Your Well-Being Garden: How to Make Your Garden Good for You: Science, Design, Practice

Gardens are proven to be good for your well-being. Here's why-and how to optimize your own garden to promote wellness.

This book uniquely explains all the evidence behind why green spaces are good for you, and then shows you how to put that knowledge into practice to optimize your own garden for well-being.

Explore the fascinating science behind how green spaces and gardening-the design, the plants, and the physical activity of gardening-can impact positively on your well-being. Then use this newfound knowledge to evolve your own outdoor space into a mind- and body-nurturing environment. Don't have a garden? The same principles also apply to a small balcony, a large suburban or country garden, or a shared community garden. No matter your at-home capacity for greenery, Your Well-Being Garden will help you to make the most of your plants and maximize wellness.

Colors and scents stimulate our senses, but do you know why, and how you can maximize the impact in your planting? We know that it's good to attract pollinators to the garden, but did you know that certain birdsong calls reduce human stress levels, so it's worth planting to attract those birds too? Or that plants absorb different levels of pollutants, so your well-chosen hedging plants could combat air pollution? For example, one well-chosen, medium-sized shrub can capture 30 diesel vehicles' worth of particulate pollution every year.

The way you design your garden, and the plant choices you make, can impact your psyche: your well-being and stress levels; your immune and cardiovascular systems; and your engagement and contact with nature at a primal level. It can help neutralize pollution from noise, pollens, exhaust fumes, particles, and gases, and help reduce your household energy and water consumption. Research in recent years has shown tangible benefits from the act of gardening and from contact with green spaces: it can counteract obesity, nature deficit disorder, and depression.

Understand the science and how you can use it, and your garden will truly become your paradise.