We are heading into Winter, now is the time to take a moment to plan how your garden can bring peace and serenity into yours and your family's lives in 2025.
The Royal Horticultural Society offers tips and advice for jobs in your garden in the Winter months. Garden expert Naomi Slade brings inspiration with her winter design tips and gardening jobs to tackle in winter. Access all the latest tips and advice or Winter here.**
Alistair Griffiths, RHS Director of Science and Collections, explains the critical importance of outdoor spaces for our sense of wellbeing. He suggests the reason they are so appealing is because they can offer a myriad of colours, shapes and patterns.
He talks of colours, of how plants with strong colours such as intense reds, oranges and yellows excite emotions. Blues, and greens he says are calming and relaxing. The patterns of flowers, he describes them as fractals, are perceived in ever decreasing or increasing scale that help to take the brain gently 'offline' allowing us time to recalibrate and ease worries into the background. Try it every plant has its own pattern.
There's surely little more calming to human ears than the annual serenade of birds in song. Each day, just before the sun's appearance , birds begin their repertoire.
The Robin, the Blackbird perhaps a Song Thrush. Thrill to the chorus as it grows with others joining in, the Wren, Starling, Chaffinch and Dunnock. The complexities of bird song may not be easy to get to grips with, but why not take the time to learn. The satisfaction to be gained from identifying birds by song (and calls) really can't be over emphasised - it's truly a window into another world. Source - James Duncan Sussex Wildlife Trust.
Keep your eyes closed and allow your senses to take a journey. There is a gentle breeze carrying the scents of nature, a blackbird's response, the sigh of branches, the aroma of the morning fresh. Now open your eyes and identify where you sensed that moment. Imagine the feel and texture of a leaf, a twig, the strong tang of wood in your garden shed, or in your greenhouse.
The Royal Horticultural Society have a wealth of knowledge to help us connect to our garden, helping to restore a tired mind, ease away tensions of the day, yes, even in Autumn. Their idea though, is to give you some time for garden planning, as we begin to think about the joys of what we want to achieve from our own labours. Especially; they talk about how scents unlock memories, reduce stress and anxiety. Perhaps you might hang prostrate rosemary in a basket at head height, or flowering lavender. Do you remember those halcyon summer days as bees came to your lavender bush, how good you felt. Nature has its own ways of reducing blood pressure.
One final tip as we head into Winter.
Think about how nutritional your garden of 2025 might be. Plants are packed with essential vitamins, fibre and phytochemicals, low in fat and calories. Why not turn a corner of your garden into a healthy diet allotment. With the help of the RHS you will be able to plant and harvest different colours of fruit and vegetables all year round - home grown flavours offer unsurpassed nutrition the long year through. Follow this link to plan for winter vegetables
High pressure timber treatments preserve all kinds of wood for many years. Take a few minutes to watch this video of how the pressure treatment is applied. High quality domestic products such as decking, fencing, sheds, gazebos and pergolas are manufactured from pressure treated wood. The video includes many useful tips that homeowners will value.
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