Participation in Community Gardening: Sowing the Seeds of Well-Being: Participation au jardinage communautaire : pour semer les graines du bien-être.
Melinda J Suto, Shelagh Smith, Natasha Damiano and 1 others
PMID 33761777WHAT IT FOUND
People living with mental health issues in a community gardening program at supported housing and a resource center described feeling safer, more confident, and more connected.
They valued choice, facilitator-led and peer learning, hands-on gardening, staff and volunteers, and shared produce.
Key findings
01Four themes emerged: structured welcoming places, positive feelings through doing, a sense of belonging, and connection to living things and learning about gardening.
02Participants linked doing in the garden to feeling more confident, trusting their ability to learn, and feeling better about themselves, with joy, happiness, pride, and relaxation described.
03Belonging grew through roles and mutual support, and some participants said others counted on them.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Qualitative interviews and observations describe participants' experiences; they cannot show whether community gardening caused changes in well-being. The program combined many elements, including facilitated education, social interaction, peer and facilitator learning, hands-on gardening, staff and volunteer support, participant choice, and shared produce, so the contribution of any single element cannot be separated. Only 23 people signed consent, and more than 40 other gardeners did not, so the experiences of non-consenting gardeners are not represented. The community-driven feature was difficult to enact because of inequities in research skills, funding access, health issues, and resources. The principal investigator and the chief executive of a mental health organization initiated the research rather than service users. Only one participant contributed significantly to other research processes beyond the project advisory group. Mapping activities and the quality-of-life questionnaire were incomplete, partly because of researchers' time constraints and participants declining. The study took place at two sites with adults living with serious mental illness or addictions, so findings may not apply to other settings or populations.
Declared interests
The work was funded by a grant from the Vancouver Foundation. No other conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the positive themes as proof that community gardening improves well-being. The study was qualitative, and the program combined facilitated education, social interaction, peer and facilitator learning, hands-on gardening, staff and volunteer support, participant choice, and shared produce, so the contribution of any single element cannot be separated.