Highlights of Scientific Studies and Journal Articles:
Emotional and Psychological Health
Psychological response to nature involves feelings of pleasure, sustained attention or interest, ‘relaxed wakefulness’, and diminution of negative emotions, such as anger and anxiety (Rohde and Kendle, 1994).
Early research found that in the act of contemplating nature, the brain is relieved of ‘excess’ circulation (or activity) and nervous system activity is reduced (Yogendra, 1958).
An experience of nature can help strengthen the activities of the right hemisphere of the brain, and restore harmony to the functions of the brain as a whole (Furnass, 1979).
Empirical, theoretical, and anecdotal evidence demonstrates contact with nature positively impacts blood pressure, cholesterol, outlook on life, and stress-reduction (Moore, 1981; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Hartig et al., 1991; Ulrich et al., 1991a; Ulrich et al., 1991b; Kaplan, 1992a; Rohde and Kendle, 1994; Lewis, 1996; Leather et al., 1998; Parsons, et al., 1998).
The experience of nature helps to restore the mind from the mental fatigue of work or studies, contributing to improved work performance and satisfaction.
Beneficial bacterium in soil makes us happier…. a strain of bacterium in soil, Mycobacterium vaccae, has been found to trigger the release of seratonin, which elevates mood and decreases anxiety. This bacterium has also been found to improve cognitive function. (Lowry C.A., et al. (2011). Identification of an immune-responsive mesolimbocortical serotonergic system: potential role in regulation of emotional behavior. Neuroscience 146.2: 756–772)
Directed attention plays an important role in human information processing; its fatigue, in turn, has far-reaching consequences. Attention Restoration Theory provides an analysis of the kinds of experiences that lead to recovery from such fatigue. Natural environments turn out to be particularly rich in the characteristics necessary for restorative experiences. (Kaplan, Stephen (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology. Volume 15: Issue 3: 169-182.)
Urban nature, when provided as parks and walkways and incorporated into building design, provides calming and inspiring environments and encourages learning, inquisitiveness, and alertness.
There are beneficial effects of gardening-based interventions for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Benefits included significant reduction in symptoms of depression (Son et al., 2004; Stepney and Davis, 2004; Gonzalez et al., 2009, 2010, 2011a, b; Kam and Siu, 2010) and anxiety (Son et al., 2004; Stepney and Davis, 2004; Kam and Siu, 2010; Gonzalez et al., 2011b) and significant increase in attentional capacity (Rappe et al., 2008; Gonzalez et al., 2010) and self-esteem (Son et al., 2004).
Emotional benefits include reduced stress and improved mood (Rappe et al., 2008; Kam and Siu, 2010), social benefits such as the development of a social network and improved social skills (Kam and Siu, 2010; Gonzalez et al., 2011b), vocational benefits such as learning new skills and changing attitudes towards work (Stepney & Davis, 2004; Kam and Siu, 2010).
Quantitative studies have found a significant reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety following gardening-based interventions.
Community gardens, for example, provide opportunities for socializing with and learning from fellow gardeners and residents that may normally be unavailable. This aids community cohesion by dissolving prejudices about race, and economic or educational status (Lewis, 1990; 1996).
Physical Health
The physiological data suggests that natural settings elicit a response that includes a component of the parasympathetic nervous system associated with the restoration of physical energy (Ulrich et al., 1991a).
Children who are familiar with growing their own food tend to eat more fruits and vegetables (Bell & Dyment, 2008), and are more inclined to continue healthy eating habits through adulthood (Morris & Zidenberg- Cherr, 2002).
Community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7 times per day, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times per day) and non-gardeners (3.9 times per day). Moreover, 56% of community gardeners met national recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day, compared with 37% of home gardeners and 25% of non-gardeners. The qualities intrinsic to community gardens make them a unique intervention that can narrow the divide between people and the places where food is grown and increase local opportunities to eat better. (The Influence of Social Involvement, Neighborhood Aesthetics, and Community Garden Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption; Jill S. Litt, PhD, Mah-J. Soobader, PhD, MPH, Mark S. Turbin, MS, James W. Hale, MSS, Michael Buchenau, MLA, and Julie A. Marshall, PhD, MPH)
Physical benefits include improved sleep and physical health (Rappe et al., 2008) and spiritual benefits such as feeling more connected to nature and fascinated by plants (Kam and Siu, 2010; Gonzalez et al., 2011a).
Gardening during childhood exposes children to healthy food, moderate exercise, and positive social interactions and can often lead to a lifetime of gardening (Gross & Lane, 2007. Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption. American Journal of Public Health: August 2011, Vol. 101, No. 8, pp. 1466-1473)
Academic, Emotional, and Social Skills:
Students who have school garden programs incorporated into their science curriculum score significantly higher on science achievement tests than students who are taught by strictly traditional classroom methods (Klemmer, Waliczek, & Zajicek, 2005).
Students in a one-year school gardening program increased their overall life skills by 1.5 points compared to a group of students that did not participate in the school gardening program. The gardening program positively influenced two constructs: “working with groups” and “self-understanding.” (Robinson, C.W. & Zajicek, J.M., 2005).
Contact with nature helps children to develop cognitive, emotional, and behavioral connections to their nearby social and biophysical environments. Nature experiences are important for encouraging imagination and creativity, cognitive and intellectual development, and social relationships. (Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 29-64.)
Both passive and active interactions with plants during childhood are associated with positive adult values about trees. However, the strongest influence came from active gardening, such as picking flowers or planting trees as a child. (Lohr, V.I. & Pearson-Mims, C.H. (2005).
A study of third and fourth graders involved in a school garden and nutrition program found that “the school garden supports student inquiry, connection to the natural world, and engages students in the process of formulating meaningful questions.” (Habib & Doherty, 2007).
Students involved with school gardens generally take pleasure in learning and show positive attitudes towards education (Canaris, 1995; Dirks & Orvis, 2005).
As early as 1909, Montessori had identified several benefits to children’s gardens: enhances moral education, increases appreciation for nature, increases responsibility, develops patience, and increases relationship skills (Montessori, M., 1964, The Montessori Method. Schocken).
Studies in Bexar County, Texas showed that school gardening increased self-esteem, helped students develop a sense of ownership and responsibility, helped foster relationships with family members, and increased parental involvement. (Alexander, J. & D. Hendren, 1998)
Children with learning disabilities had enhanced nonverbal communication skills, developed awareness of the advantages of order, learned how to participate in a cooperative effort, and formed relationships with adults. (Sarver, M. (1985). Agritherapy: Plants as Learning Partners. Academic Therapy, 20(4). 389-396.)
Gardens contribute to communication of knowledge and emotions, while developing skills that will help them be more successful in school. (Miller, D. L., Young Children Develop Important Skills Through Their Gardening Activities at a Midwestern Early Education Program. Applied Environmental Education & Communication 6(1):49-66.)
School gardens improve life skills, including working with groups and self-understanding.
(Robinson, C.W., and J. M. Zajicek. 2005. Growing minds: the effects of a one-year school garden program on six constructs of life skills of elementary school children. HortTechnology15(3):453-457.)
Symptoms of ADD in children can be reduced through activity in green settings, thus “green time” can act as an effective supplement to traditional medicinal and behavioral treatments.
Gardens instill appreciation and respect for nature that lasts into adulthood. (Lohr, V.I. and C.H. Pearson-Mims. 2005).
The school garden serves as a “safe place” for students. Studies show that large numbers of students report that “they feel ‘calm,’ ‘safe,’ ‘happy,’ and ‘relaxed’ in the school garden” (Habib & Doherty, 2007).
Children who work in gardens are more likely to accept people different from themselves (Dyment & Bell, 2006).
Teachers who worked in schools with garden programs had higher workplace morale and increased “general satisfaction with being a teacher at that school.” (Skelly & Bradley, 2000)
68 percent of students shared what they were learning with family and friends unassociated with the school garden program. This has the potential for spreading the benefits to a much larger community. (Habib and Doherty, 2000)
Community
At an annual gardening competition in a public housing area of New York, research found an increase in community cohesion, a reduction in graffiti and violence, and an increase in positive attitudes about themselves and their neighborhood for residents, resulting in personal and neighborhood transformation (Lewis, 1990; Lewis, 1992; Lewis 1996).
Civic volunteering in natural environments, such as through ‘Friends of Parks’ groups, may be another example of enhanced health and well-being made possible not only through contact with nature, but through the social connection that arises from working on a common community task in a local natural area. (Healthy nature healthy people: ‘contact with nature’ as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations Cecily Maller, Mardie Townsend, Anita Pryor*, Peter Brown and Lawrence St Leger)
Benefits of contact with nature for migrants include: increased sense of identity and ownership of the country they live in; sense of integration rather than isolation; a reunion with nature (i.e. particularly important for first generation immigrants who have rural backgrounds); the reawakening of a sense of possibility; restoration and a relief from daily struggles; empowerment, skill development ,and the enabling of opportunity to participate in caring for the environment. (Wong, 1997; cited in Rohde and Kendle, 1997).
A neighborhood than incorporates easily accessible green spaces into its design may also improve social cohesion and interaction. As a result, the mental health of individuals may also remain positive due to a decreased chance of depression and feelings of isolation and increased self-esteem. Effective social support networks have been found to restore feelings of personal control and self-esteem by buffering the effects of stress and poor health.
What is needed is a focus on social equity, social investment, and social innovation in health and environment policy (Kickbusch, 1989b). Natural environments are an ideal setting for the integration of environment, society, and health by promoting a socio-ecological approach to human health and well-being based on human contact with nature.
Green spaces, such as community gardens or even the shade of a large tree, encourage social contact by serving as informal meeting places and sites for group and shared activities. Green spaces can serve as a sort of ecotherapy, as marginalized people can find empowerment, respite from stresses, and personal involvement in environmental stewardship. (Project support was provided by the national Urban and Community Forestry program of the USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry. Summary prepared by Kathleen Wolf, Ph.D. and Katrina Flora, December 26, 2010.)
Being in natural environments invokes a sense of ‘oneness’ with nature and the universe, and can lead to transcendental experiences (Rohde and Kendle, 1994).
Psychological response to nature involves feelings of pleasure, sustained attention or interest, ‘relaxed wakefulness’, and diminution of negative emotions, such as anger and anxiety (Rohde and Kendle, 1994).
Early research found that in the act of contemplating nature, the brain is relieved of ‘excess’ circulation (or activity) and nervous system activity is reduced (Yogendra, 1958).
An experience of nature can help strengthen the activities of the right hemisphere of the brain, and restore harmony to the functions of the brain as a whole (Furnass, 1979).
Empirical, theoretical, and anecdotal evidence demonstrates contact with nature positively impacts blood pressure, cholesterol, outlook on life, and stress-reduction (Moore, 1981; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Hartig et al., 1991; Ulrich et al., 1991a; Ulrich et al., 1991b; Kaplan, 1992a; Rohde and Kendle, 1994; Lewis, 1996; Leather et al., 1998; Parsons, et al., 1998).
The experience of nature helps to restore the mind from the mental fatigue of work or studies, contributing to improved work performance and satisfaction.
Beneficial bacterium in soil makes us happier…. a strain of bacterium in soil, Mycobacterium vaccae, has been found to trigger the release of seratonin, which elevates mood and decreases anxiety. This bacterium has also been found to improve cognitive function. (Lowry C.A., et al. (2011). Identification of an immune-responsive mesolimbocortical serotonergic system: potential role in regulation of emotional behavior. Neuroscience 146.2: 756–772)
Directed attention plays an important role in human information processing; its fatigue, in turn, has far-reaching consequences. Attention Restoration Theory provides an analysis of the kinds of experiences that lead to recovery from such fatigue. Natural environments turn out to be particularly rich in the characteristics necessary for restorative experiences. (Kaplan, Stephen (1995). The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology. Volume 15: Issue 3: 169-182.)
Urban nature, when provided as parks and walkways and incorporated into building design, provides calming and inspiring environments and encourages learning, inquisitiveness, and alertness.
There are beneficial effects of gardening-based interventions for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Benefits included significant reduction in symptoms of depression (Son et al., 2004; Stepney and Davis, 2004; Gonzalez et al., 2009, 2010, 2011a, b; Kam and Siu, 2010) and anxiety (Son et al., 2004; Stepney and Davis, 2004; Kam and Siu, 2010; Gonzalez et al., 2011b) and significant increase in attentional capacity (Rappe et al., 2008; Gonzalez et al., 2010) and self-esteem (Son et al., 2004).
Emotional benefits include reduced stress and improved mood (Rappe et al., 2008; Kam and Siu, 2010), social benefits such as the development of a social network and improved social skills (Kam and Siu, 2010; Gonzalez et al., 2011b), vocational benefits such as learning new skills and changing attitudes towards work (Stepney & Davis, 2004; Kam and Siu, 2010).
Quantitative studies have found a significant reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety following gardening-based interventions.
Community gardens, for example, provide opportunities for socializing with and learning from fellow gardeners and residents that may normally be unavailable. This aids community cohesion by dissolving prejudices about race, and economic or educational status (Lewis, 1990; 1996).
Physical Health
The physiological data suggests that natural settings elicit a response that includes a component of the parasympathetic nervous system associated with the restoration of physical energy (Ulrich et al., 1991a).
Children who are familiar with growing their own food tend to eat more fruits and vegetables (Bell & Dyment, 2008), and are more inclined to continue healthy eating habits through adulthood (Morris & Zidenberg- Cherr, 2002).
Community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7 times per day, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times per day) and non-gardeners (3.9 times per day). Moreover, 56% of community gardeners met national recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day, compared with 37% of home gardeners and 25% of non-gardeners. The qualities intrinsic to community gardens make them a unique intervention that can narrow the divide between people and the places where food is grown and increase local opportunities to eat better. (The Influence of Social Involvement, Neighborhood Aesthetics, and Community Garden Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption; Jill S. Litt, PhD, Mah-J. Soobader, PhD, MPH, Mark S. Turbin, MS, James W. Hale, MSS, Michael Buchenau, MLA, and Julie A. Marshall, PhD, MPH)
Physical benefits include improved sleep and physical health (Rappe et al., 2008) and spiritual benefits such as feeling more connected to nature and fascinated by plants (Kam and Siu, 2010; Gonzalez et al., 2011a).
Gardening during childhood exposes children to healthy food, moderate exercise, and positive social interactions and can often lead to a lifetime of gardening (Gross & Lane, 2007. Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption. American Journal of Public Health: August 2011, Vol. 101, No. 8, pp. 1466-1473)
Academic, Emotional, and Social Skills:
Students who have school garden programs incorporated into their science curriculum score significantly higher on science achievement tests than students who are taught by strictly traditional classroom methods (Klemmer, Waliczek, & Zajicek, 2005).
Students in a one-year school gardening program increased their overall life skills by 1.5 points compared to a group of students that did not participate in the school gardening program. The gardening program positively influenced two constructs: “working with groups” and “self-understanding.” (Robinson, C.W. & Zajicek, J.M., 2005).
Contact with nature helps children to develop cognitive, emotional, and behavioral connections to their nearby social and biophysical environments. Nature experiences are important for encouraging imagination and creativity, cognitive and intellectual development, and social relationships. (Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations. MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 29-64.)
Both passive and active interactions with plants during childhood are associated with positive adult values about trees. However, the strongest influence came from active gardening, such as picking flowers or planting trees as a child. (Lohr, V.I. & Pearson-Mims, C.H. (2005).
A study of third and fourth graders involved in a school garden and nutrition program found that “the school garden supports student inquiry, connection to the natural world, and engages students in the process of formulating meaningful questions.” (Habib & Doherty, 2007).
Students involved with school gardens generally take pleasure in learning and show positive attitudes towards education (Canaris, 1995; Dirks & Orvis, 2005).
As early as 1909, Montessori had identified several benefits to children’s gardens: enhances moral education, increases appreciation for nature, increases responsibility, develops patience, and increases relationship skills (Montessori, M., 1964, The Montessori Method. Schocken).
Studies in Bexar County, Texas showed that school gardening increased self-esteem, helped students develop a sense of ownership and responsibility, helped foster relationships with family members, and increased parental involvement. (Alexander, J. & D. Hendren, 1998)
Children with learning disabilities had enhanced nonverbal communication skills, developed awareness of the advantages of order, learned how to participate in a cooperative effort, and formed relationships with adults. (Sarver, M. (1985). Agritherapy: Plants as Learning Partners. Academic Therapy, 20(4). 389-396.)
Gardens contribute to communication of knowledge and emotions, while developing skills that will help them be more successful in school. (Miller, D. L., Young Children Develop Important Skills Through Their Gardening Activities at a Midwestern Early Education Program. Applied Environmental Education & Communication 6(1):49-66.)
School gardens improve life skills, including working with groups and self-understanding.
(Robinson, C.W., and J. M. Zajicek. 2005. Growing minds: the effects of a one-year school garden program on six constructs of life skills of elementary school children. HortTechnology15(3):453-457.)
Symptoms of ADD in children can be reduced through activity in green settings, thus “green time” can act as an effective supplement to traditional medicinal and behavioral treatments.
Gardens instill appreciation and respect for nature that lasts into adulthood. (Lohr, V.I. and C.H. Pearson-Mims. 2005).
The school garden serves as a “safe place” for students. Studies show that large numbers of students report that “they feel ‘calm,’ ‘safe,’ ‘happy,’ and ‘relaxed’ in the school garden” (Habib & Doherty, 2007).
Children who work in gardens are more likely to accept people different from themselves (Dyment & Bell, 2006).
Teachers who worked in schools with garden programs had higher workplace morale and increased “general satisfaction with being a teacher at that school.” (Skelly & Bradley, 2000)
68 percent of students shared what they were learning with family and friends unassociated with the school garden program. This has the potential for spreading the benefits to a much larger community. (Habib and Doherty, 2000)
Community
At an annual gardening competition in a public housing area of New York, research found an increase in community cohesion, a reduction in graffiti and violence, and an increase in positive attitudes about themselves and their neighborhood for residents, resulting in personal and neighborhood transformation (Lewis, 1990; Lewis, 1992; Lewis 1996).
Civic volunteering in natural environments, such as through ‘Friends of Parks’ groups, may be another example of enhanced health and well-being made possible not only through contact with nature, but through the social connection that arises from working on a common community task in a local natural area. (Healthy nature healthy people: ‘contact with nature’ as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations Cecily Maller, Mardie Townsend, Anita Pryor*, Peter Brown and Lawrence St Leger)
Benefits of contact with nature for migrants include: increased sense of identity and ownership of the country they live in; sense of integration rather than isolation; a reunion with nature (i.e. particularly important for first generation immigrants who have rural backgrounds); the reawakening of a sense of possibility; restoration and a relief from daily struggles; empowerment, skill development ,and the enabling of opportunity to participate in caring for the environment. (Wong, 1997; cited in Rohde and Kendle, 1997).
A neighborhood than incorporates easily accessible green spaces into its design may also improve social cohesion and interaction. As a result, the mental health of individuals may also remain positive due to a decreased chance of depression and feelings of isolation and increased self-esteem. Effective social support networks have been found to restore feelings of personal control and self-esteem by buffering the effects of stress and poor health.
What is needed is a focus on social equity, social investment, and social innovation in health and environment policy (Kickbusch, 1989b). Natural environments are an ideal setting for the integration of environment, society, and health by promoting a socio-ecological approach to human health and well-being based on human contact with nature.
Green spaces, such as community gardens or even the shade of a large tree, encourage social contact by serving as informal meeting places and sites for group and shared activities. Green spaces can serve as a sort of ecotherapy, as marginalized people can find empowerment, respite from stresses, and personal involvement in environmental stewardship. (Project support was provided by the national Urban and Community Forestry program of the USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry. Summary prepared by Kathleen Wolf, Ph.D. and Katrina Flora, December 26, 2010.)
Being in natural environments invokes a sense of ‘oneness’ with nature and the universe, and can lead to transcendental experiences (Rohde and Kendle, 1994).
The above research articles, data analysis, and quoted facts were taken in large part from:
University of Washington, Department of Urban Forestry and Greening Research: http://depts.washington.edu/hhwb/Thm_Mental.html
Cornell University Dept. of Environmental Horticulture: http://blogs.cornell.edu/garden/grow-your-program/research-that-supports-our-work/highlights-from-journal-articles/
North Carolina State University and Cooperative Extension: http://guilford.ces.ncsu.edu/sgn/benefit/
Healthy nature healthy people: ‘contact with nature’ as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations
Cecily Maller, Mardie Townsend, Anita Pryor*, Peter Brown and Lawrence St Leger
Journal of Environmental Psychology: The Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward an Integrative Framework; Stephen Kaplan, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 1995
Denver Urban Gardens: Benefits of School-Based Community Gardens: http://dug.org/storage/public-documents/Benefits%20of%20School%20Gardens.pdf
University of Washington, Department of Urban Forestry and Greening Research: http://depts.washington.edu/hhwb/Thm_Mental.html
Cornell University Dept. of Environmental Horticulture: http://blogs.cornell.edu/garden/grow-your-program/research-that-supports-our-work/highlights-from-journal-articles/
North Carolina State University and Cooperative Extension: http://guilford.ces.ncsu.edu/sgn/benefit/
Healthy nature healthy people: ‘contact with nature’ as an upstream health promotion intervention for populations
Cecily Maller, Mardie Townsend, Anita Pryor*, Peter Brown and Lawrence St Leger
Journal of Environmental Psychology: The Restorative Benefits of Nature: Toward an Integrative Framework; Stephen Kaplan, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 1995
Denver Urban Gardens: Benefits of School-Based Community Gardens: http://dug.org/storage/public-documents/Benefits%20of%20School%20Gardens.pdf