The Cut Flower Podcast

The Healing Power of Gardening

• Roz Chandler • Season 1 • Episode 111

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Text Agony Aunt Roz with your Cutflower Questions.

Hi, I’m Roz Chandler, and welcome to The Cut Flower Podcast!
Today, I’m sharing why gardening and especially growing your own cut flowers, can have a transformative impact on your mental and physical health. Having experienced this firsthand, I’m thrilled to guide you through the science, benefits, and ways to begin your journey.

Episode Summary
Gardening is more than just a hobby, it’s a way to boost mental clarity, reduce stress, and improve physical health. In this episode, I dive into:

  • The scientific research behind gardening’s effects on mental health.
  • My personal story of how gardening helped me during a challenging health journey.
  • How growing cut flowers connects us to nature and provides a sense of purpose.

Whether you’re a seasoned grower or just starting, this episode will inspire you to get your hands in the soil for the betterment of your well-being.

What I Cover in This Episode:

  1. Mental Health Benefits of Gardening:
    • Stress reduction through decreased cortisol levels.
    • Improved mood thanks to soil microbes like Mycobacterium vaccae.
    • Mindfulness through meditative activities like planting and weeding.
    • A sense of accomplishment watching seeds bloom.
  2. Physical Health Perks:
    • Gentle exercise like digging and weeding strengthens muscles and improves flexibility.
    • Boosted immunity from increased vitamin D levels.
    • Better sleep from physical activity and the calming effects of nature.
  3. Why Cut Flowers Are Special:
    • Immediate mood enhancement through color and fragrance.
    • Connection with nature that reduces isolation and builds routine.
    • Therapy through flower arranging and sensory experiences.
  4. Real Stories and Expert Insights:
    • Interviews with experts like Dr. Menjie Bodhuran, Dr. Alistair Griffiths, and Dr. Richard Claxton on the intersection of gardening and mental health.

Resources to Explore:

  • Join our Cut Flower Kickoff 2025 Facebook Group for free guides, live Q&A sessions, and community support.
  • Masterclasses: Don’t miss our free online sessions on February 6th, 7th, and 10th to deepen your knowledge and skills.

Start your year with the healing power of gardening. Join the Cut Flower Kickoff 2025 Facebook Group for inspiration, resources, and a like-minded community. 


[00:00:00] Roz Chandler: Hello and welcome to the Cut Flower podcast and today we're going to be talking about the healing power of gardening for mental and physical health. Now I've talked a lot about this in my podcasts and at the end of this podcast I'll give you some resources of the other podcasts I've or over the last two years, many podcasts that have focused on mental health and gardening just to give you a place to go and have a look. 

[00:00:23] Roz Chandler: It's an amazing resource. Before we explore, before we dive in to mental health and gardening, I'd love to invite you to join my Facebook group. It's the hub of our flower growing community, and every January we kick off with loads and loads of free resources to help you succeed. Plus, we run three online masterclasses on the 6th, 7th and 10th of February to provide even more help and guidance.

[00:00:50] Roz Chandler: And if you're ready to dive even deeper, our eight month C2VAS course offers everything you need to manage the art of growing and arranging your own flowers. But one of the main reasons you would grow your own flowers is for your own physical and mental health. It's been proven and I'm here today to help with some of those resources.

[00:01:13] Roz Chandler: So our Facebook group, you can find it at facebook. com forward slash groups forward slash the cut flower kickoff 2025. And I will put this link down in the show notes so that you can find it too. But there's growing scientific evidence that gardening and being in nature have profound effects on our well being.

[00:01:37] Roz Chandler: Whether you're tending to a flower patch, sowing seeds on a balcony, or simply enjoying a walk through the garden, these activities can reduce stress, improve physical health, and bring joy to your life. By end of this episode you'll have a deeper understanding of why gardening is so good for you, backed by research and real life examples.

[00:01:58] Roz Chandler: Plus, I'll share how you can get started with growing cupflowers, specifically if you're on mental and physical health. We will have a resource over in the Facebook group called the top 10 tips for growing cupflowers for mental and physical health. And you can find that guide in the Facebook group. So let's dive into the mental health benefits first.

[00:02:20] Roz Chandler: What does gardening make us? Why does it make us feel so good? What's it about? There's lots and lots, you must have seen so much more evidence coming out now, but there are loads and loads of reasons. And the first one is stress reduction. Studies have shown that gardening reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

[00:02:40] Roz Chandler: In one study in the University of Exeter, people who spent at least 120 minutes a week In nature, reported significantly better mental health and well being. Boosting mood. Gardening increases serotonin levels in the brain, thanks to exposure to a soil. So it's proven. Is the bacteria in the soil, Microbacterium varca?

[00:03:05] Roz Chandler: This microbe acts as a natural antidepressant, so go and get those hands in the soil. A study published by PLOS One found that people who regularly gardened were less likely to experience anxiety and depression. The third reason, mindfulness and focus. Gardening involves repetitive, meditative actions like planting, weeding and watering.

[00:03:31] Roz Chandler: These activities help quieten the mind and anchor you to the present moment. It's like anything where you're using your hands is really creative. Same as for flower arranging or sewing or knitting is that you need to concentrate on that in that minute. And the brain doesn't have a space to allow all your worries and anxieties to come in at the same time.

[00:03:52] Roz Chandler: So it's about mindfulness and focus. And of course there's a massive sense of achievement. Watching plants grow from seed to bloom provides a sense of purpose and accomplishment. It's a reminder that small, consistent actions can lead to beautiful results and that we can achieve something. Something can grow and we can have a massive sense of achievement.

[00:04:15] Roz Chandler: Of course, our physical health benefits of gardening. Gardening isn't just good for your mind, it's also great for you physically too. Now, I know this from personal experience, having gone through breast cancer in 2024, in that what I really found was getting outside and being physical whilst I was going through chemo was the best thing I could do.

[00:04:35] Roz Chandler: It allows you to exercise without the gym. Digging, planting and weeding are all moderately that improve strength, flexibility and cardiovascular health. A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that regular gardening can reduce the risk of heart disease by up to 30%.

[00:04:54] Roz Chandler: That's pretty amazing, isn't it, without going to the gym. It boosts your immunity. Time spent outdoors increases your vitamin D levels. Now I know that 90 percent of the people in the UK today have low vitamin D levels. And that came from my GP. Being outside supports a healthy immune system and bone health through enabling vitamin D.

[00:05:16] Roz Chandler: Interacting with the soil exposes you to microbes that may help strengthen your immune system. Of course it can encourage healthy eating. It makes us think about edible flowers or companion plants like herbs and vegetables. You're more likely to incorporate fresh, nutritious food into your diet if you grow it.

[00:05:35] Roz Chandler: And of course it promotes better sleep. The physical effort involved in gardening helps the body, actually tires your body, while calming the effects of nature can help regulate your sleep and your wake cycle. So it's proven that it, you can get loads and loads of exercise, it boosts your immunity, it encourages healthy eating, and promotes better sleep.

[00:05:59] Roz Chandler: And that's all physical, and we've already talked about the mental health that it can actually do. So how growing cupflowers enhances your well being? Growing cupflowers can enhance your well being massively. How does this happen? It can give you ascetic joy. The flowers are proven to enhance mood and reduce stress just by looking at them.

[00:06:22] Roz Chandler: They're beautiful things. They're actually, lots of studies have been done that said there's an immediate effect by and a positive impact by looking at something as beautiful as flowers. And it helps our emotional well being. Colour therapy. Bright colours, like yellow and orange, stimulate happiness.

[00:06:40] Roz Chandler: While soft tones, like lavender, promote calmness. Growing a variety of flowers can cater to different emotional needs. Aromatherapy. Fragrant flowers like sweet peas, roses and lavender can lift your spirits and help with relaxation. That's why we have lavender. Sometimes we have lavender sprays to put on our pillows and sweet peas are a traditional scent and take us back in time.

[00:07:06] Roz Chandler: It creates a connection with nature. Growing flowers is a sense of a connection with the nature and the natural world, grounding us and reducing feelings of isolation and building a routine. The simple, consistent effort of going outside to tend to flowers and growing flowers, watering, deheading and then cutting them gives a routine that can anchor you during stressful times.

[00:07:34] Roz Chandler: Now I'm a great 100 percent believer in growing cut flowers for all the reasons of physical, all the reasons of mental, and all the reasons of well being. And there were so many studies that were done during COVID and the amount of people who took up gardening during that time and the benefits and the joy that they had from growing their own cut flowers.

[00:07:54] Roz Chandler: Like I say, I have interviewed so many people about mental health and gardening on my podcast and I'd love it if you'd go and have a look. So I interviewed Dr. Menjie I never pronounce her name properly, Bodhuran, she's a licensed psychotherapist from Los Angeles. And we talked a lot on our podcast between the connection between mental health, perfectionism, and the healing power of nature and growing.

[00:08:21] Roz Chandler: Because there's one thing for sure, that growing cut flowers, you'll learn that it's okay to fail. And there's no such thing as perfectionist in cut flower growing. And we talked a lot about that. We redefined success By looking at flower growing. It's also about self care and it's also about nature and being kind to yourself.

[00:08:41] Roz Chandler: So I recommend you go and have a look at that one. I did another podcast with Dr. Alistair Griffiths from the RHS is an amazing advocate and has done a lot of studies, proven studies about the benefits of gardening and mental health. I talked to Dr. Richard Claxton, who was a GP, and did a lot of work he did during the times of COVID, about the benefits of mental health and being, and going out and getting into your garden.

[00:09:13] Roz Chandler: Definitely have a look at some of, if you look back at some of the podcasts and just search on the word mental health. You'll see at least 10 or 15 different editions of the podcast that talked about mental health. I cannot stress enough the benefits of just getting out in nature, walking, growing, cutting cut flowers, arranging cut flowers, what it could do for your mental health.

[00:09:37] Roz Chandler: So if you don't do anything more in 2025 but grow some cut flowers for your own mental health, I would highly recommend it. But in the meantime, as I say, do pop over and join our Facebook group, the Cut Flower Kickoff 2025. Come in there, we'll be having lives, we'll be having Q& As, we'll be talking about some of the podcasts we've done, we'll be putting lots of guides and resources for you to have a look at, and hopefully kick off your cut flower journey for 2025.

[00:10:10] Roz Chandler: Take care.