Why Garden when you’re older?

A research team lead by Corley share that “Gardening in later life was associated with greater gain in cognitive change from age 11 to 79. . . . Higher gardening frequency was associated with better cognitive functioning at age 79. . . . Associations were independent of physical activity, SES, and health. . . . Gardening was not related to subsequent cognitive decline from age 79 to 90. . . . Higher frequency of gardening was significantly associated with greater lifetime cognitive gain from age 11 to 79 . . . higher general cognitive ability (g) level at age 79 . . . these findings suggest that engaging in gardening activities may contribute modestly to healthy cognitive functioning up to the eighth decade of life. Although physical activity was higher in gardeners, it did not explain the gardening and cognitive function relationship.”
Janie Corley, Alison Pattie, Ian Deary, and Simon Cox. “Gardening and Cognitive Ageing: Longitudinal Findings from the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1921.” Journal of Environmental Psychology, in press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102361