Last week, I shared a video about how gardening over 60 significantly boosts brain health, and your comments showed that many were surprised! This research highlights the strong connection between regular gardening and improved mental health, helping to address common memory concerns. Engaging in these gardening tips also provides effective stress management, which is crucial for overall senior health and cognitive function.🌱
But not all gardening tasks are equal when it comes to your brain – and the ones that matter most are probably not the ones you’d expect.In this follow-up to my gardening and brain health video I’m sharing four specific tasks that research links to stress reduction, dopamine release, and long-term cognitive health. Ranked from good to best – and number one genuinely surprised me.
What I cover:-
Why hand watering puts your brain into a deep resting state
-The science behind why deadheading feels so satisfying
-Why planting is your brain’s best workout in disguise
-Why weeding, of all things, may be the single best thing you do for your brain all week
Whether you garden for the love of it, or you’re looking for real reasons to spend more time outside, this one is worth watching.
New videos every week on small garden design, DIY projects, and practical tips that work in real gardens.
Chapters:
00:00 – 00:37 The link between gardening and brain health revisited
00:37 – 01:46 4th best gardening activity – Hand watering
01:46 – 02:41 3rd best gardening activity – Deadheading
02:41 – 04:01 2nd best gardening activity – Planting
04:01 – 05:15 #1 best gardening activity – Weeding
My very favorite garden pruners for deadheading: https://amzn.to/4sOMbot
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📚 Sources for the research mentioned in this video:
University of Edinburgh — Gardening and Cognitive Ageing (2024): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S02724944240013482. Japanese Cohort Study — 30% lower dementia risk (2024): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11149237/3. Norway Green Care Farms and Dementia (2018): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6067609/4. Soil bacteria and serotonin — University of Colorado (2017): https://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/01/05/study-linking-beneficial-bacteria-mental-health-makes-top-10-list-brain-research5. Fine motor tasks and cognitive health — PMC (2024): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10832076/#therapeuticgardening #gardentherapy #gardeningforhealth #mindfulnessinthegarden #gardeningover60
36 Comments
Which of these four tasks do you find most calming in your garden? For me, it's always been weeding – even though I complain about it every time 😄
Dear Kathy. Thank you for your videos. Lovely to know why I enjoy these activities in the garden. And I love watching your videos – always beautiful, inspirational and calming 🥰 🙏
Walking, handwriting, reading and art are also high in the list for things that exercise your brain.
I thought #1 would be Digging
I just love this. I do everything you mentioned when I need love from inside. I'm 74 and have always loved my yard.
I refer to my gardening time as Garden Therapy".❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I hate weeding but it may just end up being my favorite garden activity.
I have always loved watering my garden, hosing off the patio and sidewalk. I called it my water therapy. Especially when it’s warm enough to go barefoot.
Weeding is gold ❤
I'm surprised harvesting your own crops isn't here. Picking blackberries or tomatoes, or lifting carrots or potatoes. Seeing food you've grown appearing from the ground and taking handfuls of ripe berries from your own bushes is incredibly satisfying.
This is TRUE! In the early 2000’s I worked as a household manager for a family in Danville. The dad – who was a lawyer and very high strung would say to me as he held the hose “I like doing this. I find it very soothing (or meditative? Cant remember exact phrase) But he seemed in a zone when he watered his garden and grass area.
I've got some heavy duty weeding to do today. Thanks for the encouragement!
I’ve always felt weeding was meditative.
Strangely, the most calmingfor me is the rhythm of shoveling wood chips into a wheelbarrow, guiding it, emptying it where needed. And repeat! That hard, physical work and the repetition is deeply satisfying.
My garden quitens my brain
I like the first two hours of the day and the last two in the garden
🌀👍🌀… Thanks for this info… 🌀🙏🌀💛🌀🙂↔️
Weeding, then watching your hens dig through the weeds and pick bits to eat, is very satisfying! Also throwing garden pests in to the hens 😊
Have ptsd / anxiety issues. On days with loss of focus, concentration, feeling overwhelmed, etc weeding has been the go to!! It’s kinda like a reset button. It’s also compatible with physical limitations- can set your own pace (& in this yard a never ending process 🤪).
Therapist of 20 + years retired- irreplaceable. Gardening/ weeding became pertinent in maintaining mental health.
Anyone else remember the old days when you actually knew your neighbors, and they would come over to chat while you were in your yard, and everyone would unconsciously start pulling the little weeds that sometimes come up? I was talking to my neighbor's mother in law the other day. She reached down and pulled up a few little sprouts on the edge of my front flower bed, probably without even thinking. This used to be a thing people did while sitting around talking in the yard. I miss the old days when neighbors knew each other and spoke the same language. Long gone.
I enjoy your videos. They keep things simple.
Just a ln fyi, all the links did not work for me.
They said the page could not be found.
Other than that, I hope you continue to post videos
– FINISH WELL!
I find every aspect of gardening relaxing and very fulfilling, from planning what to plant and starting seeds indoors to loading the car with bags of soil/compost/mulch, to picking the fruits of my labour. I find all this activity very therapeutic and it keeps me in touch with Nature. I’m 65 and on my second year of veggie gardening in my post-grey divorce home. Last year I started my garden right after moving in, just to find out how good the soil and location were and if I was up to the task; I very much enjoyed it and had excellent results. This year I’ve expanded the garden a bit, added a new fence and other details, a flower bed in the perimeter and I am planting more intensively.
I wonder how raking leaves scores? 🤔
I'm almost 78 and gardening is different on my body for sure but it still does wonders for my soul❤since I live with roots and clay I love composting(more than any other aspect of gardening it teaches me patience..than transplanting(saves $$)and the grand finale is watering 😊 or maybe the hot shower and gettin the dirt from under my fingernails 😅
Thank you for sharing your tips and this channel. It's the most peaceful place on utube ❤
Thanks!
1. Weeding – I don’t like doing it but I always feel great after I start because it’s a challenge 😉 I usually start with the obvious eye sores and gradually work on smaller and smaller weeds😆Plus I use some weeds to make compost tea to enrich my favourite plants, or else my compost heap 🤣
2. Planting – It so complicated working out which plants complement with each other and which needs sun/shade 😅
3. Deadheading – I love doing this so I can enjoy a second bloom 😉
4. Watering – I use buckets of water to do weight lifting as well 🤭 it’s the best way to check on the health of each plant 🤞
Thank you so much for explaining the research that was very enlightening and helpful. I definitely feel more alive ,calm and at peace when I’m gardening and connecting with nature, now I know why. Happy gardening🌻
Your voice is so smoothing. I did guess it – weeding is my superpower!
I love it all. That sensory thing of pulling a big, somewhat resistant weed out of a moist ground is a juicy dopamine brain rush! 😄
FASCINATING ❤❤❤❤ TYSM ❤❤❤ I feel yoga was created by gardeners / farmers who needed to stay flexible 😂 New subscriber, you earned it 🫶🏽👩🏽🌾
I will try stop thinking of watering and deadheading as too time consuming. I swear whenever I do either of those I keep thinking of all the other things needing to b fone.
Planting? Hmmmm, I am not a big planner of where I am planting things. I have so much room that I never plan out on paper where I am planting things. I do lots of thinking about it and I enjoy it, but then I enjoy walking out to plant something and just stop and look and somewhat chaos plant.
But weeding? Oh my my my, this girl loves to weed but I have so many rihzome weeds….I struggle that I can't fully rid my gardens of them.
Now how about hanging clothes on the line? Now there is one activity that I don't know what it is about it, but I love hanging clothes on the line to dry. Oh also mowing the lawn!
So many joys!
Can I come and sit in your Garden? 😄 Thank You for this. I've just spent 4 days cleaning up my garden and I probably have 2 more. I lost my son a year ago and i did NOTHING for a year, Glad weeding is so healthy….I have a lot. This is the best I've felt for a year.
My 50 year old son sh*t him self . Ryan loved doing body work even tho he knew the risks. The paint fumes curdled his brain and he was not the kind of person to live in a wheel chair. So I'm conflicted. I didn't want to see him go that way…but I knew he was suffering.
What's a Mother to do? I'm doing better. Garden is looking great. I"m having a Fire Friday night and inviting the neighbors. 😊
WOW!! I watered thousands of plants every weekend at Home Depot.. it was 5 am… dark still & i felt so relaxed & happy. I always sing too, i also dead headed as i watered. Now i have thousands of fabulous seeds. Thanks So Much.🪴👍🏼
Thanks for this info. I always wondered why I got more satisfaction from hand-weeding than any other gardening task. Now I can really feel good about feeling good.
Thanks. Love doing all those things!
Gardening is soft therapy for me. Thanks 🎉
Ill do well- my garden is 99 percent weeds 😄 thank you!