Health Benefits of Rose Petals #1 ... AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Did you know that rose petals grown without pesticides have positive side effects!  Yes!  That's right!  We all know that rose hips (heps) have a high Vitamin C content, which happens to be more than found in oranges! 

But rose petals have side effects that  also benefit our mental health!  And I'm not talking about musty, dried up rose petals you can purchase on-line for a few cents from who knows where! 

I am talking about locally grown, fresh or dried rose petals that have been hand-harvested from heritage  roses grown without pesticides.  Heritage roses have proven over  the generations that they are tough, require less water and resources to grow than more recent hybrid roses.   And most important of all, they have a naturally, strong rose fragrance.   

(Oh, and yes, we do sell fresh, heritage rose petals to our local customers.)

Have you ever sniffed a rose and been disappointed there was no fragrance?  Unfortunately, this is the usual experience with supermarket bought roses.  And these roses are not suitable for using in food or skin care products because they may have been dipped in pesticides, fungicides and even herbicides!  So smelling a supermarket bought rose could have side effects that are not good for our health! 

Rose petals plucked from pesticide free roses, grown locally have numerous healthy side effects.  The fragrance of roses is known to help with feelings of anxiety and sadness, and even grief.  

Take a handful of fragrant petals, or whole roses, that you know are pesticide free and hold them close to your nose.  Breathe in deeply.  Be careful, you may find yourself beginning to relax.  Another positive side effect of breathing in the fragrance of roses is gaining a sense of joy! 


Try it for yourself and see! 

You just might be pleasantly surprised!  

I'd love to hear of your experience once you do try smelling the roses for yourself.  Find us on Facebook and tell us about it!  

Imagine this! ... AT MY ROSE GARDEN

I wonder what it would look like if we all did a little gardening.  I mean, as in real gardening; not professionally landscaped gardens with hard surfaces and pristine hedges that often grace life-style magazine covers.

I'm talking about the 'getting your hands grubby and mucking about in the soil' style of gardening.  Gardening that takes a bit of grunt. Effort that exerts and brings out a sweat; the type of sweat you'd pay expensive gym membership for.  

The term 'gardening' appears to be a bit of a 'turn off' these days.  The idea of getting dirt under your finger nails is decidedly disgusting to some people.  I've even seen people shudder at the idea!  

But what if we actually took up real gardening; the type of gardening our grandparents or great-grandparents took for granted.  You know, where they grew their own fresh vegetables and herbs and took pride in their harvest.  Where vegetables grown in the garden were prized for their freshness and taste; and were never discarded just because they were an odd shape or size.

And where herbs and flowers were grown in the garden and given as thoughtful gifts.  Where it wasn't unusual to actually know the name of numerous flowers.  Where cuttings and seeds were swapped with neighbours and friends, carefully transplanted and sown by their new owners. 

Nowadays, we often refer to these vegetables and flowers grown only a generation or so ago as heirloom or heritage varieties.  They're no longer common but unusual.  And the growing and nurturing of them is seen as a less than valuable activity; something to do when you've retired or too old to be much use elsewhere.  

Gardening is almost scorned by the average consumer these days, it seems.  The disconnect between fresh food and the soil it grows in is widening.  This is demonstrated in the supermarket in myriad examples; the young checkout person needs help identifying previously common vegetables and fruits; small sticky labels on single pieces of fruit often the only clue as to the identity of the fruit.  And only certain sizes and shapes of fruits and vegetables are acceptable apparently, leaving vast quantities of perfectly edible fruit and vegetables dumped by the tonne.  

Such wastage was seen as a huge sin by my parents and grandparents who had each grown up in the era of world wars and depressions.  Food was a scarce resource and if you were fortunate to be able to grow your own, you were indeed blessed.

Along with such wastage is the loss of the basic skills of gardening; taken for granted a generation or so ago.  We have lost so much knowledge; understanding the seasons, an appreciation for the vast variety of fruits and vegetables that can be grown; knowing how to preserve gluts of vegetables and fruit; a basic understanding of horticulture. 

If we all took up a little gardening and re-learnt some lost skills, perhaps we'd develop some independence from vast food chains that supply us with non-food.  And we might even grow a generation that has a new appreciation for nature, and the soil our food is grown in.  We might even develop a taste for fresh food and fresh flowers that don't resemble anything we'd find in large supermarkets and food halls.  

We'd certainly be healthier, more connected to our neighbours and community as we share gluts of fresh food and flowers.  We might even develop a new appreciation for the joys of gardening!  

Imagine that!  

The Art of Living from the Garden .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

The garden can be a wonderful metaphor for living.  Just as in every-day life, things can get a bit overwhelming here in the heirloom rose gardens at Edgeworth Lley.  

After all the Summer rains, the weeds are threatening to take over the rose gardens.  All I can see are weeds encroaching on garden beds painstakingly carved out from the paddocks. I dare not take photos of these areas as they're certainly not part of the vision of a large country rose garden.  

From a gardener's perspective, the task of bringing the garden back into some sense of order is a little overwhelming.   But, just as I've learnt when undertaking large tasks, like writing a Doctoral thesis, it's best to focus on one  idea or area, at a time.  

Once I do that, the large task, or idea, becomes doable.  In fact, it becomes enjoyable achieving one small thing at a time.  And before you know it, a whole lot has been achieved, which is hugely satisfying.  

Gradually, instead of the weeds encroaching on the garden beds, I am encroaching on the weeds and releasing the roses, shrubs and perennials from the smothering pasture grasses.  And the mounds of weeds are relegated to where they belong; in a pile waiting to be burnt.  The ashes from the pile, rich in potash, will then help fertilise the roses in Autumn.  And so the cycle continues.  

But to get to my main point of this article, I think the weeds in the garden are a good analogy for the overwhelm we can feel in our busy every-day lives.  We get swept up into a frenzy of busy, busy, while feeling as though we've lost control of the important.  

The same approach for undertaking the task of weeding the garden can also be taken in our ordinary, every days.  For example, one source of over-whelm is social media.  I rely on social-media every-day, but I've learnt this can induce a sense of business while encroaching on time I need to perform real tasks (like weeding)!  Instead of being tuned in all the time, I now have 'quality' time on social-media; quarantining it to certain times of the day.  The pressure of performing, formally or informally every day and every waking moment can be exhausting.  

But, how to relieve this pressure without isolating ourselves and becoming hermits?  I believe one way is to re-connect with the natural environment.  This may sound impractical in our busy lives.  Yet, there are easy ways to include the natural environment throughout our day.  Just looking at a tree has been shown to rest our minds and refresh our thinking.  And in my research, connecting with nature has been shown to relieve depression and anxiety.  In fact, recent research shows that putting our hands in the soil actually exposes us to microbes that benefit mental health.  And probably improves our overwhelmed immune systems too!  

We have lost our connection with nature to the detriment of our quality of life.  And this has also impacted on our ability to experience  'wonderment'; the art of seeing ordinary things as little miracles.  If you allow a small child  to explore a garden, they will quickly show you what 'wonderment' looks like; pulling a rose apart and allowing the petals to fall in a shower of confetti to the ground; scrunching up gum leaves and sniffing their scent; spying a butterfly and exclaiming with delight as it flies almost within reach;  or just walking on scrunchy leaves purely for the sound effects!

Perhaps if we took moments everyday to re-connect with the natural environment, we'd experience a little more joy in our ordinary, every-day lives.  And if we passed on this lost 'skill' to our children and grandchildren, we would be giving them life-long skills that build resilience and foster a sense of joy.  


A precious legacy indeed.