So, as the population ages and pressures build on NHS services (with spiralling health care costs to match) the emphasis placed on preventative healthcare and social prescribing will gather renewed importance.
We WANT (well, Jill wants) to give you some tips on getting the benefit from being outdoors in garden spaces.
Here’s how to get the most from an outdoor space to boost your mental wellbeing, whether it’s your own garden, a community garden or a public garden area.
Remembering to Pause & Embrace your senses
As Summer approaches and more and more jobs seem to be piling onto you, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with everything that needs done. Stress levels can become elevated just as easily as summer warmth, so remember to take regular breaks and moments outside to pause and reflect. Breathe in deeply through your nose on a slow count to 5, then breathe out through your mouth, releasing your breath slowly and in a controlled way. While you’re doing this, watch the bees pollinating the flowers, spend a few moments watching them and listen to the birds chirping and singing. Focus on the shape and textures of leaves or petals and of course, smell the various scents around you too. Look up at the sky, is the sun shining or are there grey clouds about to give the plants a good watering? Breathe in deeply again and smell the air after a downpour (‘petrichor’ - that earthy scent when rain falls on dry soil, from the Greek word for stone ‘petra’ and ‘ichor’ which in Greek mythology refers to the golden fluid that flowed in the veins of the immortals).
Keeping you active
There are many gardening jobs that can help you with fitness and burning calories after a few hours spent in a garden area. Digging and raking are not the easiest of tasks, but they do give you a huge sense of achievement and pride in a job well done. Weeding, always seen by many as a chore, is something you might find very fulfilling. Knowing that you are helping an individual plant, instead of watching it struggle, having to compete for water, space, light and nutrition alongside a weed, can be a strangely rewarding feeling, even more so when you successfully ‘oik’ out the whole root in one go…you just made the little plants life easier, go you! Personally speaking, I find weeding a very relaxing activity, as well as a great opportunity to mull over a problem quietly in the background of your mind and take the proper time to think a next step through, something to my cost, I didn’t always do in my younger days.
Connecting with others
When talking about how gardens or allotments can help bring all walks of life together, we can’t not talk about our very own Community Garden, located in the Ormlie area of Thurso.
These kinds of growing spaces are such a fantastic way of connecting with like-minded people and even making new friends along the way. Creating inclusive social spaces for all, pulling together isolated, elderly, young, vulnerable, recovering from illness, addiction, rehabilitation, visually impairment, whether that’s an experienced grower or total beginner who’s killed every houseplant they’ve ever owned!
That community garden space up in Ormlie, it doesn’t care about gender, race, religion, political view, or sexual orientation. All it cares about is potting on perennials, watering thirsty seedlings, planting out beetroots, watching the people who care for it interacting, learning, chatting, giggling, feeling welcomed, included, part of something bigger. The sharing opportunities between people is vast; plant knowledge or local news, coping with job stress, where to find advice and help, past experiences and even life skills along the way, and all of that over the inevitable brewing of numerous cups of tea and consuming of too many cakes and biscuits (now you see why we included burning calories…).
Creating social opportunities out of a growing space builds confidence in people, it drives awareness and understanding of another’s situation (what’s the quote here, don’t judge a neighbour until you walk two moons in his moccasins?) They are hugely important for our neighbourhood wellbeing, and they can and do, help you to find balance and support in both mental and physical goals. It’s not just plants that grow in a garden, people can too.
You can go to the community garden any time, you might see our gardener Sharon or some of the lovely volunteers who you can have a chat with. Or pop in even if no one is there and have a look around.
The gardens are located in Ormlie at Falcon Waters Court. If you’d like to speak to Sharon about volunteering there, contact her on sharon@thursocdt.co.uk and keep an eye out for exciting updates on the work Jill is doing at the greenhouses!