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What is grief gardening?
When you lose someone, the grief will never go away completely — but there are healthy ways to cope. Some people find that gardening as they grieve, known as ‘grief gardening’, can gently relieve some of the emotional and physical symptoms after the loss of a loved one.
Doctors often prescribe outdoor activities to help patients overcome poor mental health. Numerous studies have found significant benefits from spending up to an hour a day in the garden, including decreasing the stress hormone cortisol, reducing blood pressure and calming nerves.
This is because gardening has many therapeutic benefits; it’s a sensory process of creating and healing, packed with colour, texture and fragrance, rain or shine, with fresh air to blow the cobwebs away. Gardens are both active to work and restful to sit in, helping us to relax and let go, taking a break away from our worries to breathe in nature and become temporarily carefree.
How can gardening reduce feelings of grief?
You never completely get over the loss of a loved one, but the most intense, debilitating feelings, will lessen over time as you learn how to cope. When you first lose a loved one, it is hard to contemplate the future — and you may not want to. Gardening provides an activity in which you can gently move forwards and experience the best of the world, as you plant seeds, watch things grow, work with the changing seasons, and see the life and death cycle within the natural world.
Gardening will improve your emotional wellbeing and your physical health — both of which will help you to positively work through your grief. You can choose to garden alone if you feel that you need to take a break from other people, or you can include friends and family in your gardening tasks if you need company or support.
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