Winter blues? Free garden therapies

As long-time gardeners know, gardening is good for you. From boosting your mood to helping your dexterity, gardening can be good for everyone, regardless of age or disability. It can help reduce stress, anxiety and depression. It can also help you sleep better and boost your immune system. Gardening is also a great way to connect with nature and get some exercise.

Kicking off the year, the usual first Saturday of the month workday will be on 4th February. If you have the winter blues or are just needing a boost, this will be an opportunity to enjoy a variety of rewarding FREE garden therapies, varying from gentle weeding to more strenuous clearing and tidying up.

Weeding therapy

For lovers of gooseberry and elderflower jam, the payoff for a little therapeutic weeding around gooseberry bushes now will be a bumper crop in May. When you look at the bushes growing strongly and bursting with fruit, you won’t regret the few hours it took to get them that way.

Pruning therapy

Some of the perennial herbs such as rosemary and sage in the garden have become woody over time. Pruning them right back may rejuvenate them but it may be better to either buy new plants or raise new plants from cuttings.

Creating a beautiful garden

By tidying the garden of fallen leaves and dead vegetation we’ll create an inviting space for all to enjoy. Collecting the remaining autumn leaves and adding them to the leaf bin will not only make paths less slippery and much safer but will eventually provide leaf mould.

Need some physical therapy?

Help clear the ground in front of the polytunnel of rocks and stones ready for sowing with grass seed. Or, help salvage boards from dismantled plots for mending beds or making new plots.

Preparing beds for growing produce to share

Let a robin keep you company while you help to clear and prepare unassigned beds 5b, 13a, 13b and 19b for crops for sharing. Visualise the carrots, pumpkins and runner beans that these plots will produce on your dinner plate.