Reduce stress, boost your immune system and revitalise your interest in life by visiting the Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden.
Gardens and natural spaces are well known for providing many emotional and physical benefits.
Hospital patients with views of gardens from their bedsides have been shown to recuperate quicker and require less pain relief than patients who only have walls to stare at. Consequently gardens are now considered essential elements in hospital designs.
Humans are “hard-wired” to find gardens relaxing. Only a relatively tiny proportion of our evolutionary development has occurred during urbanisation. Buildings, hard surfaces, high levels of ambient noise and pollution do not form part of our natural environment. The natural environment is coded in our genes.
This is especially apparent in children who visit the botanic gardens. They relax, become absorbed in their surroundings, show greater emotional self-regulation and play more creatively.
Older children love being given hands-on tasks which involve nurturing, discovery and exploration. Children who struggle in a traditional classroom have been observed to shine in the outdoor learning environment of the botanic garden.
The botanic garden also helps build and strengthen communities by providing an attractive and neutral place for people to develop social networks.
It is a destination in its own right rather than a passage between two places. Consequently, every visitor who enters the botanic garden has something in common with other visitors; they have all come to enjoy the garden. The changing floral displays, the major points of interest and serene beauty provide seeds of conversation to sow on this common ground.
The volunteer group, the Friends of the Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden is an example of how such interactions might develop further. The Friends meet at the garden every Wednesday morning for a little social gardening and a chat.
The natural therapy provided by the Dubbo Regional Botanic Garden is freely available to everyone.