Sylvawood Seeds delivering Health and Wellbeing benefits

The research behind our products and services

Professional expertise and scientific evidence 

Sylvawood Seeds works closely with a range of expert partners , to ensure its seed mixes deliver maximum benefit for both biodiversity, human health and wellbeing. Among its key partners are two academic teams (the Pollinator, and Investing in Nature for Health teams) from the SWEEP Programme (South West Partnership for Environmental and Economic Prosperity) - a joint collaboration between the University of Exeter, University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. 

The SWEEP Pollinator team provides Sylvawood Seeds with expert advice on optimal seed mixes that deliver the best products, for example wildflower mixes for gardens, that also boost biodiversity, attracting plentiful bumblebees, butterflies and birds.

The SWEEP Investing in Nature for Health team worked with Sylvawood Seeds to review a wealth of academic and non-academic literature explicitly connecting environmental interventions with health outcomes, particularly in relation to the planting of wildflower meadows. The key elements of this evidence are highlighted below and are being used to in a variety of ways – to inform strategic decision making at Sylvawood Seeds, the development of new seed mixes, and the advice it offers to customers. 

What does the evidence say?

The sensory characteristics of wildflowers and grasses provide many health and wellbeing benefits for everyone, but the therapeutic properties are particularly beneficial for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, those with mobility impairments, the visually impaired, those affected by dementia such as Alzheimer’s and those suffering from mental health disorders.

Taking part in activities associated with the growth of crops and wildflowers (including seed planting, seedling growth and plant/flower management) enhances health and wellbeing. 

There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the positive links between psychological wellbeing and experiences with wildlife (such as the birds and insects attracted to wildflower meadows).

Increasing amounts of evidence is supporting the positive links between biodiversity and human health and wellbeing, with benefits for physical health, mental health, and psychological wellbeing.

It is likely that the quality of natural spaces may have a greater impact on human health and wellbeing than simple engagement with, or access to, such spaces. Factors such as increasing biodiversity (for example, by planting wildflower meadows) could be included in the design, planning and management of spaces in order to achieve multiple benefits.

Seed mixes you can trust

What is the evidence linking wildflower seeds, wild flowers, pollination and health and wellbeing?   

Studies have shown that people with Alzheimers who participated in horticultural therapy sessions (consisting of selecting seeds, planting seeds, observing seedlings, repotting seedlings, watering, and discussion about plants) maintained their cognitive function throughout a 12 week programme. In contrast, a control group, who did not participate in these activities over the same period, showed reduced cognitive function (D'Andrea et al. (2007). A key factor for such activities delivering mental health benefits is an active engagement with the natural environment.

Lakhani et al. (2019)

Different sensory pleasures (often labelled Outdoor Experiential Therapy) can be derived from wild flowers and are important factors contributing to people’s enjoyment of nature. Such experiences can offer particular physical and mental health benefits to certain groups of people. For example, those with mobility impairments (Zhang et al., 2017) and who are visually impaired, experienced feelings of positivity from pleasant flower scents (Shaw et al., 2015). Older people (Howarth et al., 2020; Wood et al., 2016), and prisoners (van der Linden, 2015, cited in Dasgupta, 2021) have also noted particular benefits. Wild flowers can be used to create therapeutic landscapes(Bates et al., 2020) or healing gardens where activities based around these sensory experiences can be introduced (Hughes et al., 2020; Sidenius et al., 2017), or edible forest gardens which provide greater biodiversity and social cohesion than more typical mown lawns (Stoltz & Schaffer, 2018).

Participants in nature research often ascribe the benefits gained from contact with nature or green space to a specific association with features such as wild flowers (Corazon et al., 2019), suggesting that flowers can provide added health and wellbeing value to a green space.

The Tower Hamlet Food Growing Network provides access to a community seed library, from which users can ‘borrow’ seeds at the start of the growing season and ‘return’ seed from their crops in the autumn. This facility contributed to the success of the Gardens For Life Project, led by the Women’s Environmental Network in 2014/15. This project was designed to help improve residents’ wellbeing by providing increased access to healthier food and creating community cohesion by working together (Pinto, 2017). 

The potential role of local wildflower seed products and services in promoting wellbeing and nature conservation, through growing plants for people and pollinators, has been recognised through a Tevi Challenge Network partnership in Cornwall. Key outcomes from this initiative include a multi-stakeholder approach to tackle the issue of habitat loss derived pollinator decline, and business-to-business mentoring for producing products from wildflowers in Cornwall (Kahane et al., 2020).

Each of our products contain a generous amount, and variety, of seed species. Ideally of local provenance, but appropriately enriched to ensure maximum benefits.

Each of our mixes are designed to deliver maximum benefit – environmental (biodiverse landscapes that attracts wildlife) and social (health and wellbeing).

What evidence is there of the positive links between biodiversity and human health and wellbeing? 

There is a lot of evidence showing positive links between green space and human health. However, a number of studies have started to suggest how natural spaces contribute to enhanced health and wellbeing. One of these research areas focuses on the role of biodiversity (Lovell et al., 2014; Mavoa et al., 2019). 

On a global scale, evidence indicates that biodiversity is critical to the provision of ecosystem goods and services essential to human health and wellbeing. Biodiversity has been shown to be ‘relevant’ to health risk prevention, health promotion, and public health intervention, particularly at a local scale, and following immediate encounters (Maxwell & Lovell, 2017).

·A population-level study in the UK found that more diverse landscape indicators (such as bird species richness) may be more beneficial to health than other areas. (Wheeler et al.’s 2015)

Fuller et al.’s (2007) study of the psychological wellbeing benefits of biodiversity (specifically species diversity) showed that simply providing greenspace is unlikely to yield these benefits, but rather consideration needs to be given to the quality of the space, in regard to species diversity. Increasing plant diversity, particularly in an urban green space, provides ecosystem services, creates opportunities for contact with nature, and enhances psychological well-being. Access to good-quality urban natural environments can also reduce socio-economic inequalities in health (Dasgupta, 2021).

Greater plant diversity can lead to green spaces being more diverse in their structure and function and thereby provide greater capabilities for mitigating the impacts of air pollution (Higgins et al., 2019).

Physical health and biodiversity

Biodiversity and the variety of colour observed throughout the changing seasons contributes to the attractiveness of outdoor spaces and is an important motivator in sustaining physical exercise habits (Barton et al., 2009).

Biodiversity is crucial to our physical health for medicines, medical research, combating infectious diseases, and food production (Berry et al., 2020). Studies suggest that macro-biodiversity (e.g. plants and trees), particularly in urban environments, is associated with environmental microbe diversity and in turn with a healthy human microbiome, known to be linked to a wide range of health outcomes (Dasgupta, 2021).

Mental health and biodiversity 

Even relatively low-key exposure to nature in urban greenspace can generate measurable changes in mental health, particularly in sites of high biodiversity (Buckley & Brough, 2017; Fuller et al., 2007).

For example, in a neighbourhood urban study, Cox et al. (2017) found vegetation cover and afternoon bird abundance were positively associated with lower depression, anxiety, and stress among people that actually encountered these nature metrics. The authors concluded that if efforts were made to ensure minimal levels of neighbourhood vegetation cover (20%), there is potential for an annual national saving of up to £0.5 - £2.6 billion per year for depression and anxiety alone (based on estimated costs of these disorders to the English economy).

Subjective wellbeing and biodiversity

The results of an urban study in Melbourne, Australia, found flora and fauna species richness was positively associated with subjective well-being, but only when modelled without other environmental factors, highlighting a potential relationship between broad species diversity and subjective wellbeing that should be tested in future research (Mavoa et al., 2019).

Social health and biodiversity

Engaging with diverse natures can provide opportunities for ‘shared sociality’, which may be between friends, family, fellow wildlife enthusiasts or professionals. Such experiences can build strength, skill, and confidence to engage with one another and to nature (Bell et al., 2019).

Research has also found that abundance of green space in one’s neighbourhood correlates positively with social ties and with pro-social activities with neighbours (Dasgupta, 2021)

We consult with experts such as the RSPB, wildlife trusts, ecologists and University academics to ensure wildflower mixes are optimally designed to enable local wildlife to thrive.

What evidence is there of the links between wildlife and health and wellbeing?

Evidence is beginning to emerge supporting the link between experiences of wildlife and positive psychological outcomes (Maxwell & Lovell, 2017).

A range of general wellbeing benefits were identified from Bell et al.’s (2018) qualitative study of green space visitors’ wildlife encounters. He concluded that investments in natural spaces which considered mutual environmental and well-being benefits, could create socially inclusive opportunities for well-being experiences whilst also promoting the ecological value of such spaces.

A choice experiment based on the popular activity of feeding garden birds revealed that people were willing to pay £2-£3 more for more nutritional bird seed mixes in order to feed ‘their’ birds and so experience direct engagement with nature i.e. watching birds feed. However, the study evidenced that people feeding birds care for them beyond purely private gain. Creating an environment for feeding birds can help establish a ‘warden like’ role for the feeder towards the birds visiting a garden (Brock et al., 2017).

Looking ahead - new, evidence-based opportunities for Sylvawood Seeds

Sylvawood Seeds are always looking for new ways to increase its range of products and services, especially where new opportunities are based on evidence of need and success. The following are just a few examples of some of the areas it is currently exploring. 

Developing sensory grass seed mixes - that offer particular physical and mental health benefits to certain groups of people, such as those with mobility and visual impairments, possibly as part of the development of therapeutic landscapes or healing gardens.

Education/outreach: supporting seed - based learning activities, which can also provide an opportunity for increasing children’s connection with nature.

Developing seed mixes that restore biodiversity around blue spaces (waterbodies or watercourses) especially in urban areas: this has been found to deliver social benefits by enhancing connectivity to nature, thereby leading to improvements in health and wellbeing. 

Supporting the development of care farms/farm care: supported by the Government’s emerging Environmental Land Management Scheme, an opportunity for creating new partnerships with farmers, looking to diversify their farms with wildflower areas that offer therapeutic programmes and interventions. 

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References

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Bates, V., Hickman, C., Manchester, H. et al. (2020). Beyond landscape's visible realm: Recorded sound, nature, and wellbeing. Health and Place, 61:102271. 

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Kahane, F., St Aubyn, H., Twiston-Davies, G. & Pascucci, S. (2020). Testing business-led solutions to the pollinator decline problem on a regional scale: The Tevi Challenge Network on local seed for plants , pollinators and people. Tevi: University of Exeter.

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