According to English poet Alfred Austin, ‘to nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul’. And when it comes to health and ageing, there is growing evidence to suggest that gardening and being immersed in greenery, is beneficial to older adults in more ways than one.
A 2022 literature review by Edwin Cedamon entitled The role gardens and gardening can play on the health and wellbeing of older people, identifies: “Gardening is an important recreational activity of older Australians due to various health benefits.”
The selected literature reviewed the key benefits of gardens and gardening on health and wellbeing of older people and concludes that gardening and gardens provide psychosocial, physical, physiological and cognitive benefits necessary for healthy ageing.
“Studies reviewed, showed that gardening can create a relaxing mood to gardeners resulting in lower blood pressure, pulse rate and salivary amylase activity and significant reduction in cortisol levels,” writes Cedamon.
“Such result is corroborated by qualitative studies where residents in nursing homes involve in horticulture therapy and garden visit reported feeling happy and improvement in quality of life after engaging in garden visit and horticulture therapy programs.”
The review states that “physical functionality was also reported to improve”.
Cedamon points out that at the time the literature was reviewed, it appears that use of gardens and garden spaces in Australian aged care facilities and homes of older adults are “less valued” and “not optimised” in delivering an “integrative health and wellbeing program”.
One person who does appreciate the value of gardens for older adults is gardener and television personality Jamie Durie.
Gardening has a lovely way of bringing people together.
Speaking at Aged & Community Care Providers Association’s National Conference in October 2024, Durie explored his insights on the therapeutic and community building benefits of gardens, particularly in aged care. He shared with delegates how gardens can reduce stress, improve mental health and foster social connections.
“We know that gardening has the ability to improve our physical health but also our emotional and mental wellbeing through sensory experience, smell, sight, taste, touch and sound,” Durie explains.
“Gardening has a lovely way of bringing people together. It helps build community and provides purpose and pride through constant care and tangible rewards. A 2015 study concluded that walking barefoot in the garden, and just taking your shoes off and walking on the grass, can help reduce common health conditions, including pain, inflammation and stress.”
Another activity that Durie spoke passionately about was forest bathing, an activity in Japan where people are encouraged to walk through lush greenery in order to gain reported health benefits.
“If you walk through the forest for a minimum of four hours a day, benefits have included improved levels of NK cells in your immune system, which are natural killer cells and fight things like cancer, infections, inflammations,” Durie says.
The garden can give people a place to escape to and can have a very calmative effect.
Associate Professor Andrea Loftus from Curtin University says scientific evidence has proven that gardening is associated with several psychological and physical health benefits for older people.
“Gardening can include cultivating food, for example, vegetables, fruit and herbs, looking after the plants in your garden, and tending to indoor potted plants,” Loftus tells Australian Ageing Agenda.
“Engaging in some form of gardening has been linked to reduced stress and anxiety in older people and has been shown to increase feelings of happiness and serenity. Gardening can also be a social activity that involves some degree of teamwork, thus promoting social interaction and building community.”
Over the course of her two decades researching older people and those with cognitive impairment, especially dementia, Loftus has witnessed numerous ways that gardening has impacted positively upon the physical and mental health of older adults.
“Anecdotally, older participants have reported to me that gardening is mentally restorative for them. The garden can give people a place to escape to and can have a very calmative effect,” she tells AAA.
“Being in the fresh air, engaging in a routine pastime, and taking responsibility for the nurturing of a live being [a plant] is rewarding for many people. Research studies reveal that older adults who garden live longer, are less stressed, can attend better [to tasks and conversations], are socially engaged, and are more physically active.”
She adds: “The ‘Biophilia’ hypothesis suggests that humans have an innate tendency to seek connections with nature, and gardening is one way we can all connect with nature. Those who feel more connected to nature report higher psychological wellbeing, feel socially integrated, and experience more positive emotions.”
Loftus is currently applying for ethics approval with Curtin University with the aim of starting a research project that would enable her to take gardening into care homes and explore its link to wellbeing specifically.
In a study recently published in the journal Preventative Medicine by Masashi and colleagues all the studies that have explored gardening and wellbeing to date were examined, she says.
“The meta-analysis concluded that gardening improves physical, psychological, and social health, and is beneficial for the management of many health conditions for example; diabetes, heart disease, and dementia,” says Lotus.
Although many residential facilities have gardens, she says they are typically purely aesthetic and do not offer the chance for residents and their visitors to engage in the “nurturing and physical act” of gardening.
“My main advice is for care facilities to be modified to include small pockets of ‘working gardens’ that residents can engage with. As opposed to just sitting amongst the gardens, residents should be empowered to engage with nature and ‘get their hands dirty’,” Loftus tells AAA.
She adds: “I would hope, also, that care facilities would involve the families and friends of residents and encourage them to use the gardening as a way to communicate with their loved one. Much like reminiscence therapy and doll-therapy for the management of dementia, gardening may prove to be a useful therapeutic tool that encourages communication and calmness.”
Durie also considered ways that aged care facilities can create an accessible space for residents at the conference. There he spoke about the importance of low maintenance, manageable gardens within an aged care setting and how initiatives such as raised garden beds and community garden projects have been successful in elevating social engagement and wellbeing among residents.
“Gardening has shown to have significant positive effects on psychological indicators amongst the elderly, including lowering pulse rate and blood pressure,” Durie says.
“Reports have included a reduction in agitation, an improvement in mood and engagement – particularly in adults with dementia, plus social relations increased, and loneliness decreased. I just can’t bang on enough about the importance of creating a deep connection with the landscape.”
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