GROW CAREERS WINNER: Alex Watt
Towards the end of last year, we ran a competition at the Grow Careers event at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, asking students to pitch ideas for their own article in Scotland Grows magazine. From the many excellent entries received, Alex Watt's pitch stood out and we commend his full piece to you below on a topic about which he is passionate.
More and more, we’re being told that maintaining a healthy and diverse mix of bacteria in and on our bodies is the route to health and well-being. It might be bamboozling to keep up with the endless release of potions, pills, and fermented foods being touted to keep up with modern living but you may be pleased to read that our favourite hobby might just provide us with a fun and healthy means of topping up the beneficial bugs that make up our microbiome (the total mix of microorganisms in the body).
For years, we’ve known that bacteria, yeasts, and viruses are the cause of a lot of our ill-health, after all, coughs and sneezes do spread diseases. So why add more bugs into the mix? Surely cleanliness is king when it comes to the fight against disease? Well, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t and this isn’t a manifesto against handwashing, particularly after scrambling about the borders weeding.
There are a multitude of bugs living on and in our bodies that we simply need to maintain health and well-being.
Research is increasingly showing that having a diverse range of microbes helps the body to adapt to change and ward off harmful invaders (Spragge et al., 2023). This may be through the production of substances that prevent germs from taking hold, or simply by outcompeting them for space and resources (Ahrodia et al., 2022). In this way, our bodies are like a forest: the wider the range of these organisms, the likelier we are to respond better to changes in our environment. How much life can you spot when walking through a monoculture of timber trees, versus the activity and noise of an established, diverse woodland? The same could be said of our bodies.
So how do we increase this mix? You might not have to do very much at all. Research in Finland has suggested that even having a larger number and wider range of shrubs in your back garden affects the diversity of our microbiome (Parajuli et al., 2020). In case you’re enjoying your lunch whilst reading this article, we won’t go into detail as to how they made their findings. Suffice to say, there were significant links between how green and varied our outdoor spaces are and the mixture of beneficial bugs in our bodies.
There are likely to be other factors at play, such as time spent outdoors and the social benefits of gardening. The study showed, however, that as garden shrub number and diversity increased, the abundance of good bacteria generally increased. At the same time, the prevalence of less favourable bugs decreased - as if we need an excuse to add a few more plants to the garden!
As well as the well known physical and well-being benefits of having our hands in the soil, there is now more evidence emerging that time spent pottering outdoors can alter the mixture of bacteria in our bodies. In 2022, a small study compared the gut bacteria of families who engage in gardening to families who don’t regularly garden. They also looked at how this mix changed throughout the year, as seasons pass. The researchers found that the numbers of certain beneficial bacteria were higher in gardening families versus non-gardeners. The numbers of bacteria linked to illness also decreased significantly. This difference was even greater during the peak gardening season (Brown et al., 2022).
The ways in which we garden have also been found to influence how beneficial it can be as an activity. Thankfully, we’re coming to acknowledge the ecological harm that can be caused through the inappropriate use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers. For those who can, moving towards fostering more diversity in the garden can be an effective way to help the natural balance of predators and pests.
Last year, a large UK study was conducted to look at how sustainable horticulture might influence our health. Unsurprisingly, it was found that the more sustainable a gardener’s practice, the more likely they are to see benefits to their health and wellbeing. The scientists suggested a range of ways through which people can benefit, and support of the microbiome was one of them (Sutcliffe et al., 2024).
Most gardeners have known of the benefits of our favourite pastime for a long time. History has some great examples of horticulture being used to help people cope with both mental and physical illnesses. As the research continues, we’re now starting to learn of some other, more subtle advantages to getting out into the garden. Not only can we benefit from the increased physical activity and delicious homegrown produce, we might also be topping up our friendly bacteria.
Maybe, it’s not just us who are tending to the soil. Perhaps our gardens, allotments, and green spaces are tending to us a little more than we’d previously thought.
Alex Watts is a gardening apprentice at Holyrood Palace Gardens, Edinburgh and has a background in public health and nursing.
He is happiest in his back garden with his husband, Rob, and dog, Fergus.