Gardening is a favorite pastime of seniors, working the soil to create beautiful flower beds and lush gardens full of delicious vegetables.

But this yardwork also has hidden benefits for older folks, a new study reveals.

Seniors who garden are less likely to suffer from knee arthritis, researchers recently reported in the journal Clinical Rheumatology.

"Those who gardened were less likely to have X-ray evidence of disease, knee pain or both. That was very reassuring from a knee health perspective," lead researcher Dr. Grace Lo said in a news release.

Lo is an associate professor of immunology, allergy and rheumatology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

For the new study, researchers tracked the knee health of more than 2,600 people with an average age of 64.

Participants were asked about the amount of gardening or yardwork they performed during different times in their lives. Researchers compared these responses to signs of arthritis or knee pain among them.

"Gardening is an activity people are more likely to participate in as they get older, and age is a strong risk factor for osteoarthritis," Lo said. "Because of this, it is important to understand if gardening is harmful or beneficial for knee health so we can know how to advise people who want to participate in this activity."

Results showed that as people got older, they were indeed more likely to garden.

Gardening also is a habit that sticks with a person. Those who picked up gardening between 19-34 were likely to continue it as they aged.

"This is an activity that has longevity to it, and people stick with it once they start," Lo said. "Even better now, we can see that it looks like it’s beneficial from an osteoarthritis perspective."

Researchers found that people who gardened had a 29% lower risk of frequent knee pain and 25% to 29% lower risk of knee arthritis.

"Though this study was not designed to identify why gardening/yardwork might show a beneficial relationship with knee osteoarthritis, there have been other studies that prove gardening/yardwork promotes health in other dimensions," Lo said.

"Gardening has been associated with better anxiety and depressive symptoms, better mood and greater socialization," she said. "And since there have been clinical trials that have shown anti-depressive medications are helpful in reducing pain in osteoarthritis, this could be a possible way that gardening/yardwork is beneficial. Further studies are needed to test if this is a possibility."

However, researchers noted that this was an observational study that could not prove a direct cause-and-effect link between gardening and knee health.

"It will be important if similar findings are seen in other cohorts of patients that have this type of information collected in their participants," Lo said. "This first look is very encouraging, and it looks like gardening is beneficial for knee health."

More information

The Cleveland Clinic has a list of good exercises for knee arthritis.

SOURCE: Baylor College of Medicine, news release, Dec. 12, 2025