The 2025 Alaskan Tsunami That Measured 1578 Feet Tall
“In nine experiments involving 1,800 participants, researchers found that people consistently underestimated how interesting and enjoyable conversations about boring topics would be.”
As the number of people with dementia crests 1mn in the UK, gardening projects to help reduce stress, improve mood and stave off cognitive decline are blossoming
Murray Withers
We start with meditation. Zak Gratton, project officer at wildlife charity Froglife in Frome, Somerset, encourages us to tune in to our surroundings, feel the ground beneath our feet and smell the air. It sets us up well for Gratton’s Wild Memories session, which involves a walk along the river collecting leaves, fruits and other plants to make into a mandala circular artwork back at a nearby allotment.
His is one of a growing number of gardening projects for people with dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. “It’s all about rejecting the stigmas around dementia, championing what people can achieve rather than lamenting what is being lost,” says Gratton. In recent decades thousands of these “sanctuary spaces” have opened in the UK as charities attempt to meet growing demand for their services. Last year the Alzheimer’s Society estimated there were nearly 1mn diagnosed and undiagnosed people with dementia in the UK. By 2040 that number is expected to rise to 1.4mn.
From wading into and clearing out ponds and tending to sensory gardens, to creating wild flower meadows, these community gardening initiatives reflect a blossoming body of evidence that suggests a good dose of physical activity staves off cognitive decline, helping people to manage their condition.
Carly Wood, a senior lecturer in sport and exercise psychology at Essex university, points to “well-evidenced” benefits of gardening for people with dementia in four key areas: physical, mental, behavioural and social. Lower stress and BMI levels lead to fewer bouts of depression and anxiety, reduced agitation and renewed vigour, Wood says.
The social element is crucial to breaking what Gratton calls a “negative cycle” of staying indoors in isolation. Bruce, a member of the Frome sessions, says: “I feel at ease with the people I’m talking to now. We have a laugh.”
Many dementia gardening projects also include people with other long-term conditions. Sessions are typically for six to eight people, with carers and volunteers boosting the cohort. Some attendees come from a “social prescribing” route — patient referral to community activities to support their health and wellbeing — while others may have seen adverts in their local parks or on social media. In Frome, some regulars come from the care home over the road. The aim is to help them develop confidence and skills that last beyond a project.
Arun Veerappan, 30, was diagnosed with the musculoskeletal condition ankylosing spondylitis, then developed a neurological disorder with similar symptoms to dementia. He joined a therapeutic gardening group run by Thrive at Battersea Park, south London. Here he says he found a “calming space” where cognitive tasks could feel less overwhelming. Helping to cultivate Thrive’s sensory garden and herbal tea beds felt like “huge achievements”.
The sessions have encouraged Veerappan to take part-time roles, including at the Disability Policy Centre, a research organisation and think-tank, and allowed him to interact more comfortably with others. With his parents he has planted a climbing jasmine at their shared home.
Integral to many of these enterprises is the idea of “co-production”: setting up projects that are not top-down, fixed exercises, but which evolve under participants’ direction. In Frome, “everyone has a say in what we do”, says Gratton. At Froglife’s sister projects in south London, project manager Rose Williams says the two-way process is key. “We consult with the groups to co-design the sessions, because we want to celebrate their passions, interests and strengths. For participants, having their own knowledge and skills valued can be a powerful source of self-worth.”
While Williams’ sessions at Streatham and Clapham commons are “demedicalised” to an extent, she argues that “the beauty of wildlife gardening is that so many therapeutic outcomes are met in an organic way”.
An estimated 400 social farms in the UK provide another important source of sanctuary spaces. In 2018, Justin Mazzotta, founder of the Partners in Dementia social enterprise, started leasing land at Beetle Bank Farm near York to run one such project. He recalls feeling disillusioned by the “day centre setting” of local dementia care services, which “were not suited or meaningful for rural people”.
At Beetle Bank, some gravitate to gardening tasks or feeding the animals. The more physically able have helped erect polytunnels, assemble raised beds and build climbing frames, shelves and tables from reclaimed wood.
Mazzotta also believes in co-production and “constantly adapting to meet individual needs”. At Beetle Bank, this extends to attendees advising what grants should be spent on — making them active agents of the service. It’s all part of an “enabling approach” — not everything has to “pass through the staff member”.
With four gardens in Battersea Park and one each in Birmingham and Reading, Thrive follows more closely the principles of social and therapeutic horticulture (STH), which itself draws on occupational therapy. This is an active process, says chief executive Ben Thomas. “Structuring it enables targeted outcomes.”
For the “client gardeners” of its Garden Thyme dementia programme, that structure allows for a “spectrum of different activities: there’s a garden task for everyone”.
At Streatham Common’s Rookery Gardens, where I take part in planting bulbs as others clear out ponds, the camaraderie and sense of fun are palpable. Feeling valued follows on from increased interaction. Members like to feel they have made a “meaningful contribution”, Williams says, adding: “People with dementia can report a loss of purpose and achievement. Our group doesn’t advertise itself as ‘come and take your gardening medicine’, but as ‘we need your help to get things done’.”
Margaret, a Beetle Bank attendee, says: “One minute we might be getting food ready for animals; another minute we’re planting rhubarb. You learn new skills as well as meeting new people and that makes you feel good.”
Building a dementia-friendly green space, with a focus on multisensory benefits, helps the process. Planting familiarly fragrant herbs such as rosemary and lavender can trigger welcome memories, while Thrive’s Garden Thyme sessions often finish with a brew made from ingredients grown in its herbal tea bed. Mazzotta highlights “sensory cues” such as sheep bleating.
He also runs separate services, including cognitive rehabilitation sessions that help people with dementia meet goals they set themselves.
Despite the supportive frameworks, participants can vacillate between enthusiasm and apathy. “Sundowning”, a big risk factor in dementia care, may not often affect projects that are generally held in the middle of the day, but the mood swings it can trigger may alter perceptions about the value of attending. Thomas says projects must balance a range of disability needs with running a living garden.
There are also constant challenges at an organisational level, he adds. All the places cited in this report have multiyear funding from bodies such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund in place, but there is an over-dependence on grants in this non-profit sector. The referral process can eat up resources, as can training and recruitment. At Beetle Bank, leasing fees increased by 50 per cent this year, leading Mazzotta to raise prices for participants.
A lack of knowledge by some GPs and health bodies of social prescribing may also limit referrals. Essex University’s Wood urges: “Get STH fully embedded in systems so it can be accessible to everyone.”
Therapeutic gardening’s wider benefits, such as the reduced burden on the NHS or local authorities’ optimisation of green spaces as community assets, must be properly evaluated, practitioners say. That could lead to accessible gardens in “any space where people are collected,” Gratton says. “[They’ll be] co-managed by the people who use such spaces, leading to wellbeing, climate change and wildlife benefits, and reducing lots of expensive problems.”
For now, project leaders will continue to focus on programming sessions to enhance the wellbeing of people with dementia. “This is about slowing decline and living well with the condition,” says Thomas.
Murray Withers is the FT’s deputy night news editor
