Talk by Arit Anderson: Nature as Nurture: Can Gardens Heal the World
Arit is well-known as a presenter of several TV gardening shows from Gardeners’ World to Garden Rescue, she came to Ash at the end of November to talk to over 100 people interested in her idea that gardens and gardening promote wellbeing. After working in the fashion industry for about 25 years she started on a course in garden design and within three years won an award at Chelsea, part of the RHS New Shoots programme to encourage careers in all aspects of horticulture.
Her talk began with personal account of her experiences ranging over a number of aspects of her relatively short period as a gardener. She went on to highlight the role of the National Garden Scheme in promoting wellness. What is the impact of gardening on health? There are many studies that have shown improvements in health when gardening. These improvements could be down to spending more time outdoors and exercising, making it difficult to separate the effects on the brain versus the rest of the body.
One thing is clear though, gardening has a lot of positive influences on us. Simply viewing plants has been shown to change our brain activity, in addition to reducing stress, fear, anger, sadness, blood pressure, pulse rate and muscle tension. Participating in gardening has been shown to change brain activity and lower blood pressure whilst green spaces with biodiverse habitats are associated with less depression, anxiety and stress. Gardening has also been shown to delay the symptoms of dementia, possibly as a side effect of garden-induced exercise. The famous Dorothy Clive Garden was created in 1940 by Colonel Harry Clive for his wife, Dorothy, who was suffering from Parkinson’s to help alleviate some of her symptoms. Arit viewed all these developments from a holistic rather than a medical perspective.
In 2016 that it was proposed that gardens and gardening should be part of the NHS England’s programmes for improving public health and there are now many community garden projects across the country promoting wellbeing. A further extension of this initiative is the many gardens designed to improve hospitals, not just for patients with mental health problems, but also for the physically disabled, as exemplified by Horatio’s gardens which are designed to be accessible to patients with spinal injuries. Such was the success of the gardens there are now several over the British Isles. They are open under the National Garden Scheme and they also receive NGS donations, as do Marie Curie, Macmillan Cancer Support, Hospice UK and Parkinson’s UK among others. All positive examples of gardens supporting wellness.
For more information on their role see www.ngs.org.uk/gardens-and-health-week
