It’s probably safe to say, not very many of us truly appreciated our gardens... until now.
Sure, they were nice to look at, and handy to have on those few and far between BBQ weather days that came our way, but this wavering affection isn’t a patch on the love that’s since blossomed for our unsung outside spaces!
So much is this the case, that The National Garden Scheme have dedicated the next week to promoting and celebrating the positive impact gardens can have on physical and mental health.
Gardens and Health Week 2020 runs from 8th – 16th May, encouraging us to attune more to those untapped opportunities for health and wellbeing that exist in our own back yard.
The good news is, you don’t necessarily need to go green fingered to take advantage of the physical and mental advantages of garden time. It can be enough to just sit and relish in the fresh air and blue sky, with all its opportunities for mindfulness and perspective.
Even the smallest of gardens can extend this helping hand for health that we so need right now, whether by providing a space for exercise, or simply an escape hatch for whenever cabin fever starts to set in.
While it’s mostly true that we’ll welcome the return to all those places that our gardens are filling the void of at the moment (gyms, parks, beaches), there is also a part of us that might question the behaviours on which our previous lifestyles hinged!
Our gardens have - to some extent - helped cultivate a healthier and simpler lifestyle, one that is built on gratitude for what we have, and the sentiment that, for many of the things we once sought elsewhere, there really is ‘no place like home!!’
If we can't find what we're looking for in our own back yard, whether it's fun, fitness or peace of mind, then maybe we never really lost it to begin with, as Judy Garland would say?