Photo: Lane Turner/Globe Staff.
Janis Kreiger tended to a garden on Appledore Island off Portsmouth, N.H., in May 2025.
Most of the retirement communities I have visited give residents an option of doing a little gardening. Even where I live there’s a score of beautiful raised beds — and a long waiting list. Folks grow food they plan to eat and flowers to brighten their apartments, but I’d say the main reason they garden is that they love it.
But as Cheyenne Buckingham explains at the Washington Post (via the Boston Globe), there are numerous side benefits.
” ‘Gardening likely supports cognitive health,’ said Smita Patel, an integrative neurologist and sleep medicine physician at Endeavor Health. ‘Not because it definitively prevents dementia, but because it bundles physical activity, mental engagement, stress reduction and other healthy lifestyle habits into one activity.’
” ‘The research [on this topic] is more compelling than you might expect’ [adds] Jordan Weiss, an assistant professor in the division of precision medicine and the Optimal Aging Institute at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
“One recent study that included nearly 137,000 participants aged 45 years and older found that people who engaged in regular physical activity, including activities such as gardening and yard work, were less likely to report memory problems and limitations in daily functioning connected to cognitive decline. The link appeared to be partly explained by higher physical activity levels and lower rates of depression.
“ ‘Gardening independently touches nearly every lifestyle factor brain-health research has already confirmed matters: physical movement, stress reduction, social connection, sleep quality and sustained mental engagement,’ Weiss said. …
“A separate longitudinal study, which tracked participants from childhood into older adulthood, found that those who reported gardening (anywhere from ‘rarely’ to ‘frequently’) at age 79 had better thinking and memory skills – and showed stronger cognitive performance relative to their childhood baseline – than those who never gardened.
“However, the gardeners didn’t experience slower cognitive decline between ages 79 and 90. The findings suggest that gardening may support cognitive aging from childhood to late adulthood, but it may not protect against conditions such as dementia late in life.
“This points to a broader takeaway: ‘These are large associational studies that do not give us enough evidence to recommend gardening as a specific way to stave off dementia,’ said Anna Nordvig, a neurologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian.
“But that doesn’t mean it can’t help you stay mentally sharp throughout the years. Gardening engages multiple brain systems at once, including movement, sensory processing, automatic functions and higher-level thinking, Nordvig pointed out.
“As some of the experts mentioned, gardening is a complex activity that may support cognition in multiple ways. Here are some of the specific ways it might help.
“Digging, planting and weeding all fall under low-to-moderate-intensity aerobic movement, which helps improve blood flow to the brain and is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline, Patel said. … Exercise also increases levels of BDNF, a growth factor that helps maintain the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for forming new and long-term memories, and one that often shrinks in dementia, said Ashwini Nadkarni, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. …
“ ‘Beyond physical benefits, gardening provides mental stimulation — planning, remembering plant care and problem-solving — which engages memory and executive function, supporting slower cognitive decline over time,’ Patel said.
“It also engages multiple cognitive systems simultaneously, which ‘may help build the brain’s resilience against decline,’ Weiss added.”
More tips about supporting brain health at the Globe, here.
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