Gardening Therapy
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Fallen down the rabbit hole
Just before Christmas my mum went to a mad hatter’s tea party and knowing I like all sorts of fancy dress, presented me with the top hat she’d been given. I thought, gosh, this really sums up my year, as at times it’s felt like I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. I’m sure you’ve noticed the blogs getting less frequent. Well it’s been a bit of a trying eighteen months, with sadness, stress and extreme tiredness. It’s involved losses, health scares, four house moves (not mine) and lots of ongoing building work (definitely mine). Don’t get me wrong, I know all too well that my problems pale into insignificance compared…
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Gardening for your mental health
In this week of mental health awareness, I’d like to shout from the rooftops, that gardening is good for your general health but especially for your mental health. I’m a person that doesn’t find it easy to relax, not my body or my mind, but in the garden I am truly zen. It’s actually quite difficult to describe quite how it makes me feel, but mainly calm, happy and that nothing else really matters. I’m not sure if it’s being outside in the fresh air; or the process of tending living things; or the company of wildlife that a garden brings; or the constant planning and looking forward to what’s…
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Sciatica Makes For A Frustrated Gardener!
I need an apprentice! This has to be the busiest time of the year in the garden. Unfortunately I am still struggling with sciatica. So I can safely say this is the most frustrating spring of my gardening life! There is a reasonably famous garden, blogger Dan Cooper, he calls himself ‘The Frustrated Gardener’. If he hadn’t have already used the name, I’d be pinching it! I’ve been comparing this time in my head to lockdown, stuck at home for weeks on end. However lockdown physically for me was good, beautiful weather, no bad back and all the time in the world to garden! On the other hand mentally it…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 5 Spring 2021
March, April, May 2021 Who’d have thought this time last year, that twelve months on we’d be in a third National lockdown! Admittedly the second was only a mini break, but still! They always say “it’s a good job you don’t know what’s coming” and it’s true! The amazing news however, is how many people in the UK that have already been vaccinated. Something to be truly proud of. So here we are in spring again! Luckily nature and the seasons know nothing of a human pandemic and carry-on regardless. I do think most gardeners would pick spring as their favourite month, I certainly do. All the trees and plants…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 4 Winter 2020/21
December, January, February So here we are in winter, we’re now in a full blown second wave of Covid infection. With the pandemic showing no signs of abating. We’re facing another lockdown and gardening alone isn’t going to get me through this one! I guess I’m finally going to have to tackle that list of indoor jobs. Luckily the first vaccine has been given approval here in the UK, so there is light at the end of the tunnel. We all feel cautiously optimistic for next year. December is probably the quietest gardening month for me. A bit of mulching and tidying on the nicer days. Flicking through the seed…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 3 Autumn 2020
September, October, November Sadly three months after lockdown easing at the beginning of summer, the infection rates are climbing sharply. It’s hard not to fear the worst, that we are sliding headlong into a second wave. We knew the pandemic was far from over and we’d all resigned ourselves to this happening come the winter, but we certainly didn’t expect it so soon. Luckily the garden is still providing me with a refuge from all the bad news. And after such a fabulous weather year, it just carries on giving. The late flowers of the Heleniums, Asters and Rudbeckias, just to mention a few, are still providing lots of colour.…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 2 Summertime
June, July, August As the calendar clicked over into June, lockdown restrictions eased slightly. People in England were allowed to meet outside, up to a maximum of six. And here in Wales we could meet outside with one other household. This marked the point where you could see your friends and family in person again, as long as you stayed in the garden – which was fine with me! 1st June – Life in the pond So I start the summer period in the same place that I started the spring period, by the pond. This time though watching my newts. I’d been desperate for a wildlife pond for years,…
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Gardening through a pandemic – Part 1 Spring
March, April, May. As we progressed through March 2020, coronavirus was becoming more and more alarming. When Italy put their country into lockdown, followed by Spain, panic buying ramped up here. As everyone else clambered for toilet rolls, my biggest concern was, have I got enough compost? I knew that as long as I could garden I could cope with anything! On 23rd March 2020, Britain followed others into a nationwide lockdown. Like so many people I found myself stuck at home. I am not a keyworker and I can’t work from home. So there it was, an unspecified period of time off work, with nowhere to go. 24th March…
