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Research shows gardening preserves cognitive function, helping you live well for longer. Now, dementia patients are reaping the benefits with "care farms" prescriptions.

In 2015, Norway became one of the first countries to create a national dementia care plan, which includes government-offered daycare services such as Inn på tunet – translated as "into the yard" – or care farms.

Now, as researchers recognise the vast cognitive benefits of working on the land, more communities are integrating gardening into healthcare – treating all kinds of health needs through socially-prescribed activities in nature, or green prescriptions.

"Nature prescriptions can increase physical activity and social connection while reducing stress, which have multiple positive knock-on effects for blood pressure, blood sugar control and healthy weight, reducing the risk of diseases that can lead to dementia," says Melissa Lem,  a family physician based in Vancouver and researcher at the University of British Columbia, Canada – where she examines the opportunities and barriers  around nature-based prescriptions.

"We all know that more physical activity improves mental and physical health, but gardening supercharges those benefits," she says.