Growing vegetables an "uplifting" experience

16:55 8th June 2011

Growing vegetables in an outside space can be a fantastic emotional experience that can be rewarding and go a long way to lightening people's mood, an expert has suggested.

Speaking after it was revealed adults suffering from depression, anxiety or low moods can now ask their GP to refer them to a nursery for the practical and theory lessons from an expert gardener as part of a new NHS scheme, editor of Amateur Gardening magazine Tim Rumball said working in an outside space can be "uplifting".

Being involved in the "act of creation", by growing a vegetable from a tiny seed, allows people to watch as one of "nature's billion marvels" unfolds before their eyes.

"The gardener can imagine that he or she has some hand in this and, indeed, to most people who garden it feels like it," he added.

Intervening in something so fundamental to life on earth could be the reason why horticulture is so "exciting and rewarding", the expert concluded.