Cultivated Therapeutic Landscapes

Pauline Marsh is a health geographer and senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania. Pauline was awarded a PhD in indigenous film theory; however, over the past decade her research has primarily been in therapeutic landscapes, specifically exploring how being in nature improves quality of life and health equities. She is particularly interested in the benefits of gardens and the outdoors for people with cognitive, emotional, and physical health challenges, as well as the impacts that gardeners and gardens have on the health and wellbeing of whole communities and the planet. She utilises methods of participatory action research, story-gathering and filmmaking and publishes in a range of academic journals. As a practitioner-academic, one of her greatest achievements is the co-founding of DIGnity Supported Community Gardening, a unique therapeutic horticulture model that operates in community gardens. Pauline is also a beekeeper and mother of two spectacular adults. She lives in a small beachside community at the bottom of the world. Allison Williams is a Professor at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada. She is a social and health geographer with research interests in carer-employees, quality of life, critical policy/programme evaluation and therapeutic landscapes. Her research focuses on improving workplace practices for supporting employees with adult care responsibilities. Allison has received various awards for her work, having had three five-year Research Chairs funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She currently holds a McMaster University Faculty of Science Research Chair and leads a Partnership Grant made up of more than 50 collaborators which mobilises carer-friendly workplaces. Allison has supervised more than 30 graduate trainees. Allison works with UN-Women across the world, specifically engaging in research on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equity, and Target 5-4: Value unpaid care and promote shared domestic responsibilities. In addition to co-editing the Routledge Geographies of Health Series, Allison has authored five books, 30 book chapters, and more than 180 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her most recent book is entitled Geography, health and sustainability: Gender matters globally (Routledge, 2021). Allison has been Principal Investigator of over 25 research projects and serves on a range of national and international adjudication committees. She is a mother of two beautiful children and cares for her 90-year-old uncle, together with her ageing parents, both of whom are in their 80s.

Introduction

Pauline Marsh and Allison Williams

Part I: Boots on: Scoping the cultivated therapeutic landscape

1. Tending more than gardens: Engaging residents in public landscapes to cultivate urban nature

Sara Barron, Kate Lee, Maddison Miller and Emily Rugel

2. Gardening for good in Ontario, Canada: A case study of Hamilton’s Victory Gardens

Allison Williams

3. Growing health in local food gardens: Case studies of community, school, and home gardens

Sumita Ghosh

4. The cultivated ‘healing garden’: Respite and support or lifestyle change?

Esther Veen and Karolina Doughty

5. Mental health outcomes associated with gardening: A scoping review

Selma Lunde Fjaestad, Jessica L Mackelprang, Takemi Sugiyama and Jonathan Kingsley

Part II: Companion planting: Cultivating human wellbeing

6. Critically exploring public realm greenspace as a therapeutic landscape and the role of Green Social Prescribing

Jessica Thompson, Michelle Howarth, Michael Hardman and Penny Cook

7. Creating a therapeutic garden for people with Huntington’s Disease and other neurological conditions

Josephine Spring

8. Green places in red spaces: Broadening understanding of therapeutic gardening within rural Australia

Amy Baker, Alejandra Aguilar and Ben Sellar

9. Health and wellbeing benefits of therapeutic gardens and gardening activities for older people living in residential aged care settings

Theresa L Scott

Part III: Dig Deep: expanding and enriching the cultivated therapeutic landscape

10. Environmental place-making by the ‘out of place’: Migrants building connections to new landscapes through structured conservation activities

Pauline Marsh, Suzanne Mallick, Dave Kendal and Renae Riviere

11. Eradicating malnutrition through small-scale, diverse and local food production

Bruce French and Anthea Maynard

12. Nurturing Soil-adarities: Growing multispecies justice in therapeutic landscapes

Bethaney Turner

13. Tending the wilds inside: Cultivating healing at the unruly edges of the garden

Alice McSherry and Robin Kearns

14. Conclusion

Horti-cultural geographies: Situating the garden as an assemblage of health and wellbeing

Ronan Foley