For cancer patients, small gardens could bring big benefits

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/e-hdy120115.php

Public Release: 1-Dec-2015
How does your garden grow? For cancer patients, small gardens could bring big benefits
Women with breast cancer tend indoor 'garden bowls' in an experimental therapy
ecancermedicalscience

The benefits of health nature-based activities are well-known; many programmes encourage cancer patients to tend gardens to improve psychological health. But nature isn't always accessible, particularly for cancer patients who are frail or disadvantaged. (And it can take a lifetime of gardening experience to find joy in a garden in winter.)

In the latest article in ecancermedicalscience, a team of researchers led by Dr Ceri Phelps of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea, Wales decided to test a simpler, smaller approach - accessible, cheap, and not prone to whims of weather.

To find out whether the benefits of nature could be captured on a small scale, Dr Phelps and colleagues prepared a feasibility study of a simple ecotherapy-based intervention in women affected by breast cancer.

Seven women from an existing breast cancer support group cultivated and customised their own indoor "garden bowls" for three months. They started with a bowl, compost and three starter plants, which they took home and tended daily. The women reported on their feelings and findings in diary entries, collected within the research paper.

"I think it doesn't matter whether you've just been diagnosed or whether it's been ten years down the road - it could be beneficial," one of the patients explained when reflecting on her bowl. "The garden bowl could help you deal with whatever you have left behind."

The women felt that the process of tending the bowl and reflecting upon it led to feelings of positivity, control and meaning.

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