A Children's Garden of Imagination .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

A garden is a wonderful place where children can fire up their imaginations with nature as their inspiration; building healthy neural pathways in growing, active brains.  And creating happy memories that are triggered in adulthood by the sight, smells and sounds of nature. 

In a garden, with no poisonous sprays, children are safe to wander barefoot among the shrubs and flowers, climb low-hanging trees, make trails of leaves, and play-make in a world of their imagination. 

Are their garden faiiries (or scary fire-breathing dragons) hiding in the shadows over there?    Sssssh, in case we wake them up ..

 .. A tiny rose bud filled with morning dew suddenly becomes a royal chalice for imaginary faiiries to sip from ..

.. And tiny, little cobwebs sparkling with dew drops are now jewel encrusted necklaces for garden faiiries ..

.. Lying on the green grass, staring up at the sky dappled with climbing roses, imagining life in faraway countries, or even galaxies .. 

.. Making up stories and using tiny rose blossoms as finger puppets ..

.. Spying a spotted ladybird hiding next to a fat rosebud ..

.. Squatting on all fours looking up at flowers growing upside down!  How does that happen .. ?

Burying a small nose in a perfumed rose and breathing in gulps of fragrance .. 

.. the stuff of memories that last a life-time.

What does a Rose-craft Workshop look like? - Heirloom Roses .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

What does a Rose-craft Workshop look like at Edgeworth Lley?

At our latest Rose-craft Workshop we celebrated Spring by gathering a group of women together to create  a mixed Spring Posy of heirloom roses.

We started the morning by walking through the garden and selecting heirloom roses.  Then we placed these up to their necks in water to let the roses 'condition' while we refreshed ourselves with morning tea.  Usually this is held in the garden, but because it was raining a little, we sat on the verandah and looked out over the garden.

Then it was onto learning a few tips on creating a uniquely personal posy with the heirloom roses and herbs chosen from the garden.  Because our roses are fragrant and release their perfume as you work with them, the creation of a  posy is especially memorable and joyous.

And choosing a gorgeous antique ribbon to tie your posy with is a lovely way to accessorise your creation.

There are always roses left over, and these can be used in even more lovely creations. The range of things we can make with roses is almost endless .. it's not just posies and bouquets!!  At future workshops we will be looking at rose soaps and roses in the kitchen.

But back to the Spring Posies.  Along with learning how to combine  herbs and perennials with the roses, there are new 'weed' flowers to learn about too! Who would have thought clover had such lovely flower-heads?

And as the morning closes everyone shares their experience of making their unique creation .. and proudly takes a little snap or two.  

Finally, it's time to show off those lovely creations, each one unique and different, but all lovely!  After another quick refreshment, it's time to gather up the beautiful blooms and take them home.  And often we get even more pictures sent to us once they reach home!!  

And that's what a Rose-craft Workshop looks like .. A lovely way to spend a morning as a treat for yourself or you and a few friends.  

Creating with fragrant, heirloom roses is good for the soul!!!

Gardens and Emotional Well-being .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

In this week of mental health awareness in Australia, the link between the natural environment and human health is worth perusing.  Our culture's broadening disconnect between green spaces in its many forms and our lifestyles is, in my opinion, a cause for concern.

Previously, certainly in my living memory, gardens were every-day spaces in which children played on sometimes green lawns, climbed trees and hid among shrubs, peeping out at the world beyond.  And time stood still for many a child transfixed by the sights, smells and sounds of the garden; a butterfly landing on a brightly coloured flower, burying a curious nose in the centre of a flower to sniff its perfume and strip petals one at a time from its calyx.  

How is it that we've lost the joy of interacting with the natural world as part of our every-day ordinariness? Gardens, if they are noticed at all, are now places to be rushed past on our busy way to somewhere else, glimpsed briefly through partitions of glass as we whiz by in our mechanised worlds.  

Or perhaps a garden is only seen as a place for structured learning; growing vegetables and learning about the importance of preserving our environment.  Important as these are, a garden as a place for serendipitous discovery or 'just being' is too often relegated to the time-zones of the retired, or the ill and infirm. 

Could it be that what science is now telling us about the benefits of gardens for human well-being is just now catching up with wisdom of old?  In 1918, the Melbournian E.W.Cole ponders in the 'Happifying Gardening Hobby' that "when lonely we find solace and almost a species of companionship in our flowers ..".  

Research has shown us that having a connection with the natural world facilitates a sense of peace and helps to regulate emotional cognition (as in Attention Restoration Theory by Kaplan and Kaplan et al).  And beneficial biological responses to various perfumes of the garden in aromatherapy and the like are  more readily recognised, supporting  the long-held notion of taking time to 'stop and smell the roses'.  

Gardens are not proposed here as  a stand-alone cure, but as part of the mix of therapies that may support human well-being.  And if gardens were viewed as an every-day part of our 'doing and being' lives, places for play and reflection, perhaps we'd build resilience against times of mental ill-health.  

Again, in the words of E.W. Cole, "A child who likes flowers and is brought up in a home with a flower-garden .. will always remember it as long as he or she lives (as) .. a pleasant home."  Simplistic maybe, but certainly something to reflect upon ..