The physical benefits of gardening include practising dexterity skills and light exercise through weeding, potting, planting, watering, sweeping, and digging. For residents living with dementia, gardening can bring a sense of calm. It’s also an opportunity to get involved in meaningful interactions with others, whether it’s staff or other residents.
Gardening and spending time outdoors is a great sensory activity that is particularly beneficial for those living with dementia. Smelling herbs and flowers, touching the soil, and seeing brightly coloured flowers, not to mention tasting homegrown vegetables, all help people to connect with their surroundings and enjoy moments of calm. Simply being outdoors and feeling the sunshine, rain, and wind on their faces or hearing birdsong are simple pleasures that can be enjoyed with carers or visiting family and friends.
Oaklands residents love to spend time outdoors whether it be getting involved in the garden club and watching the vegetables grow, enjoying the surroundings, listening to birds, seeing the wildlife, or taking part in other activities like the reminiscence interaction ball or listening to funny poems and quizzes. All these activities bring so much joy, happiness, and laughter and can be very uplifting.
