Gardening is good for you.Yes, its official! Go potting and help your wellness.Gardening could soon be prescribed by your doctor if you are feeling depressed and under the weather.
Potting plants rather than popping pills may soon be the order of the day to deal with depression and related illnesses, with consequential health benefits to the patient ,and significant financial benefit to the UK National Health Service budget.
Sir Richard Thompson, President of the Royal College of Physicians, and a long time advocate of gardening as an important alternative therapeutic remedy for depression,has recently confirmed he is strongly in favour of gardening courses being used as an alternative to medicines in many cases. This was said by him recently in the context of greater choice likely to be made available under health reforms going through the UK Parliament.
Whether or not the NHS through the GPs support this development, the message from many quarters – Alan Titchmarsh is reported very keen on this-is : gardening is good for you , and it is free! You can also catch a news report from last year on gardening courses to help beat depression from the Daily Mirror.