Plant Mama- Using Gardening to alleviate Mental Health Symptoms

Research has shown that spending time outside is good for our bodies and our minds. I’m sure you’ve experienced these benefits: After feeling stressed out or bored indoors, you step outside and your spirits lift. One great way to spend time outdoors is to garden. 

Gardening directly boosts mental health by reducing cortisol, lowering blood pressure, and increasing serotonin. Through a formal practice known as horticultural therapy or casual backyard hobbies, it provides a sense of routine, sensory grounding, and natural sunlight that stabilizes mood and helps alleviate anxiety and depression.

What is horticultural therapy? Horticultural therapy (HT) is an evidence-based therapeutic method that engages participants in growing and caring for plants as a structured, hands-on way to support mental health. Therapists who specialize in HT are trained in both clinical mental health and plant care.

How Horticultural Therapy Helps Heal the Brain

Many of us love plants and can agree there’s something deeply rewarding about caring for them. Beyond simple pleasures, however, hidden forces hold fascinating and powerful keys to understanding why.

Horticultural Therapy & Neuroplasticity

So much of how we experience the world is hard-wired into our brains via the autonomic nervous system. That’s the part of the nervous system that handles involuntary processes such as heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol production. The latest science seems to indicate that disharmony in this little “corner” of the human nervous system can be a driver of many pathologies, including some conditions we consider mental illnesses.

Why Gardening Treats Mental Illness

• Brain Chemistry: Dirt contains beneficial soil bacteria (Mycobacterium vaccae) that trigger the brain to release serotonin, the same neurotransmitter targeted by many antidepressants.
• Stress Reduction: Working with plants lowers the stress hormone cortisol, moving your nervous system out of “fight or flight” mode.
• Combating Depression: Nurturing a plant provides a sense of purpose and achievement, which is highly effective against the worthlessness and hopelessness often associated with depressive episodes.
• Sensory Grounding: The tactile feeling of soil, the smell of herbs (like lavender and peppermint), and the visual focus required help to ground your mind in the present moment, much like meditation.
• Circadian Rhythm: Outdoor gardening ensures exposure to natural sunlight, which regulates sleep cycles and naturally boosts vitamin D which helps in lifting depressive symptoms.

Bathing in Green

The Japanese expression “shinrin-yoku” can be translated as “forest bathing,” which nicely captures the experience of being immersed in green. A growing body of research has found all kinds of benefits from being in natural landscapes.

These studies have found evidence that being in green, or even being able to look out on a green landscape, is linked with better recovery from surgery, less anxiety and depression, better stress management, and many other positive effects.

The nice thing about a garden is that it can be right out your back door. And while you could just as easily spend time sitting in your yard, you’re much more likely to be outside consistently when the work of a garden requires it.

I currently have six house plants, all different kinds from a money tree, to a snake plant, to two different types of orchids, and an aloe vera plant, that I take care of and I have decided to add a mini cactus to the mix this week. I also plan to plant three different seed pods in pots for the backyard that promote butterflies and bees visiting them, and I am really excited to see these mature and have some visitors (butterflies and bees) in my backyard.

While gardening and taking care of plants is such a positive hobby especially to help alleviate mental health symptoms, I don’t believe true mental illness can be managed by gardening alone, well at least not in my case. I still need medicine, therapy, doctor supervision, and multiple stress reducing hobbies in addition to gardening to manage my Bipolar diagnosis. It does bring me joy to be a “Plant Mama” and we all need joy in our lives.