ABSTRACT
Gardening is one of the most popular leisure activities. In 2004, the psychologist Aric Sigman suggested that regular gardening could cut health care costs, even claiming that gardening could be saving lives. Academic and professional interest in gardens, gardening and horticulture has blossomed. Experts and practitioners in geography, sociology, health, sports sciences, occupational therapies, landscape design and architecture, as well as in the arts and literature, have dominated research on gardens and gardening. The area of psychology that directly addresses human–nature relationships is environmental psychology, and to a lesser extent the related field of ecopsychology. Environmental psychology has a broad remit covering human–nature interaction and the investigation of the interaction between individuals and their natural and built environments. Environmental psychology takes an interactive and collaborative approach, combining ideas from different areas, such as social psychology and health psychology, to understand how aspects of the individual and the environment affect behaviour or emotion.
