How gardening may be helping people live longer
A study of Blue Zones, where residents live longer than is typical, find that a common trait involves gardens.
Gardening saved Mary Lou Heard’s life.
In the 1970s, Heard, who would later become known as Orange County’s patron saint of cottage gardens, went through a divorce that was so devastating she was hospitalized. On the grounds of the hospital, there
was a small neglected garden. Mary Lou got down on her hands and knees and, for the first time in a long time, she would later write, felt peace.
Now more and more studies are supporting what Mary Lou and many others have known in their hearts all along: Gardening is good for you, and not just in the calorie-burning way.
There is even some anecdotal evidence it might help you live longer.
National Geographic Fellow and best-selling author Dan Buettner is the journalist who first coined the term Blue Zones, which identifies five places on earth where folks are living way longer than average.
Loma Linda, right here in Southern California and home to a large population of Seventh-day Adventists, is one of these Blue Zones. So are the Japanese island chain of Okinawa, the Italian island of Sardinia, the Greek island of Icaria and Nicoya in Costa Rica.
Guess what one of the common threads is in these places? Gardening.
Okinawa is the star of the Blue Zones, with more elders than any other place on the planet. Most importantly, many of those living 100 or more years are disease-free and autonomous, not ailing or bed-bound.
“Gardening is common among Blue Zone centenarians, but especially in Okinawa where almost all of the centenarians had a garden for most of their lives,” says Naomi Imatome-Yun, editor-in-chief of Blue Zones. “In Sardinia and Icaria, foraging for wild greens and herbs is also still a popular activity.”
The benefits are myriad, she says.
“Gardening is a source of daily physical activity with a wide range of motion, a way to get vitamin D from the sun, and helps reduce stress. Being outdoors in nature is also associated with better mental health.”
According to a study published in the journal Neuroscience, there is evidence that a bacterium found in soil actually stimulates serotonin production, acting as a natural anti-depressant. The theory is that just inhaling dirt can calm your nerves, or at least boost your mood.
And Imatome-Yun cites an Australian study that points to other brain benefits
“Researchers following people in their 60s found that those who gardened regularly had more than a 30 percent lower risk of dementia than their non-gardening counterparts,” she says.
But there is a less-obvious benefit, as well.
Gardening can provide what the Japanese call ikigai, or, as loosely translated, reason to live.
“Ikigai is part of the reason older adults in Okinawa are so healthy — people there are gardening well into their 80s and 90s and beyond,” Imatome-Yun says. “It means you work routinely, which … gives you a sense of accomplishment.”
Tennis legend Billie Jean King alluded to this last summer when she visited Crestavilla, a new senior living community in Laguna Niguel. King, famous for fighting for equal pay for women and later gay rights, is now championing purposeful living for seniors.
She has taken a position as the well-being coach for all of Atria’s senior living communities throughout the country, including Crestavilla.
“We want you to live,” King told residents on move-in day. “Not just sit here and waste away.”
To that end, the facility constructed 10 raised beds on the rooftop for residents to grow veggies for themselves, as well as the dining room.
“For an older adult who feels as though they’ve lost their purpose, gardening delivers a sense of meaning and accomplishment. It makes them proud to see that something they created is being used,” says Kristin Cronk, an Engage Life director for the company.
Crestavilla also has a greenhouse where residents can pot flowers, orchids and succulents.
“When our residents use the greenhouse, you can see them physically relax,” says spokeswoman Emile Perkins.
After Mary Lou got out of the hospital, she started Heard’s Country Gardens on a scrappy little out-of-the-way corner in Westminster. And by the time she died in 2002, she had become a beacon for other gardeners, many of whom were also seeking solace in the dirt.
Michelle Boyd was among her loyal customers. The gardens she planted in her Huntington Beach backyard after a breast cancer diagnosis became her salvation and her therapy. The one place she could go to cry, pray and curse the lousy fork in the road, before stepping back inside her house and putting on her game face for her young daughter.
“I honestly don’t know how I could have gone through what I’ve gone through without this garden,” she told me.
On days when she didn’t have the energy to pull a single weed, she would just sit there in her PJ’s to watch seeds sprout and petals unfold.
“The circle of life,” she said. “It gave me a lot of strength.”