Gardening the best medicine

Gardening the best medicine

Gardening is claimed to benefit both the elderly and disabled

Older and disabled people in Berkshire are helping with groundbreaking research to prove the therapeutic benefits of gardening.

Green-fingered enthusiasts gardening at the Trunkwell Gardening Project near Beech Hill in Reading have been signed up to help with the charity study.

Local organisation Thrive hopes the evidence of the people at the project will convince doctors to prescribe gardening as therapy.

It is using £300,000 of Lottery funding awarded earlier this year to back the research, being carried out with the help of Loughborough University.

And gardeners at Trunkwell will be given the chance to add their experiences into a database currently being put together.

Anecdotal evidence

Thrive, formerly known as the Society for Horticultural Therapy, was formed in 1978 to enable disadvantaged people to enjoy the health benefits of being outdoors.

Tim Spurgeon, Thrive's head of advisory services, is convinced the gardening project can increase self-esteem, improve basic social and physical skills and lead to qualifications and employment.

Clients are referred to the charity by social services departments and an increasing number of GPs are recognising the benefits of horticulture as a therapy.

But the medical community as a whole still needs convincing.

Mr Spurgeon said: "There's an awful amount of anecdotal evidence but little actual grounded evidence."

The research team has just published a 60-page review of literature relating to horticultural therapy.