The Mindful Planter
There are many ways in which gardening can be your everyday mindful activity and not just in summer, as my blog from November shows. Contact me if you want to find your own route to Gardening for the Mind. November is not the most exciting month in the garden but I am always cheered to come home to a planter of...
The Gardening by Design website
Welcome to my newly updated website. The website address and colours remain the same, but much else has changed to reflect a focus on Gardening for Wellbeing whether I am advising an individual in their own garden or creating a garden therapy programme for an organisation. The photographs are all new too, many from a photoshoot with Jane Mucklow Photography at...
What is No Dig gardening
October is a month when we see the last of the summer flowers and vegetable harvests and start to think about preparing the garden for next year. This is particularly true of a vegetable plot or allotment where the traditional autumn activity is to dig over the empty ground. Older gardening books will even recommend double digging - which is...
Care Home Management magazine
I was delighted to write an article for the online magazine Care Home Management about bringing gardening activities into care homes and the benefits for residents. In recent years research and pilot projects have shown that time spent out in nature and meaningful nature-based activities bring significant wellbeing benefits to people of all ages. Gardening is the most familiar, accessible and...
Gardening with ornamental grasses
As the midsummer blaze of flowers in our borders starts to fade, a whole group of plants is coming into its own to take us through autumn and winter with colour and texture: the ornamental Grasses. The range of grasses and grass-like plants on offer has increased hugely in recent years and the first step to choosing and using grasses...