Handling the soil, planting seeds or seedlings, watering flowers, pruning branches, harvesting what you planted literally speaking. And in the end, a sense of duty fulfilled and peace and calm when seeing that the green around you has a bit of your work embedded in it. The therapeutic function of gardening does not need to be expressed in words for those who love taking care of the garden and the vegetable patch, but there is indeed an almost medicinal relationship between nature and the care for it through gardening. This connection between gardening and therapy exists and is centuries old.
A line of psychiatric treatment based on cognition called horticultural therapy has been used since the 19th century – legend has it that the painter 
Vincent van Gogh, when he decided to voluntarily intern himself in a sanatorium in France, spent his free time contemplating the flora of that region of Provence to admire the forests and gardens. This observation gave rise to a frenzy of paintings that became references of Impressionism, such as the famous Starry Night.
The principles of horticultural therapy (adaptation of the anglicism Garden Therapy) involve the practice of gardening, making the patient “get their hands dirty” and occupy their mind with an activity that brings practical results that can be contemplated. Before the advent of psychiatry as a science, gardening therapy made psychiatric patients interact with the environment surrounding them and later contemplate the results of their actions.
Away from the medicinal scope of horticultural therapy, gardening as therapy can be applied in the increasingly excruciating daily life of those living in urban centers. The concrete of apartments and houses without backyards has led many to use creativity to implement vegetable gardens, gardens, and even orchards in the once inhospitable concrete jungle. A 
quite famous example among gardening lovers is the orchard that the columnist Rubem Braga (1913-1990) maintained on his rooftop in Ipanema, with jabuticaba (Plinia truncifloria), guava (Psidium guajava), and mango (Mangifera indica), among other species.
Gardening has the ability to give the person who practices it a glimpse of the role of human beings and other living beings on the planet, even if unconsciously. The relationships with the basic elements of life (air, water, earth), the interaction and integration between them, a notion of mortality that does not shock us but reminds us of our humble role in the Universe, the beauty of the ensemble of flowers, fruits, vegetables, greens, and other plants, and the possibility of hearing the song of birds that will seek the food and comfort of what has been planted with their own hands. There is nothing more therapeutic than the simple gestures made with rakes and soil.
Source: www.jardinagemepaisagismo.com