Gardening for Wellbeing with the Dementia Cafe
Seasonal Gardening activities improve wellbeing at Dementia Cafés & Peer Support Groups These meetings, run by The Alzheimer’s Society in Kent and Medway for people living with dementia provide vital support, information and a space to socialise. The meetings include activities to stimulate and engage the attendees through reminiscence, use of different senses, creativity and fun. Since 2016, I have been providing...
Gardens and the environment
Sometimes it seems that you can hardly read or listen to the news without hearing statistics about the environment, from the loss of insect populations, destruction of rain forests to the number of species approaching extinction. But I want you to think about a different statistic and this one is part of the solution not the problem. However, that does...
Why Style matters in the garden
I wrote in a recent blog post about spaces to sit and relax in your garden and July is the ideal time to take a good look round and decide if the layout and planting still suit your likes and lifestyle. If you are considering making changes, whether a bit of replanting, replacing an ageing pergola or a more major...
Bees burrowing into your lawn
I have been asked several times this year about bees apparently swarming over and burrowing into a lawn. These are Mining Bees and I thought I would pass on some fascinating and reassuring facts from a Bumblebee Conservation Trust officer. Mining Bees are a group of Solitary Bees (240+ species of Solitary Bee are native to the UK!). They do not...
A garden for entertaining
From June to September, if we are lucky with the weather, I expect that many people who are not regular gardeners will spend their leisure time out in the garden. Whilst providing outdoor space and a lovely view all year round, it is in summer that the garden as a place for relaxing and entertaining comes into its own. So...