Green Prescriptions
Dr Richard Claxton takes a light-hearted look at green prescriptions.
Imagine if you came away from your doctor’s surgery with a truly green prescription! More and more people are receiving Green Social Prescriptions through their surgery, and various organisations nationally (listed below) are really pushing this forward. Both patients and prescribers are beginning to understand the health benefits that can be found in nature, or in a garden setting.
Here’s a light-hearted take on what these prescriptions might look like. And remember, whilst real benefit is to be had out there, do be sensible and get appropriate advice, tailored to your needs, from your doctor, practice nurse, or horticultural therapist before embarking on anything too far from what you’re used to.
Ailment: High Blood Pressure
Prescription:
- Garden Exercise: A gentle walk in a garden environment (dosage: 45 minutes daily, but build up to this slowly, until shoulders drop).
- Then (with appropriate supervision) you can move on to tasks such as leaf raking or lawn mowing (dosage: 60 minutes, three times weekly).
- Grow, and then eat your greens and your reds. Increased consumption of nitrate-rich produce (e.g. spinach, beetroot, kale and tomatoes) can help bring down your blood pressure (side effects include a lower cholesterol and a reduced risk of a range of cancers).
Ailment: Osteoporosis (Mild to Moderate)
Prescription:
- Weight-bearing gardening tasks such as carrying watering cans or compost, moving around the garden and working the beds (dosage: daily, 30 minutes). (Side effects include better balance, core strength and stability).
- Boost your Vitamin D: regular exposure to sunlight during gardening (with appropriate sun protection!) (dosage: 20 minutes, three times a week). (Side effects include better mood and energy levels).
- Grow, and then eat, your (calcium-rich) leafy greens.
Ailment: Poor Diet
Prescription:
- Start a vegetable garden (dosage: Daily, 30 minutes (a good limit because, beware, this can be seriously addictive)).
- Learn to identify and forage for edible wild plants (dosage: weekly, guided by expert).
- Learn to cook new meals from scratch using fresh, homegrown produce. (Side effects include a reduced weekly shopping bill).
Ailment: Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain
Prescription:
- Gentle exercise as you move around the garden or allotment (dosage: 20 minutes daily, but build up slowly).
- Modify your gardening techniques to minimise strain on the joints (e.g. working in raised beds or using ergonomically designed tools).
- Hydrotherapy: warm water immersion in a garden setting (e.g. hot tub or warm bath – preferably with a lovely garden view).
Ailment: Loneliness and Isolation
Prescription:
- Volunteer at a community garden and meet new people (dosage: twice weekly, or until meaningful connections are established).
- Community-based food distribution: cultivation and distribution of edible herbs, fruit and veg for your neighbours, or for local food banks.
- Join a local Gardening club, or an online gardening community for connections and positive affirmation.
Ailment: Insomnia
Prescription:
- Get yourself physically tired by a day’s gentle gardening.
- Have an evening stroll in a garden setting (dosage: 30 minutes, 60 minutes before bed).
- Then sit quietly and focus on the natural sounds and smells of the garden.
- Plant chamomile and enjoy its soothing scent before sleep. If chamomile is out of stock, valerian will do very nicely as a substitute (unless a lawn is required).
Ailment: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – Mild to Moderate
Prescription:
- Spend time outside in a green space, letting nature soothe your soul (dosage: daily, 1 hour, or until inner tranquillity is restored).
- Mindful gardening: focused attention during soil manipulation (e.g. weeding, pricking out or potting on).
- Aromatherapy: cultivation and inhalation of lavender or other aromatics.
Also breathe in the terpenes like geosmin – found in wet soil or woodland.
Ailment: Digital Overload
Prescription:
- Nature-based Digital Detox: designated periods of technology abstinence in a green space (dosage: 120 minutes daily).
- Observe the natural world without the distraction of technology: sketch what you see and listen to what you hear.
Ailment: Mild Depression or Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Prescription:
- Phototherapy: 30 minutes of fresh air daily, especially in the morning, to soak up the sun.
- Soil therapy: 30 minutes of gentle weeding, mulching or planting out, to reconnect with the earth and get some light exercise. (Ideally, go gloveless for maximum serotonin boost).
- Socialise with fellow gardeners, sharing stories and laughs to lift your spirits. (dosage: 120 minutes, or until positive affect is observed).
- Take time at the end of each session in the garden to look at the beautiful space that you – and nature – have created, and smile.
Dr Richard Claxton is a GP passionate about gardens and green prescribing. He set up Gardening4Health a charity aimed at working towards the universal provision of Therapeutic Horticulture across the UK and believes that every town should have a therapy garden. In October 2025 he will join the National Garden Scheme as its new Chief Executive.
You can find out more about Horticultural Therapy by clicking the following links:
Or about Green social prescribing:
National Academy for Social Prescribing
This story was originally published in the 2025 Little Yellow Book of Gardens and Health – to read it click here
