Mental Health: Gardening Activities
Categories:
- Mental health,
- Social environment,
- Community,
- Facilities & organizations,
- Healthcare facilities,
- Schools,
- Workplace,
Gardening activities
Gardening can increase social and mental health, motivation, self-esteem and reduce stress. Research shows that social inclusion and reduced isolation is shown to improve a number of risk factors for chronic disease and cancer.1
Strathmore residents have been increasing environmental citizenship and earth stewardship by teaching children about gardening.
Ways to get started
- Partner with local community groups to create garden beds in areas that are accessible to the community.
- Raise some of the garden beds to waist height to allow those with reduced mobility to participate.
- Place garden beds close to each other to promote social interaction.
- Recruit a gardening specialist to provide lessons and demonstrate gardening techniques.1
- Provide the tools required for gardening.1
- Decorate and maintain existing community gardens.
Amplify your impact
For further action to promote/improve mental health in your community, see
- Facilitating links and access to mental health resources and services strategy
- Facilitate and support volunteerism strategy
- Awareness and education strategy
- Arts-based activities strategy
Multi-component community-wide interventions that increase awareness about and provide opportunities for positive mental health in your community will have greater impact than implementing single, one-off strategies.
Evaluate Impact
Evaluation measures the impact of all the hard work that went into developing a community initiative. Evaluating impact examines:
- What you expect to learn or change
- What you measure and report
- How to measure impact
What you expect to learn about gardening activities may include:
- Learning that the strategy was implemented as planned
- Increased perception of social connectedness
- Increased knowledge of and skills in gardening
- Decreased feelings of loneliness or isolation
External Resources
Community Garden Handbook: A Guide for Community Groups in Alberta
Guidance for communities who want to start and maintain a garden.
Inclusive Community Gardens: Planning for Inclusive and Welcoming Spaces in Vancouver
Community food assets must be physically, economically and socially accessible to all citizens
Farming Concrete: Data Collection Toolkit
Guidance for communities who want to start and maintain a garden.
References: Gardening
- Strout K, Jemison J, O’Brien L, Wihry D, Waterman T. GROW: Green organic vegetable gardens to promote older adult wellness: A feasibility study. J Community Health Nurs. 2017;34(3):115–25.
