Integrating nature engagement and health

How Just 15 Minutes in Nature Can Make You Happier Yes, that includes city-dwellers

Atlanta Turns 7-Acre Vacant Lot into Largest Free Food Forest In the Country Atlanta just turned a former “food desert” into a “food forest” that will provide citizens with free, organic fruits, nuts, veggies, mushrooms and herbs Instead of developing it into townhouses, the City of Atlanta recently voted to transform a vacant, old, overgrown pecan farm into a food f...

Atlanta Turns 7 Acres Of Vacant Land Into The Largest Free Food Forest In The Country Atlanta has a large expanse of land, over seven acres, in fact, that wasnt being used. However, thats all about to change now as Atlantas City Council has just voted in favor of changing all this…

20 Minute Contact with Nature Reduces Stress Hormone Cortisol - Neuroscience News Taking a 'nature pill' of spending twenty minutes a day outdoors can help to lower cortisol levels.

Learning in nature: Washington becomes first in the country to license outdoor preschools Outdoor preschools are becoming more popular nationwide, encouraging kids to spend more time in nature. Washington just became the first state in the country to officially license them.

Planting Billions of Trees Is the 'Best Climate Change Solution Available Today,' Study Finds Planting more than 500 billion trees could remove around 25 percent of existing carbon from the atmosphere, a new study has found.

When Asked to Build a Hospital That Lowers Blood Pressure, They Built a ‘Forest-Like’ Sanctuary When designers were asked to create a hospital that lowered a patient's blood pressure, they used nature as the obvious solution—and it worked.

The power of a garden!

Opinion | Garden of Solace I found a place to help me process decades of hidden grief.

This Boston Hospital Is Feeding Patients Through Its Rooftop Farm Carrie Golden believes the only reason she's diabetes free is because she has access to fresh, locally grown food.

20 minutes in nature a day is your ticket to feeling better Two recent studies show that visiting an urban park for as little as 20 minutes will reduce stress and boost emotional well-being.

The Smell Of The Rain Reduces Stress And 7 Other Benefits Of Walking In The Rain Numerous people enjoy the sound of the pouring rain, many find it romantic and soothing, and others find its smell pleasant for the nerves. Walking in the rain can be a healing experience, as it calms the mind, and releases the suppressed thoughts and emotions. The scent of the rain has a special na...

Infant exposure to livestock may lead to robust immune development Previous research into the connection between the microbiome and immunity has been conducted in mice, and this study showed that pigs are a viable option for further study.

Science Says Silence Is Much More Important To Our Brains Than We Think Silence may allow your brain to rejuvenate leaving you feeling a new freedom. Here's your brain on silence, read on to find out more.

Nature Is Better for Kids Than Expensive Toys Toys designed to help children learn about the world teach them a lot less than a short walk in the woods.

Study: The More Trees We're Surrounded By, The Lower Our Stress Levels Lining city streets with trees reduces physiological symptoms of stress in humans. The thicker the tree cover, the lower the stress levels, study finds. We all know that a walk in nature can help slow the maddening pace of modern life and bring us back into the moment, but a …

Holland covers hundreds of bus stops with plants as gift to honeybees Shelters support biodiversity while also capturing dust to improve air quality and storing rainwater

If you want to feel happier, just spend 20 minutes in nature Two recent studies show that visiting an urban park for as little as 20 minutes will reduce stress and boost emotional well-being.

Cities Should Think About Trees As Public Health Infrastructure Planting trees is an incredibly cheap and simple way to improve the well-being of people in a city. A novel idea: Public health institutions should be financing urban greenery to support well-being and air quality.

Neuroscientists Strongly Recommend Regular Visits to the Beach Visits to the beach psychologically restore us, enabling us to better handle the stress of everyday life, study finds City life stresses us out psychologically and physically, but an occasional retreat to the sea can help us avoid stress-related health problems, researchers say. “Beaches and water...

New Study: Women Live Longer If They Live Surrounded By Nature According to a new study, when women live in nature they live longer. The confirmed hypothesis of a research is that natural environments help reduce the stress and increase physical and social activity, which keeps people healthier. The main purpose of this study was to get insights on the relation...

https://www.tpl.org/10minutewalk .009fkw1v1cjff1210us2ewzx4spsz

10 Minute Walk Everyone deserves a park. And yet more than 100 million Americans do not have a park within a 10-minute walk of home. That's why The Trust for Public Land, in partnership with more than 100 mayors from across the political spectrum, is leading a national campaign to ensure there’s a great park withi...

Forest bathing- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19568835 - if you can't access NCBI try this- http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/17/536676954/forest-bathing-a-retreat-to-nature-can-boost-immunity-and-mood

The physiological effects of Shinrin-yoku (taking in the forest atmosphere or forest bathing): evidence from field experiments in 24 forests across... - PubMed - NCBI Environ Health Prev Med. 2010 Jan;15(1):18-26. doi: 10.1007/s12199-009-0086-9.

Upcoming events in the garden include (dates TBA):

DATE TBD – Tues. in February/March from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Hands-on therapeutic horticulture greenhouse activity with Leah Diehl

DATE TBD – Tues. in April/May from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Hands-on Sustainability Psychology Activity with Ron Chandler

Reminder for January 3rd event in the garden: join us on January 3rd at 5PM in the Wilmot Gardens conference building, corner of Gale Lemerand and Mowry Road. We will hear about illness, healing and adapting to life with ALS.

This page supports and integrated effort to explore ways in which the natural environment interacts with health. It looks at a number of ways of approaching that larger project, including efforts to use garden and horticulture therapy in promoting health. Horticultural therapy is a therapy focused on using garden and plant-based activities to achieve clinical treatment goals. Therapeutic horticulture is less focused and targeted, with the goal being to use work in a garden to foster overall well being. Gardens have long been seen as a place of refuge and health, with the creation of restorative gardens in the Middle Ages, and the recommendation of gardening for health by Benjamin Rush in the late 1700s. Immersion in nature in general also came to be seen as restorative, and the value of work with plants or time in nature was see as valuable in treating or alleviating an ever widening range of conditions. Increasingly, too, research projects are generating data to support the use of nature and active gardening in treatments.

The Wilmot Gardens at The University of Florida http://wilmotgardens.med.ufl.edu/ is developing therapeutic horticulture programs working with individuals with a range of conditions. It also is in the process of introducing students to the process.

Therapeutic horticulture in the news: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/02/17/147050691/can-gardening-help-troubled-minds-heal

Can Gardening Help Troubled Minds Heal? Psychiatrists have long claimed that gardens hold healing powers for mental illness. Now, scientists are exploring a new field called horticultural therapy for everyone from troubled youth to veterans. But just how gardens affect the brain remains mainly a mystery.