With summer just around the corner and the RHS Chelsea Flower Show having just finished, Safe Haven’s green fingered clients have been busy sowing seeds and creating stunning pots and baskets to welcome our visitors to the centre.
As keen gardeners ourselves, we are already convinced of the therapeutic benefits gained from pottering around the garden for hours on end; finding yourself completely engrossed in what you’re doing and forgetting all about your worries and concerns.
What is it that makes gardening such an endearing hobby? Maybe it’s the feeling of getting closer to nature, or those lovely nurturing moments that you experience just as the little shoots start to appear above the surface? Or is it the positively healthily aspects of being outside in the fresh air, especially as the evenings draw out during the warmer summer months?
Because of a new-found popularity for many, there are a number of organisations across the country running gardening schemes to help fight depression and other mental health-related illnesses, all with a view to promoting better wellbeing.
With this in mind, we are delighted to be able to provide gardening as a regular therapy at the centre. Mainly appealing to our clients who already have a love of all things green, we are also encouraging others to have a go, with some great results.
For many of our clients, we work outside in small groups in the centre’s grounds. It’s a real team effort, with staff and clients mucking in and getting their hands equally dirty.
For our less mobile clients, we set up attractive gardening tables inside with a variety of gardening tools to use, so that they can carry on enjoying their love of gardening despite the changes to their mobility.
We’ve got a little gardening club in the making here, so if you’re interested in finding out more, please give us a call on 01494 854 399.
