Gardens can play a key role in healing and wellness. For the blind, interaction with a nature garden includes the smell and feel to experience flowers, herbs and other plants. For patients that have suffered emotional breakdowns, some doctors that treat the illness include gardening therapy along with medication, psychological counseling and group therapy.

Gardening as therapy may have started with the ancient Egyptians. Egyptian physicians recommended mentally troubled patients to take long walks in a garden. According to the writings of St. Bernard, monks during the Middle Ages built and planted enclosed monastery courtyards to "solace the infirmities of the brethren."

Horticultural therapy was first recognized during World War II when hospitals encouraged veterans to plant and tend fruit trees and vegetables as a form of occupational therapy. Physical therapy patients may substitute gardening activities for conventional exercises. For an Alzheimer's patient, a garden full of flowers can mean a therapeutic experience. The scent of a fragrant flower can bring back lost memories of walking in a beautiful park during the beginning of spring, working in a well-tended garden or hiking in a pine-covered forest.

According to Patrick Mooney, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, studies over the past 25 years supports the case that people are restored by frequent contact with the natural environment. In one U.S. study of surgery patients, people who looked out at grass and trees, as opposed to asphalt and brick recovered more quickly and needed fewer painkilling drugs. Prison inmates who took part in a horticultural therapy program at the San Francisco city jail in 1994 showed lower rates of depression and less hostility. In 1992, after a special garden was installed in a Vancouver residence for Alzheimer patients, violent incidents decreased 19 per cent over a two-year period. At three comparable residences with no outdoor space, violence increased 681 per cent.

Gardening can also provide a vigorous aerobic workout. Mowing the lawn, raking up leaves, trimming bushes and hedges with manual shears, cultivating the soil and potting plants provide a good workout. Simply looking out at your developing garden can improve your psychological outlook.