Gardening is the Celebrity Wellness Secret That Everyone Can—and Should—Try

The biggest celebrity wellness secret right now? Vegetable gardening.

Case in point: David Beckham just updated his 88 million followers on his homegrown kale, spring onions, cabbages, and wild flowers: “I can hear my East End mates going, ‘he has changed,” he said on Instagram. Pamela Anderson has also become a woman of the earth, sharing the bounty from her own garden on social media.

Nicole Kidman, who’s famous for her red-carpet glamour, is said to have an organic vegetable garden on her Tennessee farm as well, while Blake Lively called flower arranging “straight-up peace” while working on her new film, It Ends With Us.

Not to mention the intimate family video shared by the Princess of Wales this week, in which she revealed the happy news that she has completed chemotherapy. Captured spending time amongst the trees, walking through fields of wheat and driving her Land Rover in the countryside, Kate Middleton seems to have rediscovered a love of nature while healing from cancer. Her father-in-law, the king, is also said to enjoy foraging while he’s in the Scottish Highlands (and a note for non-royals: a visit to Balmoral’s vegetable and wildflower gardens is the equivalent of heaven on earth).

Whether you’ve got access to a community garden or simply a supermarket-bought basil plant, we humans love—and need—nature. As we move into autumn—a season defined by the harvest—we’re reminded of the great outdoors’ ability to nourish mind, body and soul. Technically known as “biophilia,” humans are innately predisposed to find an affinity with the great outdoors, if only we give ourselves the opportunity. A number of studies have shown that those who interact and connect with nature are healthier and happier than those who don’t.

Alfie Nickerson, founder of Burnt Fen Flowers, now champions British blooms through his biodynamic flower business in Norfolk, but he first began vegetable gardening when he lived in London.