`Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.’
Personally, I have to agree with these sentiments written by author Henry James, not least after I’ve had a wander around Thrive’s gardens where the colours, fragrance and sheer variety of plants are something to behold. Crucially, gardens offer respite from daily pressures and problems and often provide the impetus to face them again with renewed energy and resolve.
Many others feel the same but while there’s widespread recognition that spending time in nature offers many physical and psychological benefits, how much time is enough?
That’s a question that researchers at the University of Exeter have been examining.
They found that people who spend at least two hours in nature a week are significantly more likely to report good health and higher psychological wellbeing than those who don’t visit nature at all during an average week.
Dr Mat White, of the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the study, said: `It’s well known that getting outdoors in nature can be good for people’s health and wellbeing, but until now we’ve not been able to say how much is enough.
`The majority of nature visits in this research took place within just two miles of home so even visiting local urban greenspaces seems to be a good thing. Two hours a week is hopefully a realistic target for many people, especially given that it can be spread over an entire week to get the benefit.’
You can read more, including a link to the full research paper that was published in Scientific Reports, here:
Now I don’t want to put a damper on summer by talking about autumn prematurely, but I'm going to briefly mention our programme of training courses that will be running from September onwards.
A couple of weeks ago, we launched a new Thrive website and we hope that you will find it a better browsing experience, particularly when it comes to finding and booking a place on our courses.
Using Social and Therapeutic Horticulture with young children, older people with specific needs and people with learning disabilities are some of the subjects being offered.
Isolation and loneliness among older people are being tackled by a new therapeutic gardening project in Berkshire. The Friendly Gardeners Club has been set up with support from Age UK Berkshire and has been going since April. Find out more
Garden puts wellbeing in spotlight
`Beautiful’ `brilliant’ and `amazing’ were just some of the reactions to the Thrive Reflective Mind Garden which impressed judges at the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show.
Garden designer and Thrive Trustee Richard Rogers won a silver gilt medal for his creation, which celebrates the mental health benefits of spending time in a garden.
Research: What motivates people to volunteer with Thrive has been the subject of in-depth research led by Imperial College.
Thrive has 255 people providing voluntary work at its three centres in Birmingham, London and Reading and a sample of them were surveyed via face-to-face interviews and questionnaires.
Thrive is looking for help with international research aiming to help improve the lives of people with learning disabilities.
The MeTURA project will develop resources to support families, educators and activity providers as they engage adults with learning disabilities in gardening and cooking as a way of supporting ongoing learning and independent living. Read more
Creating better dementia gardens
By 2021 it’s predicted that the number of people in the UK diagnosed with dementia will rise to more than one million.
Helping improve the quality of life for those living with dementia in care settings is the target of Living Through Landscapes, a project between Thrive, Learning Through Landscapes, Groundwork, Age UK and the University of Kent.
*Thrive is registered in the UK as The Society of Horticultural Therapy. Thrive is a registered charity number 277570 and a limited company, number 1415700.
