John Meacher is under no illusions: broad beans did not help to save his life. The surgeons who performed his triple heart bypass and the NHS staff who nursed him through his long history of cardiac problems did that.

But the upbeat 76-year-old seems as sure of the reasons behind his improved quality of life as he is determined to prevent another heart attack. For that, he thanks a 70ft x 35ft plot of soil in central Southampton. He believes that the weekly session he spends tending the community vegetable patch does more for his health than any conventional rehabilitation.

The pensioner is one of four volunteers behind the Active Hearts Allotment Project, a pilot scheme designed to help cardiac patients to rebuild their strength and confidence after coming out of hospital.

Nourished by the same belief as The Times Christmas Appeal charity, Thrive – that gardening can bring therapeutic relief to those recovering from illness or impairment – it aims to provide a fresher alternative to traditional rehabilitation programmes currently offered to NHS patients.

Every Saturday for the past 18 months the group have met at the allotment that they hire from the council for £32 a year, turning the earth, sowing seeds and sharing their stories of recovery. “Seeing things happen, that’s what does it for me,” Mr Meacher says.

After his first heart attack in 1981, he recalls being given little information on the recovery process. “You were pretty much told to walk to the newsagent, buy a newspaper, then sit in the armchair,” he says. That did not appeal, so he turned to golf. By 1997, unaware that his arteries were becoming dangerously clogged again, even that became too much. The surgeon who later operated on him, inserting three stents into his chest, told the former bricklayer he was a “walking disaster”.

During his rehabilitation, Mr Meacher met Wendy Elliot, an NHS nurse with 30 years’ experience and a “cardiac event recovery facilitator”. Ms Elliot, a member of Thrive’s advisory group, decided to start up the allotment project as part of her new lottery-funded post to increase the uptake of rehab therapy among cardiac patients. The idea was that gardening not only provides ample calorie-burning opportunity, but also improves emotional and psychological wellbeing in a way that conventional gym sessions never can.

“Basically, people were just saying to me during traditional rehab that they would much prefer to be active outdoors,” Ms Elliot, 48, says.

Although a partner of Thrive, the project is funded independently, relying on local volunteers and private donors. Ms Elliot is hoping that the local primary care trust will consider expanding the programme.

She says that Britain struggles to keep up with superior rehabilitation programmes offered in other countries in Europe and Scandinavia. The eight weekly gym sessions, currently offered by local primary care trusts, do not offer enough support, or prompt long-term changes in lifestyle, she says. “The trouble is that, often after the eight weeks, people think, ‘I’m fixed. That’s it’. But it’s not just about fixing the heart. We’re trying to promote lifelong lifestyle change too, so the allotment could be better from that point of view.”

Mr Meacher is planning what he is going to plant come spring. “The broad beans should be poking their little heads up. Then it’s a case of getting in the peppers, and the garlic,” he says, his enthusiasm only slightly dampened by the freezing weather. “It’s very therapeutic. You turn the earth, you sprinkle the seeds, see them grow. Every time I go in there, it’s a bonus. I can’t think of anything better than getting on the wellies, and starting to dig away.”