5 things to do in the mindful garden in October to improve your wellbeing
4 minute read
The benefits of gardening and food growing for health and wellbeing are well documented.
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 October garden as it starts to fade to help you get outside and connect with Mother Nature as a way to switch off and quiet your busy mind.
TIDY BEDS AND BORDERS (BUT NOT TOO MUCH!)
Many flower and vegetable plants growing in your garden will be starting to die back.
Choose a few more sculptural seed heads such as Echinacea and Phlomis to leave in the border over winter, they look gorgeous covered in frost and provide the perfect subject to study in a mindful moment over winter. And crucially they provide a home for insects hoping to survive the winter unscathed.
Cut back the remaining dead plants to just above the soil and compost them. Leaving the roots in the ground will allow all the nutrients they contain to be released back into the soil for next year's plants. Notice any hollow stems that you cut back and add them to your insect hotel.
MAKE LEAF MOULD
As the trees shed their leaves our gardens can end up covered! These leaves are like gold to the mindful gardener. Once you and the kids have had fun mucking about in them. Collect them up into empty compost bags, make sure they are moist and pierce a few holes in the bags with a garden fork.
Store them somewhere out of the way (behind the shed/ garage) and next year they will have become crumbly nutrient-rich leaf mould to feed to your plants.
PLANT VEGETABLES TO GROW OVER WINTER
Just because the temperature has dropped doesn't mean things won’t be growing. Spring Cabbages and Winter lettuces thrive during winter time as their names suggest. If you’re a garlic lover now is the time to get your hands in the soil and plant your garlic.
Let the soil run through your fingers, is it damp or dry? What does it smell like? Take a mindful moment while you are planting to pause and notice what you’re doing.
MAKE A SCENTED BULB DISPLAY FOR INDOORS
The garden may be resting and gathering energy before spring but that's no reason not to have some floral colour in your life. Hyacinths and paperwhite daffodils can be ‘forced’ to make an indoor scented Christmas display.
Forcing is when you trick the bulbs into believing its spring before it is so you get early flowers.
Plant your bulbs now in a container with no holes. Keep them somewhere dark and cool but dry. Check every so often to keep them moist and after about 12 weeks they can be brought indoors to flower. Read my step by step blog here.
KEEP WATERING YOUR SEEDLINGS
Just because it's cold and damp outside doesn't mean your seedlings won’t need watering. A daily 5 minutes checking for signs of new growth and giving them a sprinkle of water provides the perfect mindful gardening activity to help you switch off.
Focus on the sound of the water contacting the soil and the smell of the damp soil that is released for maximum wellbeing benefit.