Mr Cundall, who lives on the West Tamar and is an ABC radio gardening talkback presenter, said yesterday the therapeutic benefits of working with soil and plants were amazing.

He is now encouraging veterans to take up gardening and take advantage of  free workshops during  veteran health week in October.

Mr Cundall, who served in the infantry during World War II then in the Middle East and Korea, said gardening was a cheap, simple and fun way to relieve post-traumatic stress disorder.

``There is an enormous number of men who came back from war zones who are suffering dreadfully from what they have seen,'' Mr Cundall said.

``Gardening and growing things has the most amazing effects so that I thought I would do something about it.''

He said he helped organise free garden workshops across the North that have run in October each year.

But he is urging veterans to start gardening now and contact him on his Saturday morning gardening show with any problems.

He said a veteran garden had been established at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart.