HORTICULTURAL HINTS FROM THE SUFFIELD GARDEN CLUB
By Diana Ferrari
Healthy Havens – Part I
Attractive gardens offer many healthy benefits for the mind, body and spirit. Spending time outdoors, connecting with nature, is one of the best ways to feel good and dissolve tension/stress. Simply viewing and admiring natural-like settings, whether they are specifically designed or in the wild, can produce serenity and inspiration. Hearing the sound of water flowing in a nearby, babbling brook or water fountain may induce peace as well. The elegant, alluring scent of lilacs or roses can trigger pleasant memories. Tending a garden with TLC entices one to create, plant, transplant, weed, mulch, clip. Etc. I love all the different shades of colors which inspire me to paint - one of my favorite hobbies. Many things are thought provoking and many things are muscle toning. A beneficial part of a garden or yard endeavor is not only thinking about and nurturing a project but, one gets more exercise than one would think. One gardening task leads to another and very often a planned, one-hour effort turns into much more. Following a period of gardening, I feel a sense of accomplishment and turn back to admire the beauty I have cultivated being hand-in-hand with nature. Also, we thoroughly appreciate viewing and dining on our own, freshly picked herbs and vegetables, knowing they are pesticide-free. To tend/enjoy a garden, neither does it have to be huge nor does it necessarily have to be your own. A small garden adjacent to a patio or back steps or a collection of beautiful, potted plants can be a valued, healthy and healing haven for you – minus the cell phone.
Try one or more of the following activities in clear view of a garden: garden gazing, praying, meditating,Yoga, Qi Gong, Reiki or other healing modalities. Also, fashion a positive experience by sipping herbal tea or lime water while holding hands or paws with that special individual - large or small.
You are cordially invited to read about more Heathy Havens in the next issue.
http://www.sustainability.uconn.edu/landscape/05-rain_gardens.html
