The research on Mycobacterium vaccae is fascinating and still developing — no one should skip therapy or medication because they turned a compost pile. But you don't need a finished clinical trial to justify what gardeners have known forever. Handling living soil, in daylight, with purpose, on a plot you tend regularly, is good for you.

There is a real gap between knowing that soil is good for you and actually keeping a garden alive in Georgia red clay through a Zone 8a August. That gap is where people quit. And quitting the project you hoped would make you feel better tends to leave you feeling worse than when you started. This is the practical, unglamorous, deeply underrated reason to hire an Atlanta gardening coach: not because you cannot learn to garden, but because failing at the thing you took up for your mental health defeats the entire purpose.