We are excited to share our paper, “Promoting planting in front gardens: a systematic approach to intervention development,” published by UCL Open: Environment. With this article, we wish to highlight the numerous benefits of gardening in front gardens and outline some potential intervention recommendations that could encourage this practice. Additionally, we aim to highlight the importance of behavioural science in designing successful interventions.

The Many Benefits of Gardening
Gardening offers a wide array of benefits, making it difficult to list them all! It provides an outlet for physical exercise, ranging from gentle activities, like weeding and watering, to more vigorous ones, like digging. Gardening can also be a fun and rewarding activity for all ages, making it a wonderful intergenerational household bonding experience. For some, gardening is even a spiritual practice, offering a sense of nurturing and connection with nature. Many people report less anxiety, depression and more of a sense of belonging when gardening, contributing to improved mental and emotional health. Beyond individual- and household-level benefits, gardening in front gardens has significant social and community health advantages. Since front gardens are often visible from the street, they enhance the aesthetic appeal of neighbourhoods and encourage positive interactions among neighbours. Gardening also offers economic benefits, which can be especially important during the current cost of living crisis; growing and preserving home-grown food can help reduce grocery costs. Gardening also supports local wildlife, including bees, birds, and other pollinators, promoting biodiversity and balanced ecosystems. Plants in gardens absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, improving air quality and filtering pollutants. Front gardens can also reduce the risk of flooding and help regulate temperatures by providing shade during heatwaves. Gardening is truly a valuable activity for everyone!

The Role of Behavioural Science in Designing Interventions
With this article, we also wanted to raise the profile of behavioural science. Many of today’s health and sustainability challenges are behavioural, so behaviour change needs to be an integral part of their solutions. However, behavioural science is often overlooked. This oversight can lead to interventions based on cursory analyses or "common sense," which may not address the core drivers of a problem or consider potential side effects. We hope that our article demonstrates the value of applying behavioural science in the context of small community health interventions. We document a step-by-step methodology for developing systematic, theory- and evidence-driven interventions. We hope that openly sharing what we did helps others who wish to create effective community health interventions but might not know where to start. By leveraging behavioural science, we can design interventions that are not only more likely to be effective but also equitable and sustainable in the long run.

Why UCLOE?
We chose UCL Open: Environment because the journal champions open science. Open access ensures that our findings and strategies are available to all. We want everyone, regardless of their financial situation or institutional affiliation, to have access to and benefit from this knowledge. We hope our article inspires others to appreciate the value of gardening and the importance of behavioural science in creating more effective behaviour change interventions. Happy gardening!

Promoting planting in front gardens: a systematic approach to intervention development by Ayşe Lisa Allison (UCL Centre for Behaviour Change, UCL, UK), Rachael Frost (Department of Primary Care and Public Health, UCL, UK), Niamh Murtagh (The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL, UK) is published in UCL Open: Environment, volume 6.

Dr Ayşe Lisa Ustaoğlu Allison is a Behavioural Scientist and Research Fellow at the UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub and UCL Centre for Behaviour Change. Her research applies behaviour change tools, principles and frameworks to understand and encourage behaviours promoting health and sustainability. Ayşe is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods researcher with a wide range of interests including circular economy, ‘systems’ thinking, citizen science and community health & wellbeing.

sustainability public health public engagement gardening front gardens biodiversity conservation Behaviour Change Wheel