Gardening as a Stress Reliever

Mady: Yeah, as a new grad I don't have much space, so it mainly consists of potted plants. So right now, I have a garden shelf outdoors and then I have a garden shelf indoors. and I have a variety of succulents. I have indoor plants that are just tropical plants, and then I have all kinds of herbs. My next project is going to be growing pumpkins. 

Mady: Yeah, so actually I'm going to talk about three different things with this. 

1. It might be new for this to be considered, but gardening is actually a form of exercise. It's good to get your three typical days of exercise per week, whether that be a walk outside, or on the treadmill, or any form of exercise, but gardening outdoors gives you a little boost. You can do that as your 4th and 5th day outside of exercise, something like that. 
2. And then it also it gives you some vitamin D. So if you're outside in a garden, you’re getting exposed to vitamin D. It helps me in particular as a nurse because I'm oftentimes lifting patients or helping them with their activities of daily living and maybe bearing some of their physical weight and so the vitamin D from the sun helps absorb calcium and helps keep my bones strong. 
3. And then thirdly, gardening benefits your mental health. So gardening reduces some of my stress and it allows me to just spend some mindful peaceful time with myself. 

Mady: Gardening first of all decreases your cortisol (that’s your stress response) and there have been many studies, one done by NYU in their rehabilitation program, which looked at a number of people and their cortisol levels and when they had them outside gardening, it lowered those levels and helped them manage their stress. Gardening also boosts your serotonin and your dopamine, so that positive response that your body has, and helps to make you feel better. 

Mady: Okay so I like to talk about this a lot just because to me it is what fuels my passion for gardening. So a lot of times I picture my seeds as my patients. Giving them all the nutrients that they need, giving them the water, and the food, and just the love and the empathy. I know that sounds funny but it is true, you know, you have to talk to your seeds and tell them that they're beautiful and growing. I do that with my patients too and I think that's probably the closest thing to magic that I'm ever going to experience in my life. So it gives me a sense of compassion and it allows me to continue my learning. So like I learn something new that I should be doing for my plants and I get to take that and watch how my plants flourish, it's like the coolest thing in the world. 

Mady: So I'm not sure if you've ever heard of sensory gardens, but sensory gardens are a lot of times used for people that might be suffering from autism or people that have like traumatic brain injuries, which is an area that I love to study. So gardening can help that just by seeing new sights and sounds. People with autism, a lot of times, will have extreme reactions to new sensations and being in a sensory garden and getting to taste fresh hibiscus, or getting to smell a new smell that they've never smelled, or hearing the birds outside. All of those are really good for anyone, but especially those with sensory processing disorders. 

Mady: I'm really passionate about starting this. Gardening has really just been something that I've done for myself, I've kind of tried to spread it in my inner circle and my family. But as far as my patients go, I would love to bring that to our hospitals in the area. I know Eastern State Hospital, which is a psychiatric hospital here in Lexington, has gardens and they allow patients to go out and terraces and participate in that. But I think it should be a year-round thing and I think that if I can bring some of the research that's being done all across the United States to UK that would be awesome. And hopefully spread that in our whole state of Kentucky. 

Donnelly, Gloria F. PhD, RN, FAAN (2006). Therapeutic Gardening. Holistic Nursing Practice, 20.(6), 261.

Hussein, H., Abidin, N., & Omar, Z. (2016). Sensory Gardens: A multidisciplinary effort. 10.21834/AJBES.V1I1.18