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Gardening for wellbeing

The miracles of nature by planting a seed and watching it grow.

I love to collect seeds from my plants and flowers that are growing in my garden. Because I love the plants that I have and want to see more of them dotted around my garden and I love to watch my seeds grow into the lovely plants that I had in previous years.

Nature is a miracle and knowing that you have planted your flowers or plants yourself from a little seed, brings a smile to your face and is such an achievement. You will be able to say I grew that and I am very proud of what I can do. It saves money too!

It is easy enough to do. Once the flowers have gone to seed, take a brown paper bag (I save mine from my vegetable shop purchases), hold the bag under the seed head, give the seed head a shake or open the pod and the seeds will fall and collect into your paper bag.

Date and label the paper bag and keep it in a box or container inside in a dry place, ready to plant the seeds into compost the next spring.

When you plant the seeds out either in pots or the garden, remember to label them. Using either an old wooden lollipop stick or a piece of cardboard or something that will not affect the soil in your garden. Plastic labels are fine, but I prefer to use wooden lollipop sticks as they will look nicer and I am trying to avoid all plastic in my garden.

Growing from a cutting

Taking cuttings is very easy, especially if you are taking cuttings from a herb like Rosemary.

If you already have a Rosemary plant and you would like to grow some more of them in different pots or locations around your garden. The process is very simple.

Locate the new shoots at the top of your current plant (they are leafy and brighter green). Use a sharp pair of garden scissors or secateurs and snip off several shoots about three inches long.

Pull off some of the foliage near the bottom of the cuttings so you have nice bare sections at the bottom, probably a bit more than an inch is fine. Then put the cuttings into your container, into the compost about an inch down into the compost, placing the cuttings around the edge and centre of the container.

Place the container outside in a nice warm spot and water regularly, but do not over water. You should see signs of growth in a couple of weeks.

When the cuttings have got new roots and new shoots appear, you will be able to pot each cutting into its own pot and they will grow quite happily and you will have lots of new plants and plenty of Rosemary for cooking or for drying for later use.

I have even grown some cut Rosemary that I purchased from a supermarket to use in a recipe and I had too much, so I followed the above steps and planted them in a pot and I now have lots more of my own Rosemary plants and will never need to buy any more.

Growing your own herbs, plants, flowers, vegetables and salad is very rewarding, satisfying and cheaper than buying them in.

The joy of birds in your garden

I love to watch the birds that visit my garden, darting in and out through bushes and trees. Taking in their beauty and the freedom that they have to just wonder in and out as they please. Watching the birds drinking some of the rain water that has settled on the leaves or taking shelter from the sunshine.

It is amazing to see which birds will come and visit your garden, especially if you add some feeders up in the trees.