Gardening is good for you not just physically but mentally and emotionally acting as a stress buster and promoting optimistic activity.

Meditation

• A garden can and should be an oasis of calm so a specific quiet area is worth creating.
• Make paths long and curving  to extend the journey through the garden. If paths are  narrow you will need to concentrate on where you put your feet and hopefully forget your problems.
• A solitary seat placed with a calm view can help your contemplation.
• Water helps with it’s light reflective nature and the gentle sound of moving water can be soothing and calming.

Colour

• Green is a natural neutral colour often found in Hospitals for its therapeutic effects. It is not hard to combine  foliage like Bamboos, Ferns and Mahonia for shape, texture and the green colours.
• Red is the most stimulating colour and can increase your heart rate and stimulate your appetite.
• Blue has the opposite effect generating calm and lowering blood pressure.
• The colour effect can be enhanced by including a small quantity of the complementary colour orange with blue, green with red.

Aromatherapy

• Stimulating all the senses means you need some good scent. Lavender is calming and not stressful to grow.
• Herbs like Basil, Rosemary, Mint and Thyme can have a stimulating effect.
• Relaxing or balancing aroma comes from Camomile, Clary Sage or Marjoram.
• There is an added bonus from herbs as they can have culinary and medicinal purposes in addition to the scent.
• Floral scents are a matter of taste but the power of  Lilies, Phlox, Hyacinths and Roses can sweep away all my moody thoughts.

Physical Therapy

• It may be a cliche to say ‘exercise is the best therapy’ but it may be a cliche because it is true.
• 10 minutes in the garden can lead to hours disappearing as you find you are drawn to more garden jobs  because you can always make a further impact.
• Vigorous digging can be as  therapeutic as along walk or run and your garden is improving at the same timedue to your activity.
• Grass cutting and lawn edge trimming seems to work well for my wife (I am happy to let her do this job as my therapy).
• My physical therapy is standing over the compost heap chopping down stems and twigs so they rot quicker and more comprehensively.

‘The Healing Garden a Practical Guide’ from Amazon