Countless academic studies have stressed the health benefits of gardening for one’s mental and physical health. Gardening is said to reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety, boost dopamine and serotonin levels, and improve one’s self-esteem. In their review of research on gardening-based mental health interventions, researchers from Canterbury Christ Church University emphasised the wide-ranging benefits of gardening ranging from emotional, social, and spiritual to vocational and physical benefits. Given the wide-ranging evidence supporting their efficacy, as well as the more general move towards environmentalism, garden-based mental health interventions are being taken-up in increasing numbers as a way for people to improve their mental, physical, and social wellbeing while developing their green-fingered abilities.

After struggling with depression and anxiety throughout the first and second year of my PhD, which I now manage with medication, I became interested in the reported benefits of indoor gardening for my mental health and wellbeing and decided to invest in a number of new houseplants. I’d successfully kept a rather large peace lily alive for several years, and was fairly confident I could keep some new additions alive, too. Not only do houseplants improve the overall appearance of my flat, they’ve also been a significant mood-booster and have certainly played an important role in improving my wellbeing since my diagnosis of depression and anxiety.

I have very much enjoyed pursuing a hobby that is, unlike the intellectual and emotional demands of a PhD in the Arts and Humanities, embodied and tactile. My interest in houseplants and indoor gardening has forced me to engage with the world in an immediate, direct, and practical way that my PhD does not permit. Houseplants are also generally very forgiving, and taking the time to successfully nurture them day-by-day is very rewarding. Indoor gardening has provided a much-needed sense of purpose and achievement outside of academia, and it requires me to be mindful of my surroundings and my relationship to the environments in which I work and relax – both of which are very important to a holistic approach to self-care and wellbeing.

Throughout the process of doing my PhD, I’ve noticed that doing a PhD has profoundly altered my sense of scale. I spend a lot of my time thinking in terms of the much-coveted (and much critiqued) timeline of the three-year PhD and how my PhD might (or, as I soon realised, might not) fit into this highly condensed timeline which expects me to research, write, teach, collaborate, present, and publish. Oh, and, might I add, the research we do needs to be world-leading in order to grant us access to entry-level jobs when we finally finish the PhD. The pressure to complete the PhD, and all of the extra work that’s implicitly or explicitly expected of us, in three years can feel overwhelming and all-consuming. Indoor gardening, in turn, has offered me an alternative sense of scale rooted in the here-and-now that allows me to feel productive and purposeful in a practical and everyday way. It requires me to slow down, be mindful and attentive, and ground myself in my immediate surroundings. This has been invaluable on the days where life as a postgraduate researcher feels particularly unforgiving and unrelenting.

I do not by any means wish to suggest that indoor gardening is the solution to the problems we encounter as postgraduate researchers, and I don’t wish to trivialise or over-simplify the possible solutions to a myriad of problems within higher education that are both structural and deeply entrenched. Wellbeing initiatives, no matter how enjoyable or effective they may be in an individual sense, are not sufficient. Structural change is essential. Additionally, my affinity for indoor gardening is undoubtedly produced by my status as a long-term member of 'generation rent'. I, like many other PGR students and young professionals, live in rented accommodation without private access to any outdoor space, let alone a garden. Keeping houseplants became a relatively cheap and easy way for me to brighten up my living space and take up a new hobby at a time when I lack flexibility in terms of the housing I have access to, and can reasonably afford, for the duration of my studies. I am weary that the media buzz around the health benefits of the houseplant boom, the phenomenon of “millennial plants," or the emergence of “plantfluencers” obscures the deep-rooted housing crisis facing young people. Note, for instance, a rather sombre headline from The Economist which reads: "Instead of houses, young people have houseplants." Indoor gardening has massively improved my mental health and wellbeing, but it is by no means a solution to the material conditions that produced my depression and anxiety in the first place. Once again, structural change is essential.

And, yet, in the midst of this totalising sense of despair, tending to my houseplants has nevertheless provided countless moments of everyday respite to the intellectual and emotional demands of my PhD. It has become integral to my self-care routine, and it forces me to make time every day to pursue a hobby which brings me great joy. The daily moments of mindfulness, self-reflection, and careful attention involved in gardening, indoor or out, require us to slow down and be mindful of our surroundings and the importance of the embodied, the practical, the everyday. As Ariel Kusby writes:

“In uncertain times, it is normal for our attention to shift to the 'bigger picture'. [...] It is all too easy to neglect self-care, or even see it as selfish, when the world at large seems to be hurting so much– but it is equally vital for us to take care of our bodies and minds. [...] If we can stay in touch with small realities that remind us of who we are and where we came from, we can navigate this contemporary world that often feels overwhelming.”

Plus, she adds, plants “are just plain nice to look at.”

This blog post was written by Briony Hannell, a PhD Researcher and Associate Tutor in PPL whose research focuses on youth, digital feminism, and media fandom. Has this post piqued your interest in plants? The Courage Project's gardening group, PhDiggers, is starting very soon! We have sessions on the 9th, 10th, 16th, and 17th of May - sign up to avoid missing out!