This bank holiday weekend, many of us hit the local garden centres, and were inspired to get our gardens in tip top shape for summer. However, if you missed out there’s still plenty of time to work on your little patch of heaven, no matter how much of a space you have to work with. Whether you have a few pots on a balcony or patio, or a large area in which you can lovingly nurture your veggies, fruit trees or flowers, anyone’s garden can be a healing sanctuary, offering balm to your over-stressed, over-networked modern soul.
A true garden retreat is a real complementary wellness escape, and is so much more than a place in which to grow a few plants to raise your property values. Your garden gives you the opportunity to get back to nature, and get in touch with the sacred. You can be a part of this amazing, mysterious universe you’re in, and make seemingly incidental objects, such as bird baths, wind chimes and garden “sculptures” or special stones, into important elements in the creation of a truly healing retreat.
A garden retreat helps you to slow down to nature’s pace, and reconnect with the seasons and the elements. There are big and simple forces that determine events in our little world, and knowing that you are not control is a humbling and freeing feeling. You play your part in tending this garden, but really it’s up to the rain, wind, sun and moon to have their way here. A garden also helps you to realise how privileged you are to share the land with millions of other living beings, both big and small.
According to archetypal psychologist James Hillman, beauty is food for your soul, so you should choose plants and objects that you find truly beautiful. Do you love fruit trees or are roses more your thing? Try to include plants or vegetables that you can eat, alongside the pretty flowers that you love, so you can create a retreat that produces both the delicious, super-fresh food for your body and year-round seasons of beauty for your soul. Even a few pots of herbs can provide healing and nourishment to your wellbeing, lowering your anxiety and lifting your mood.
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