Gardening therapy helps children grow

Most teenage boys would balk at the idea of planting daffodils and watering flowerbeds. But for 16-year-old Angus Boyd-Smith, gardening isn’t just a hobby – it has changed his life. Angus has Down’s syndrome. Six months ago, he started attending weekly horticultural therapy sessions, run near his home in Finchampstead in Berkshire by the gardening charity Thrive. He spends hours digging, watering and tending to flowers, fruit and vegetables that he has planted. “Before the therapy, Angus struggled to concentrate in class; there were some days he didn’t want to go to school,” says his mother Kim. “Now he can’t wait. He is happy, enthusiastic, and has something to focus on. We can see Angus working in a garden centre or an allotment in years to come. This has given him a future.” Research shows that horticultural therapy improves mental and physical well-being. The treatment, first used in ancient Egypt and by Buddhist monks, has been offered to war veterans with mental health problems. Recently, an NHS-funded horticultural therapy unit for patients with head injuries and dementia was set up in Cumbria, and some doctors prescribe gardening to relieve anxiety and depression. Its benefits are now being extended to young people with conditions such as autism and Down’s syndrome. Angus is one of hundreds of children in Britain with special needs whose lives are being transformed by the therapy. It combines being outdoors with the opportunity for them to acquire a range of vital skills – from learning how to interact with a group, to taking responsibility for living creatures. The children’s confidence and self-awareness grow and they develop a sense of purpose outside school. Recent research by the Royal Horticultural Society found that 84 per cent of people in this age group responded positively to being outdoors. “For years, you were told not to take children with special needs outdoors – that was for hippies,” says Natasha Etherington, a horticultural therapist based in Canada, and the author of a new book on gardening for children with autism and special educational needs. “Now opinions are changing. Classrooms can be a sensory onslaught for these young people, but gardens are the opposite.”