In Scotland you can start gardening for your health with no referral at all, and four local Green Health Partnerships have worked on referral pathways from health services into nature-based activity, gardening included. NHS inform recommends it directly: being active makes the brain release "feel-good hormones" that boost energy and improve mood, and its suggestions include doing some gardening, finding a community garden, working on indoor plants or setting up a balcony garden.
Why gardening fits
Gardening is physical activity at a pace you control, it happens outdoors, and it holds attention on a narrow, repetitive task such as weeding a bed, pricking outMoving individual seedlings from the crowded tray they germinated in into their own space, once they have their first true leaves. Full definition → seedlings or watering a row. NHS inform also says activities done with other people can reduce loneliness, which is where a community garden helps.
From general advice to a formal referral
Scotland also has something more structured than a leaflet suggestion. "Green social prescribing" covers any referral into a nature-based activity, and "green health prescribing" is the label NatureScot and its Scottish partners more often use. Gardening can be one of the activities offered, alongside walking groups, green gyms and conservation volunteering, but how much gardening features depends on what is running locally.
NatureScot (formerly Scottish Natural Heritage) coordinates this through Our Natural Health Service, commissioned in 2015 by Ministers for both Health and Environment, following the NHS Greenspace Demonstration Project of 2012. It works with Scottish Forestry, Public Health Scotland (formerly NHS Health Scotland) and partners across the environment, transport, sport, education and health sectors, and aims for nature-based health approaches to be routinely used by health and social care, with nature-based activities such as health walks, green gyms and community growing aimed at the general population.
Green Health Partnerships
Four pilot Green Health Partnerships were established in 2018. They are led locally by health boards and local authorities, with dedicated project staff coordinating five kinds of work: improving access to green health information, developing projects, promoting green health activity (active travel, volunteering, community gardening and informal recreation), raising awareness among healthcare staff, and developing referral pathways, including green prescription pathways or green options within existing social prescribing and physical activity pathways.
| Partnership area | Led by | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Dundee | Dundee City Council's Greenspace Team, co-managed with NHS Tayside Public Health | 2018 |
| Highland | Local health board and local authority | 2018 |
| Lanarkshire | Local health board and local authority | 2018 |
| North Ayrshire | Local health board and local authority | 2018 |
The initial pilot ended in 2024, and core funding for the four partnerships ended with it. Each partnership remains active and is working to embed green health in its local health and community planning (NatureScot). NatureScot has published evaluation reports, including one on the green referral pathways in Dundee, Highland and North Ayrshire.
Beyond the pilot areas
Where no referral route exists, gardening is far more likely to reach someone as everyday wellbeing advice than as a formal prescription. Two Scottish routes fill out the picture. Trellis, the Scottish Therapeutic Gardening Network, is a charity that supports over 520 groups running therapeutic gardening in hospitals, care settings, schools, prisons and community locations, with an average of 27 people at each, and helps more than 14,000 people a week. It keeps a directory and map of gardening groups and a guide to setting one up.
For a plot rather than a programme, the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 requires each local authority to keep a list of people who request an allotment and to take reasonable steps to provide plots. See getting an allotment.
Getting involved
Whether or not a referral route exists locally, there are several ways in, and none needs a diagnosis:
- Ask your GP practice whether it has a community link worker: a generalist worker based in or aligned to a practice who helps patients find local services and activities.
- Ask at your GP practice whether it has a link worker (a Community Links Practitioner), or mention it to a health visitor. Referral usually comes this way, not from a prescription pad, and either may be able to point you to a local project. None of these routes needs a diagnosis, or for you to live in a pilot area.
- Gardening is not a treatment, and none of these schemes claims it resolves a specific condition: they offer a way into growing alongside other support.
- If you live in Dundee, Highland, Lanarkshire or North Ayrshire, ask the local council's greenspace team or Green Health Partnership about green health projects.
- Search Trellis's directory for a therapeutic gardening group nearby.
- Follow NHS inform's advice: find a community garden, or grow on a balcony.
Common questions
Do GPs in Scotland prescribe gardening?
Not usually directly. Where a green referral pathway exists, it is one of the ways a Green Health Partnership connects health services to nature-based activity, and community gardening is one of the activities the partnerships promote. There is no national, standalone gardening prescription scheme covering all of Scotland.
Do I need a referral to start gardening for my mental health?
No. NHS inform recommends gardening as a wellbeing activity without any referral, and Trellis lists therapeutic gardening groups you can contact directly. A referral only matters if you want the support that comes with a Green Health Partnership pathway.
What is a Green Health Partnership?
A local, cross-sector partnership led by a health board and local authority that makes more use of local green space as a health resource. NatureScot's Our Natural Health Service programme set up four in 2018.
Which parts of Scotland have one?
Dundee, Highland, Lanarkshire and North Ayrshire. The initial pilot and core funding ended in 2024, and each partnership remains active, working to embed green health in local health and community planning (NatureScot).
What is the difference between Trellis and a Green Health Partnership?
Trellis is a Scottish charity that supports therapeutic gardening groups in hospitals, care settings, schools, prisons and community locations. A Green Health Partnership is a local health board and council collaboration. You can join a Trellis group without any referral.
Sources
Show the 7 sources
- NHS inform: Being active for your mental wellbeing: Being active releasing hormones that boost energy and improve mood ("feel-good hormones"), activities with other people reducing loneliness, and the suggestion to do some gardening, find a community garden, work on indoor plants or set up a balcony garden
- NatureScot: Our Natural Health Service: The 2015 commission by Ministers for Health and Environment, the 2012 NHS Greenspace Demonstration Project, nature-based health promotion such as health walks, green gyms and community growing, and the four 2018 partnerships remaining active after core funding ended in 2024
- NatureScot: Green Health Partnerships: Four pilot partnerships established in 2018, led by health boards and local authorities, the pilot ending in 2024, and the published evaluation reports
- Green Health (Dundee Green Health Partnership): About: Our Natural Health Service partners, the five types of partnership activity including referral pathways and promoting community gardening, and Dundee's coordinator sitting in the Greenspace Team and co-managed by NHS Tayside Public Health
- Trellis (Scottish Therapeutic Gardening Network): About Us: Over 520 groups, an average of 27 people at each, more than 14,000 people helped every week, and the directory of therapeutic gardening groups
- Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland: About the Community Links Worker Programme: Community link workers as generalist practitioners based in or aligned to a GP practice who help patients navigate wider services
- legislation.gov.uk: Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, Part 9: Each local authority's duty to maintain a list of people requesting an allotment and to take reasonable steps to provide plots, and the duty to prepare a food-growing strategy