According to a study in The Lancet Planetary Health, participating in gardening activities may be useful for preventing cancer and mental health disorders.
The new study was conducted at CU Boulder and is comprised of the first-ever, randomized, controlled trial of community gardening.
“In this observer-blind, randomized, controlled trial, we recruited individuals who were on Denver Urban Garden waiting lists for community gardens in Denver and Aurora (CO, USA), aged 18 years or older, and had not gardened in the past 2 years,” the authors explained in their report.
What researchers determined: “Community gardening can provide a nature-based solution, accessible to a diverse population including new gardeners, to improve wellbeing and important behavioural risk factors for non-communicable and chronic diseases.”
The research was funded by the American Cancer Society, University of Colorado Cancer Centre, University of Colorado Boulder, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Michigan AgBioResearch Hatch projects.
