‘Cultivating health’: therapeutic landscapes and older people in northern England

Abstract

While gardening is seen, essentially, as a leisure activity it has also been suggested that the cultivation of a garden plot offers a simple way of harnessing the healing power of nature (The therapeutic garden, Bantam Press, London, 2000). One implication of this is that gardens and gardening activity may offer a key site of comfort and a vital opportunity for an individual's emotional, physical and spiritual renewal. Understanding the extent to which this supposition may be grounded in evidence underpins this paper. In particular, we examine how communal gardening activity on allotments might contribute to the maintenance of health and well being amongst older people. Drawing on recently completed research in northern England, we examine firstly the importance of the wider landscape and the domestic garden in the lives of older people. We then turn our attention to gardening activity on allotments. Based on the findings of our study, we illustrate the sense of achievement, satisfaction and aesthetic pleasure that older people can gain from their gardening activity. However, while older people continue to enjoy the pursuit of gardening, the physical shortcomings attached to the aging process means they may increasingly require support to do so. Communal gardening on allotment sites, we maintain, creates inclusionary spaces in which older people benefit from gardening activity in a mutually supportive environment that combats social isolation and contributes to the development of their social networks. By enhancing the quality of life and emotional well being of older people, we maintain that communal gardening sites offer one practical way in which it may be possible to develop a 'therapeutic landscape'.

Special Issue 4 : 2016

“…The landscape is one of the environmental factors that can affect happiness by creating evolutionary kind of feeling (Searns, 1995;Milligan et al, 2004). Hartig et al (2010) focused on the living environment around people that can shape the human mind.…”

Functional foods and urban agriculture: two responses to climate change-related food insecurity

“…The therapeutic value of community gardening as a physical activity has been recognised for creating opportunities for ecological engagement and 'emotional, physical and spiritual renewal' and for contributing to the health and wellbeing of the elderly. 37 Food gardening as a leisure activity is associated with building stronger relationships and social capital at a local level. 38 A study of allotment gardens in Barcelona, Spain, found that, beyond providing a source of food, allotment gardening also makes use of the skills and knowledge brought by retirees from rural areas, such that the community garden was 'a space of physical and psychological well-being and communion with a former rural life that they had to abandon when migrating towards the industrial centres'.…”

Peri-urban agricultural development in Beijing: Varied forms, innovative practices and policy implications

“…African PUA development is mainly focused on food and fuel production, which relates to alleviating hunger and poverty (Ellis & Sumberg, 1998;Lee-Smith, 2010). European PUA emphasizes the ecological values of green spaces and their associated social values such as recreation and therapeutic treatment (City Farmer, 2007;Holland, 2004;Milligan et al, 2004). Although economy and production have been much liberalized after economic reform, agriculture is strongly supported and controlled by the government to a large extent especially in Beijing and most inland cities where municipal governments are highly dominated even in economic development (Yang, Cai, & Ottens, Sliuzas, 2013).…”