5 things to do in the mindful garden in July to improve your wellbeing
4 minute read
The benefits of gardening and food growing for health and wellbeing are widely spoken about and researched.
By practicing gardening for mindfulness you can relieve stress and anxiety, boost your mood and improve your wellbeing.
The following mindful gardening for wellness activities can be done in the July garden as Summer really gets going, to help you connect with Mother Nature and feel calmer and happier.
Before you start the activity, notice how you are feeling on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is low energy, stressed and anxious and 10 is energised and calm.
Once you have completed the exercise, check in with where you are on the scale again.
Pinch out tomato side shoots and revel in the scent- 5 minutes
By removing the side shoots (distractions) you are helping the plant to put its energy into producing more flowers and fruit instead of yet more green growth!
Using your thumb and forefinger pinch out the side shoot that forms between the main stem of the plant and the leaves that grow off them. It should come away easily. If not you can use secateurs to do this, but there’s something quite satisfying about using your fingers to pluck it off the plant yourself.
Raise the side shoot to your nose, close your eyes and take a deep breath.
Do any memories come up for you? Does your mind take you anywhere? Can you feel your shoulders dropping and your body relaxing.
Repeat this for all the side shoots on all your tomato plants. It may be that you focus on one tomato plant each day, depending on the time you have available.
This is also a great one to get the kids involved in.
Water a border or raised bed in the evening while you notice the changes in the plants- 20 minutes
Well established borders shouldn’t need watering too often, but if your border is new or you’ve added new plants to it and there has been little rain, then a nightly watering for a couple of weeks is a good idea.
Before you think, ‘There’s no way I have time for that’.
I encourage you to change your mindset and turn the act of nightly watering into a mindful activity and something to be enjoyed. It can be a great way to unwind once the kids are in bed and you finally have some time for you.
Using a hose or a watering can and aiming for the soil below your plants, notice the soil change colour as the water seeps across the ground.
What can you smell? How does the smell make you feel?
And if you’d love to learn some tips on how to save time watering your plants then this pre-recorded masterclass will help you.
Cut back delphiniums to encourage a second flowering in autumn- 5 minutes
Tall colourful spires of flowers have been gracing the backs of your borders for the last month or so and although the thought of cutting them down strikes the fear of god into you, it will result in a second flush of flowers in autumn just as much of the rest of the garden is starting to fade.
We want the plants we choose for our space to bring us joy for as long as possible and really earn the space we have gifted them in our green sanctuary. And in order to do that you need to cut off the flowering stalk of your delphiniums to just above a bud or lower leaf. It might be that you choose to use the flower stem in a summer arrangement or just cut back any that have gone slightly past their best.
As you cut through the flower stem, you’ll need to engage your sense of sight so you know where to cut, but also focus on the sound as your secateur blade slices through the stem.
Does it make a pop or a squish sound?
However, if like me, your delphiniums have been munched to within an inch of their life by slugs then the next activity is for you!
Apply a natural slug predator such as nematodes to the soil if slugs are really bad- 20 minutes
Google how to get rid of slugs and you’ll be bombarded with ideas, and rest assured I've tried them all.
Crushed up egg shells, beer traps, copper tape, getting the kids to go on slug hunts with me etc etc.
And by far the most effective and time efficient is using nematodes. They are a natural predator of the slugs and by increasing the number of them in your soil, they decrease the number of slugs.
You can buy them here, from the wonderful Tessa at Ladybird Plantcare.
And when they arrive you mix them into water in a watering can like some kind of witches potion and then water them onto the ground.
Not only can you get all the relaxation and wellbeing benefits from the act of watering by employing the mindful watering methods described above, but you can also rest assured those pesky, slimy bastards will be taken care of!
Get creative with your flowers- 60 minutes
One of the most relaxing and enjoyable things to do in your garden is to harvest and get creative with your homegrown flowers.
But if you’ve never done any floristry before it can feel a little overwhelming.
The first thing to do is to choose your ingredients. We are aiming to tell a story with our flowers and engage the senses of anyone who interacts with it.
So think about scent, touch, sound, taste (if you want to) and lastly sight.
When it comes to sight we want to aim for at least one of each type of the following shaped flowers:
Focal flower- roses, peonies, dahlias
Filler flower- Ammi majus, grasses,
Dome shaped flowers- Achillea, hydrangea, viburnum opulus
Spire shaped flowers- foxgloves, delphiniums, linaria, heuchera flowers
Foliage- Rosemary, pittosporum, mint
I also like to add vines to my arrangements to give them a bit of movement. Some favourites are sweet peas cut with the vine and tendrils intact, honeysuckle, clematis.
Make sure your flowers are well conditioned before you arrange with them. I explain how to do that here.
Take one stem at a time and add it to a vase, making sure to include odd numbers of each type of flower for the most visual impact, spacing them out evenly across the arrangement.