Happy Ideas, Tips & Guides

Over the summer I was reading Botanical Brain Balms, a book by Nicolette Perry and Elaine Perry on ‘medicinal plants for memory, mood and mind’. It brings together a wealth of information on plants that can help us sleep or stay calm, ease our pain, improve our memory, and even provide us with mind-altering experiences. Some of the plants are exotic, in that they won’t grow in the UK climate, but which you can find on the shelves of the health food shop, but many are familiar garden plants. Each entry contains a description of the plant and its habitat, a round-up of history and folklore, and the results of modern scientific research proving its effectiveness. You will also find the key ingredients (chemicals) that provide the effect, how to use the plant and any relevant safety notes. There are even some recipes, including a sage, pine and mint cleaning spray to improve memory and concentration, a happy face cream, and teas, biscuits and cocktails.

Jose Yong, Northumbria University, Newcastle

The garden and I have not spent much time together this summer. I’ve been busy… there was weather… there have been too many days when I didn’t feel like going outside. Since the courgette and summer squash started fruiting, I’ve been a bit afraid to go outside in case there’s a mountain of fruit to pick. But the light was nice this morning, so I ventured outside to take a few photos (and the squashes seem to be slowing down, so it’s safe).

Last Monday evening I wandered out into the garden to shoo off a pigeon that was wandering around in my leek bed. On my way back inside I noticed the first flowers were appearing on my courgettes, and I did a little happy dance. Then, because this is the 21st century, I took a photo and posted it on twitter.

Gayla Trail over at You Grow Girl has been blogging recently about an illness that has kept her from gardening this year, and how that makes her feel, and as a result she has rebooted her Grow Write Guild series of writing prompts by asking gardeners to write about a time when they were unable to garden, for whatever reason.

I haven’t felt like gardening much over the last few weeks, and since there’s a lot to do popping outside made feel worse, not better. But on Sunday time and energy coincided, and I spent a happy two hours outside. In the intervening time the garden has transitioned into autumn, which shows off the blueberries at their best!

One morning, early in 2012, my then husband asked me whether I could be happy without a garden. I said I didn’t think so. By the beginning of May that year he had left – he moved in to a rented house in Cornwall that (somewhat ironically) has a garden. In the intervening four years, I have actually never been without a garden, although when I was a student in Kent I was a long way away from it. But I never felt like gardening, which amounts to the same thing.

The political weather has been stormy of late, and as the sun has come out to play at last, the garden seems the safest place to be. There’s a lot to be done to get it ready for the growing season, so time spent outside is never wasted. A lot of what I’m doing at the moment could best be termed ungardening, clearing out the contents from last year’s containers, and reusing the potting compost in the bottom of new pots, or as a soil improving mulch.

Emma White, University of Surrey and Sarah Golding, University of Surrey

When I interviewed for my last job, the panel asked me how I would cope in a situation where there was more work on my desk than I had time to do. The theoretical answers to that question are easy – prioritise, ask for help, get stuck in. When you’re faced with an overwhelming situation then it’s easy to forget the theory and to spend more time worrying about how you’re going to get everything done than doing anything useful.

I haven’t spent a lot of time in the garden recently (that seems to be my refrain this year!). I keep nipping out to fill up the bird feeders, but that’s about as far as it gets. To be honest, I am suffering under the deluge of hate and horror that’s been in the news this year. Brexit and Trump both appear to be be both disastrous and unstoppable, every day brings fresh stories of vulnerable people being subjected to sexual harassment (and many other forms of exploitation) by the rich and powerful, and the evidence that we’re doing irreversible harm to our beautiful planet just keeps piling up.

If you have trouble sleeping from time to time, then there are plants you can grow in your garden that will give you a helping hand. Whether you sew them into a scented sleep pillow or brew them into a relaxing cup of tea, these herbs are all easy to grow favourites.

There have been a lot of days this year that have begun and ended with me despairing over the human race. This week we’ve seen Saudi Arabia, Russia and the USA come together to sabotage a global agreement to do something about climate change. And Brex*t makes me feel like a lemming being herded off the cliff in a tidal wave of other lemmings.

Header image: St Canice’s rooftop garden, where a horticultural therapy program demonstrated its benefits for mental health and wellbeing. Author provided

When I was doing some research for the next episode of Gardeners of the Galaxy, I remembered a short television series broadcast on BBC Two in 2012. In How to Grow a Planet, geologist (!) Professor Iain Stewart explained how plants brought about the most significant changes to Earth.

There’s growing evidence that gardening on Earth has both physical and mental benefits. However, so far there has been little research into the psychological benefits of gardening in space. In this episode, Emma the Space Gardener explores anecdotal evidence that suggests we should ensure long-duration space missions pack a greenhouse module, and takes a peek at an ongoing study into whether growing plants helps astronauts endure the stresses of space travel.

Stuart Capstick, Cardiff University

Header image (a cup of tea, books and a houseplant on a windowsill) by LUM3N from Pixabay

Is there anything more motivating to do your job better than some positive feedback? When we garden for you, our priority is to not only to provide the best solution, but also make you as happy as possible. So when you, dear customers, praise us in one way or another, we know that we’ll do our best over and over again.

Rumour that Bees are in terminal decline is not borne out in my garden this year. The Bees seem very happy on the blue flowers and I am happy as it gives me an excuse to show some more blue photographs (of flowers!).

A happy and pleasant surprise has just arrived through the post at home.

Cool, dampish conditions ensure happy cyclamen plants from now until Christmas. Do not let them dry out in your centrally heated house. Nor should you put them in draft

Ten images of different coloured Viola plants from our local nursery. Anyone with the patience to count the number of flowers is welcome to try. When planted out these small plants should romp away and each will produce loads more smiling faces.

A lot has happened this first year out: A Way to Garden grew, with its 200 posts and nearly 4500 comments (thank you very much), and also now with Andre. I started The Sister Project, which in its first two weeks of new life has had about 10,000 clicks and 300 comments.  Three weeks ago, I sold a book idea…and this week I am kicking off writing it with a few days of retreat (a funny thing for a woman who spends so much time alone already to say).I have filled in each quandrant of the mandala my friend Ken Smith created for me when I began this new life…we may have to subdivide!I just wanted to take this moment to say thank you to all of you visitors, old and new, who have encouraged me. You cannot imagine what it has meant to

ANDRE THE DOODLER IS ALLOWED TO PUT DOWN HIS PEN every now and again, and this is one of those weeks. If you can’t live without your weekly Andre fix, try browsing through the image-driven archive of every last doodle he’s created here in the last two years.

Birthdays require flowers. Make mine peonies, one of the best perks of a June birthday. I am currently overrun by them, and the house actually smells too sweet; I had to put several vases outside. I even had the first-ever tree peony blossoms of my garden career (above) to cheer me this time around. That’s ‘Yellow Crown,’ which produced its first two flowers this year. Tada! Looks like a cupcake with lots of frosting, doesn’t it?Birthdays require gifts, and Jack the Demon Cat took care of this one already. Yes, another weasel tail on the front doormat (above); making four in the last week. Wish he’d stick to chipmunk

BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE BLEW IN SATURDAY, with its relentless 50-plus mile-per-hour winds, there was a brief moment of sanity. The snow was finally melting, revealing the first bulbs, and the very best part: I got my knees wet in the process of going to have a closer look.

TODAY IS BE NICE TO MARGARET DAY; please mark it on your calendars, because my “new” life (which usually only Jack the Demon Cat, the frogboys, birds and the occasional snake bear witness to) is now flapping in the breeze. Out there.

I HOPE YOU WILL JOIN ME in wishing A Way to Garden a happy one-month birthday this week. It is young and barely rooted (note I did not say bare-rooted…we are in fact happily tucked into terra firma), but with your help it will flourish.

WE ARE TURNING TWO MONTHS OLD THIS WEEK, “we” being me and the team here at A Way to Garden (Nikon, Mac, Kubota, and all those creatures with the Latin names). We promise to stop pestering you with anniversary announcements, but it’s good to make offerings of gratitude so here we go: Thanks to the nearly 12,000 individuals who have found their way here so far (up from 3,300 “uniques” the first month).

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DOODLE MAKES. Sixteen months ago I asked a stranger across an ocean if I could run an illustration of his (above) on my just-born blog, because I’d adopted its words as a motto for my new rural life adventure. Then exactlyone year ago tomorrow, that stranger—by then a friend, and living in America—officially became a weekly columnist, part of the haphazard happy A Way to Garden family that also includes Jack the Demon Cat, the garden itself, and you. Won’t you wish me and Andre Jordan a happy anniversary? A somewhat-deranged new doodle, and Andre’s take on Year 1 together await if you do: “My friendship with Margaret began with a doodle,” says Andre. “Just a simple doodle that no one but me would understand. Fours seasons, 52 doodles, 12 months later we talk of spring visits and endless walks through her extraordinary garden.

Simply comment below, telling us what aspect of Andre’s work touches you (naughty? nice? wacky? wonderful?–use your own words). If you’re not sure, review all his doodles (!!!!) at this link.As the holiday weekend ends at midnight Monday, May 31, I’ll select three winners at random using random.org’s random-number selector.By the way, Andre’s wife, Mrs. Andre, says this doodle would make the nicest wallpaper, and she is just exactly right. Oh happy day! (Which see, below. Or more precisely, which hear.)Tagsandre jordan

The chance to win one of two sets of books begins now, and entries will close next Tuesday, December 28, at midnight. I’ll pick the winners Wednesday at random, using the tool at random [dot] org as usual. To enter, all you have to do is comment below–just say hello, or season’s greetings, or “Hurrah for Santy” or whatever you want. Even, “I’m in,” or “I’d like to win the books” will do.Whether you choose to enter or not, here’s the important punchline:(Vintage print by the Louis Prang company, sent to me by one of my many kind readers after I ran this slideshow of that company’s other work.)

I mean, it doesn’t close up shop or shut it doors on me or to visual enjoyment. The garden centers may need to stand idle a portion of each year, but not the landscape itself. And so, stubbornly and defiantly over a period of 25 years, at first accidentally and lately more intentionally as my knowledge has grown, I suppose I have made a garden for 365 days. Good thing I did, since I now live in it year-round, having left my career and the city in late 2007 after more than 20 years as a weekender in the Hudson Valley-Berkshires area of New York and Massachusetts.TO MAKE A YEAR-ROUND GARDEN was not my plan, or at least not a conscious one I could have explained when I began digging holes on an overgrown, bramble-infested bit of Columbia County, New York, land with little more to recommend it horticulturally beyond a half-dozen very old apples and a pair of ancient lilacs. My 365-day garden style was actually a happy side effect—a total serendipity—precipitated by my love of birds.Because birds’ needs vary at different times

You may recall my previous conversations with Thomas, the co-author with Claudia West of the provocative 2015 book “Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes.” Even though we both have worked around plants for many years, it’s as if Thomas sees them differently from the way I do, in a sort of super-savvy botanical 3-D. He doesn’t see them as mere decorative objects, but astutely reads their body language for clues to who they want to grow with (or not) and how to put them all together successfully.I love how he sees, and thinks, as you can glean from our lively Q&A, where he says things like this:And this:Though not intentionally so, the Times article turns out to be especially timely—and not just because it’s early spring, and we gardeners need to make smarter choices

Come to think of it, the number 5 must be numerologically significant for me right now (maybe I should play the Lotto, or consult a medium?). Or at least 5’s are very in-my-face: I’ve been a garden writer for 25 years, and it was 15 years ago that “A Way to Garden,” my first garden book, was published, the one I named the website for.I don’t know if I ever told you why I started the A Way to Garden website, but frankly it was partly to prevent a panic-attack, or at least total embarrassment–because I didn’t really have a Plan A, let alone a Plan B at the end of 2007, whenI walked away from my longtime “successf