I don’t know about you, but alongside browsing seed catalogues and plenty of pen circling, I see the chilly winter months as a chance to look over how the last growing year went – thinking about my harvests, disasters and also how my general garden design worked for me and my lifestyle. Once spring arrives, it’s non-stop gardening, so I like to use these early months to make any changes for the upcoming year.
While pondering my design changes, own fitness goals, time availability and vegetable growing ambitions for 2021, I decided to give Jan Broady a call to see if he had any tips for you and me about how we can make our gardens perfect for us and any personal well-being goals. Jan is a senior horticultural therapist at Thrive, the national gardening charity, and I have had the pleasure of chatting to him many times in person while exploring the charity’s gardens near Reading in Berkshire, so I knew he would be able to help.
Thrive does an annual survey and 100% of its client gardeners say their physical health has improved being out in the garden and 70% say that their physical health has improved a lot.
PHYSICAL BENEFITS
Generally, gardening without doubt has massive physical benefits for our health. It’s my gym, but without awkward mirrors and with many more rewards! What Jan and I both said about gardening for exercise is that there is a nurture element and a real product at the end, which makes it harder to notice the physical work sometimes. The garden encourages us to get outside, there is a purpose, an incentive, and if you keep it up, then trugs full of rewards result, as well as a healthy fitness level.
Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Kitchen Garden.
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Denne historien er fra January 2021-utgaven av Kitchen Garden.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
SEPTEMBER SPECIALS
This month, with sweetcorn, figs and blackberries on the menu, Anna Cairns Pettigrew is not only serving up something sweet and something savoury, but all things scrumptious
FLAVOURSOME FRUIT AUTUMN RASPBERRIES
September - is it late summer or the start of autumn? David Patch ponders the question and says whatever the season, it's time to harvest autumn raspberries
SOW GREEN THIS AUTUMN
Covering the soil with a green manure in winter offers many benefits and this is a good time to sow hardy types, says KG editor Steve Ott
A HISTORICAL HAVEN OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS
KG's Martin Fish takes time out from his own plot to visit a walled garden in Lincolnshire which has been home to the same family for more than 400 years
RESTORING THE BALANCE
The phrase regenerative gardening is often heard in gardening circles, but what is it? Can it help you to grow better veg? Ecologist Becky Searle thinks so, and tells us why
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
Garden Organic's Anton Rosenfeld shares his expertise on using compost made from green bin collections with handy tips on getting the right consistency and quality
Celebrating Organic September!
In this special section we bring you four great features aimed at improving your crops and allowing nature to thrive
SEEING RED
Do your tomatoes have a habit of remaining stubbornly green? Or perhaps you're lucky to enjoy lots of lovely fruits - just all at once. Either way, Benedict Vanheems is here with some top tips to ripen and process the nation's favourite summer staple
NEW KIDS ON THE BROCCOLI!
Rob Smith is talking broccoli this month with a review of the different types available and suggestions for some exciting new varieties to try
A NEW kitchen garden
Martin Fish is getting down to plenty of picking and planting on the garden veg plot, while Jill is rustling up something pepper-licking good!
