We recently touched on the benefits of gardening for boosting our sense of well-being and happiness, particularly during a time where most of us are still spending a lot of time indoors, at home and socialising less than before.
The good thing about gardening is that, despite its name, you can still enjoy the satisfaction of growing something beautiful whether you live in a flat or apartment with no garden access or only a small patio of yard space, or are fortunate enough to own a garden space. Here are some simple ideas to get started.
Patio pots and planters
If you’re not sure you want to start making any permanent changes to your garden just yet, or rent where you live, making use of pots and planters is a great way of expressing your plant personality and still leaves room for creativity in how you arrange them, with varying sizes, materials and colours all adding their own effects.
Since the lockdown, we’ve seen some amazing examples of people getting creative and recycling wooden palettes to create vertical herb gardens, which tend to thrive year-round, whilst you can find hanging planters at plenty of homeware shops for simple balcony and terrace arrangements.
Low-maintenance houseplants
Why not brighten up your living areas and boost the environment with an array of low-maintenance houseplants? In recent years, houseplants have become a popular and accessible interior trend due to their generally low-maintenance needs, striking appearance and proven well-being benefits. You don’t need to grow these from seed and can instead enjoy the positive effects on your mood, productivity and well-being.
Succulents make lovely additions to rooms within the home and are a popular choice for their versatility and varying sizes, as well as ease of transportation. Look at terrarium projects on Pinterest and you’ll find ideas for rooms of all sizes.
Garden
If you’ve decided you’re up for the challenge and want to take the plunge in transforming your garden, the first place to start is by checking what will grow in your terrain, the tools you need to get started and what time of year you need to plant bulbs and sow seeds.
As a starting point, the following tools will be helpful:
- Gardening gloves to protect your hands
- Secateurs for tidying, pruning and weeding
- Trowel for planting smaller plants and pots
- Hand fork for weeding flower beds
- Border fork for preparing soil
- Spade to dig soil for larger plants
Why not start simple with a small section of your garden – if you don’t have any available flowerbeds, choose an area that receives a good amount of natural sunlight and use a border fork to prepare the soil, ensuring it is free from rocks and debris and laying down fresh compost if needed.
For the best advice on when to start planting and growing particular crops, check out the advice from the Royal Horticultural Society. Its ‘Grow your own’ page has a handy monthly calendar and to-do list feature to guide you.
Have you undertaken any new green-fingered projects over the last few months? Share yours with us over on Twitter or Facebook.