The physical and mental benefits of gardening are well documented. And as the Chelsea flower show begins its virtual show this week, a new survey by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) shows that nearly three-quarters of people who have access to a garden, courtyard or balcony, say it has helped their mental health during lockdown. It follows analysis of data from nearly 8,000 people published earlier in May, which found that those who spent time in their garden were significantly more likely to report higher psychological wellbeing than those who did not.
Nowhere has this been more apparent than in a hospital setting during the coronavirus pandemic. Take Albert Ridge, a patient at the Highgate Mental Health Centre, in north London. Most days he can be found either sitting, smelling the herbs and roses or painting in the 200 sq metre-space between two of the centre’s secure wards.
“The garden makes me feel happier and I feel more relaxed out there, says Ridge, 87, who has schizoaffective disorder, and was admitted to a secure ward last month. “It helps a lot with coping with [my anxiety about catching] the virus. If I haven’t been out in the garden, I feel fraught and agitated.”
The award-winning Feel Good Garden was designed by Matt Keightley for Chelsea in 2018 and then transferred to the centre. It was specifically designed to aid wellbeing, with use of ornamental grasses a key feature for their restful form and sound qualities, along with fragrant herbs and flowers throughout the year.
Ridge is not the only patient in the unit’s two 15-bed facilities to feel its benefits. “Caring for the plants and watering them makes me feel like a real person again and reminds me that the outside world exists when I’ve not been able to leave here,” says Fi Andersen, 76, who has anxiety. “It means I’m caring for something, rather than being cared for all the time.”
It has also been important for staff. “Despite lockdown, patients are still able to go outside,” says Olivia Hull, ward manager. “I can’t imagine trying to contain 12 to 14 patients on the ward without outside space.”
The centre is part of Camden and Islington NHS foundation trust. Andrew Kingston, a recovery service manager at the trust who submitted the successful bid to win the Chelsea garden two years ago, is passionate about gardening with people in crisis. “It is a fantastic therapeutic tool at any time,” he says. “In lockdown, the changing sights, sounds and smells of the garden over these two months have given us something tangible to focus on, as spring has turned into summer. Whether it has been watering or weeding, transplanting or pruning, it has given all of us, staff and patients, another way of relating to each other than through the wretched virus and the precautions we have had to take against it.”
Since 2015, 20 NHS hospitals and hospices have received show gardens originally designed for the Chelsea flower show. This year, Tom Massey, who designed the Yeo Valley organic garden for the 2020 show, was keen to support the NHS during this pandemic. Just before lockdown, he installed 300 plants grown for the cancelled flower show at Derriford hospital in Plymouth, after a nurse put a call out on social media asking for plants to brighten up its intensive care unit’s courtyard garden. Staff say the garden has already helped some ventilated Covid-19 patients recover. And last week, he dropped off thousands of plants to five NHS sites in London, including St George’s and Kingston hospitals in south-west London.
“We couldn’t think of a better place than NHS hospitals for the plants to go to,” says Massey. “It is our hope that the plants will brighten up the hospitals’ grounds and gardens, and provide a bit of respite to patients and staff using these spaces in these incredibly difficult times.
“Hospitals have to be very sterile and clinical, and can often be very stressful environments, so having beautiful and calming garden space is so important, to provide a sense of relief and escape.”
St George’s hospital’s head gardener, John Greco, is in charge of 12 ornamental and courtyard gardens, including the First Touch Chelsea garden which transferred there in 2014. Greco says St George’s has managed to keep the gardens open to visitors during lockdown. “They are mostly open air and easy to maintain social distancing in. The internal courtyard gardens are large, with winding paths and lots of fragrance to encourage everyone to slow down, reflect and relax.”
For Dr Jo Ashcroft, a clinical psychologist at St George’s, having so many wonderful garden areas at the hospital means staff and patients can take breaks away from wards. “We know being outdoors can really help our mental health, and this is even more important right now. By simply paying attention to all the plants, flowers, trees and sounds of nature around us, we can feel calmer and more grounded.”
Evidence of the crucial role gardens and green spaces can play in the wellbeing of the nation is so overwhelming that rightwing thinktank the Social Market Foundation this week called for the NHS to be given powers and funding to run parks and create new ones. This follows new figures from the Office for National Statistics, that show one in eight households (12%) in Great Britain has no access to a private or shared garden during the coronavirus lockdown. This rises to more than one in five households (21%) in London, easily the highest percentage of any region or country of Great Britain.
At Kingston hospital, the Momentum garden designed by Massey and installed in 2017 as part of the children’s play area at the hospital, got a boost last week when he dropped off more plants grown for the Chelsea flower show.
“We’ve used the garden more than ever [during coronavirus],” says Jamie Patel, who has worked at the hospital for 33 years as a paediatric nurse. “It gives us a space to escape from the ward. You are in your mask and gowns all the time. In the garden we can take our gowns and masks off and breathe.”
Although lockdown means children and their families haven’t been able to use the garden, as it eases, Patel is looking forward to when they can allow them back in the garden. “The psychological and physical benefits are huge. Before they could play out here. Because we have had to close the playroom and the garden to patients and families, and are segregating everyone, all play activities have to be done at the bedside.”
Back in north London, Albert Ridge is hopeful about the future. “The garden reminds me of home a bit – I have a lovely view of trees from my flat window. I’m looking forward to going back home and picking up my life again.”
Some names have been changed
