The Gardener's Rake » garden therapy

Beauty surrounds us: Secret Gardens are everywhere

Denise — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:20:32 +0000

Many people ask me why I garden and why the outdoors calls to me.

The answer is realt very simple. There is a beauty that appears with each sunrise and sunset. Even in the rain, which we have had too much of lately, there is a peace and the promise of drier weather and hope for better days. The simple work of digging in the soil and watching a new plant grow reminds me that there is more to life than schedules and a fast paced life.

This video reminds me of the morings in my back yard as the fog lifts off the creek and the sun promises us a new day. We find comfort in the things in our lives that are consistant but find joy in change. And the scenery around us is varied and beautiful throughout the year.

Gardening offers both the beauty and wonder of plants and the color and change they go through in their short growing season. It’s always amazing. Happy gardening to all, Denise

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Monet’s Gardens: Gardening and Art go Hand in Hand

Denise — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:10:50 +0000

Monet painted landscapes and garden scenes that are still some of the most appreciated art sold and collected.

Many do not realize the time he spent studying light and color and then setting up his garden to get the look he wanted. The pieces he created were a study on gardening. He studied flowers, textures, lighting and colors. He would research different plants to get the results he wanted. He also worked on how to capture nature and beauty on canvas.

The you tube video below gives you a small example of the color and beauty of his gardens.

Monet’s works do not seem to age they mature and grow each year and reach out and touch more generations.

Here is a more complete article on Monet and his gardens: http://thegardenersrake.com/garden-art-monets-oaintings-are-a-garden-study-on-canvas

Tags: Monet’s art, Monet’s gardens, garden art, famous gardens, famous artists, study of flowers as art

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Celebrate Earth Day 2008 – Natural Beauty

Denise — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:10:04 +0000

Earth day will be April 22nd. As the world increases in population it’s important to take care of our planet and its natural wonders.

Think about celebrating Earth Day. Plant a plant or tree or even pick up the roadside. Our actions today affect tomorrow’s world.

Here’s a video that celebrates natures beauty set to Celtic music.

Join the Gardeners Rake for an Earth Day celebration starting Monday April 21st, 2008. The celebration begins Monday with an online course on how to build Square foot garden beds and set them up. These ideas can also be used in raised beds, container gardens and lasagna gardening. Happy Earth Day!

Tags: Celebrate Earth Day, Earth Day 2008, Earth Day April 22, plant a tree, Natural Beauty,

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Beautiful Flowers of The World – Flowering gardens

Denise — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:49:55 +0000

Spring is just arriving in my Zone 5. I am waiting for the tulips and other bulb flowers to blossom. Until them I enjoy my indoor plants and work in the greenhouse.

I found this video today and the cheery music and beautiful flowers remined me of the gardens to come and I wanted to share. Enjoy the video!

Happy gardening all! Denise

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Gardening as Art – Meet Diana Mead – Artist and Gardener

Denise — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:13:08 +0000

I read this story online and wanted to share it. To me gardening and art go hand in hand. It’s a visual and emotional expression plus you have the benefits of fresh garden produce

Monet painted his water gardens for years and experimented with plants and lighting to create beautiful painting and a stunning garden.

Diana Mead has also done the same. Below is an article by Alison Young. It was printed in the South Wales Echo newspaper. This is the original story in its original form.

Garden is at root of Diana’s art
Feb 16 2008 by Alison Young, South Wales Echo

Garden is at root of Diana’s art

IF it can be captured on canvas then it will earn a place in Diana Mead’s garden.

For Diana has two great passions in her life – painting and gardening – with much of her work featuring flowers which she has grown herself.

At the moment it is her favourite hellebores and snowdrops, which are being immortalized in paint – but as the seasons move on other blooms will take their turn.

“I’ve just finished painting some snowdrops from the garden – they are out for such a short time that you have to be quick and capture them while you can,” explained Diana, who admits she often chooses plants for her garden based on what she likes to paint.

“I love to paint hellebores so obviously I grow lots of them in my garden.
“I am always looking for things to paint so that definitely plays a part when I am choosing plants for the garden – although it is not always conscious.”

It is Diana’s artistic eye, which is responsible for transforming three triangle-shaped areas surrounding her Penarth home into a meandering dry gravel river-themed garden.
The transformation began 30 years when Diana, who teaches painting, moved to Penarth just as her children were leaving home.

Over the years the garden has been gradually transformed – with the most dramatic change happening a few years ago when the front lawn was pulled up.

“I had a serpentine path which ran through the front garden and one visitor told me he loved my path because he thought it looked like a little stream. That gave me the idea to pull up my lawn and create this dry river bed effect with paving slabs and gravel.”

“I had lost a large cherry tree in my front garden through storms and the time was right to redesign that area,” she said.
Now the front, which is the largest part of Diana’s garden, follows a gently wavy path – with the paving being softened by low-growing plants such as thyme and with day lilies creating a reed-like effect on the edges of the gravel.

Two huge, coloured, themed herbaceous borders lie on either side of the river-like path – both carefully colour-coordinated.

“I think it is essential in a small garden to stick to a limited colour palette with a common theme so one of the borders is full of pink, purple and white flowers and the other rich reds and golds.”

All sorts of cottage garden favourites such as roses, clematis, peonies, agapanthus, sedum and verbena pack out these colour-themed borders. In her side garden Diana grows vegetables including garlic, beans, chard, courgettes and strawberries.

“It’s lovely, I only grow what I like to eat.”

Tucked away in the last area of Diana’s garden is her small pond and a dwarf pear tree which gave her an astonishing 30lbs of fruit last summer.

Within a year or two Diana hopes to be harvesting some very special apples – from two step-over apple trees which she grafted herself during a day-long course at Bridgend College.

“They are just sticks at the moment but hopefully next autumn I will be eating apples from them.”

Diana, 70, who went to Cardiff College of Art in the ’50s, has painted and gardened all her life.

“I remember helping my dad in the garden as a child. We had a wonderful 100ft-long back garden full of vegetables and flowers. In the front we had an almond tree, which had lovely pink blossom and then the most fantastic nuts, which we used in our baking at Christmas, she said. “I didn’t realize it at the time but he was a really good gardener and I learnt so much from him.”

Diana holds regular exhibitions of her work and during the summer opens the garden under the National Garden Scheme yellow book initiative. Her watercolour flower paintings are on view during her garden openings. Visit http://www.dianamead.net/ For more information on the NGS visit its website at http://www.ngs.org.uk/gen/default.aspx?

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Garden Therapy – Garden Art – Zen Gardens

Denise — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 01:38:52 +0000

One of the most popular Zen Gardens is the Zen rock garden of the Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto, Japan. It is a United Nations World Heritage site and if you have not experienced the garden there is no way to explain the feeling you get of peace and serenity.

How could a simple garden with no plants, flowers, trees or even weeds create such feelings?

The garden is in a rectangular shape measuring about 98 foot by 32 foot and is surrounded by earthen walls on three sides and a wooden veranda on the fourth side. It contains a bedding of white pebbles and 15 rocks of varying sizes.

The Ryoanji Temple means Temple of the Peaceful dragon. It was built sometime in the 1450’s and is a Zen place of worship and meditation. It burned in the Onin Wars and was rebuilt in 1486. The rock garden, just to the abbots’ quarters was laid out for a place for the monks to meditate. The landscape style used for the garden is called Karesanansui, which means withered landscape.

The gardens rocks are placed in five separate groups with the white pebbles being raked everyday around the rocks. It is raked in a circular shape around each rock and perfectly straight lines fill the rest of the areas without rocks.

One unique aspect of the garden is that no matter where you stand in the garden you can see only 14 rocks. One is always hidden from view. They say the only way you can see all 15 rocks at one time is through attaining spiritual enlightenment as a result of Zen meditation.

Various explanations for the garden’s layout have been given over the centuries but there are no clear-cut answers to its design. It has been said that the white gravel represents the ocean and the rocks the islands of Japan. It is also said that the rocks represent the Chinese symbol for “heart” or “mind.”

One last idea is that they represent a mother tiger and her cubs. They are swimming in the river of the white sand toward a fearful dragon. The mystery of the garden has lasted for centuries and may never be solved. Possibly that is part of the gardens charm and relaxing feel.

Recently a new research technique that studies shapes has been applied to he gardens design. They say although the open spaces appear to be empty they actually have a subconscious design of a tree trunk and branches and this image is what causes the claming effect to the gardens. Some believe of the garden rocks were to be rearranged the calming atmosphere would be altered.

Whatever the reason for the gardens tranquil effects, it is a unique experience and offers a different look to what is considered a garden.

There are mini Zen gardens available for people to take care of and arrange and I have to admit they are fun and calming. I have a couple.

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Gardening as Therapy and gift to the community

Denise — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:21:23 +0000

There was an article written in the Eureka Reporter in Eureka, Calif., about Marylee Bytheriver who lives in Eureka. It was publish November 3o, 2007.

Its all about Ms. Bytheriver and her garden and how she enjoys working the property. When she and her husband first purchased the property there was no garden and not much of a yard, but Marylee started working the soil and by using composting techniques improved the property and set about growing plants. She also installed a drip watering method to make the garden work minimal.

She has enjoyed the growth of the garden and the neighbors reaction to her plants. As it states in the writeup she considers her garden therapy and her gift to the community. It gives her great joy to see people smile as they take in the color and beauty of the garden. They travel quite a distance to view her gardens.

She feel a lot like me when it comes to gardening being a therapy. Sunshine, fresh air, exercise and enjoying the yard all make gardening fun. Yes, it’s work but even the work can be minimized with proper planning. The minute gardening stops being fun is when you step back and see how to simplify it.

Plus you can control time in the garden by how much you plant. Try planting a window sill garden, terrarium or container gardening if time is limited.

Bytheriver also uses found items as garden art. She has lined some of her gardens with wine bottle collected from a recycling center and has metal sculptures and newel posts in her yard. She even uses broken plates to line one of her garden areas. I have done this also and like the look.

Another friend of mine used plates and embedded them into a wall she was making. It’s a cross between mosaic and collage. It took her about three years to finish the project.

Bytheriver uses many inventive garden techniques and plays with color schemes in the garden. She also tries to have something growing all year long in the garden.

If you would like to check out the entire rest article and catch more of her garden tips follow this link:

http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=31147

The future

As with all die hard gardeners they have something new in the garden each year and love to share there ideas and tips with gardeners. Bythervievers gardens continue to change abd grow and as long as people continue to enjoy the plants I’m sure there will be a garden.

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Flower Therapy – An Approach to the “Art of Healing”

Denise — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:27:29 +0000

Exercise, fresh air and watching plants grow are only a few of the relaxing healthy benefits of gardening.

For me the challenge of laying out gardens and combining color, shape and textures add to the enjoyment. Throw in different and unusual plants and garden art pieces and a trip to the garden becomes an adventure. By bringing in plants or having a small greenhouse or sun room you can enjoy nature al the time.

All aspects of gardening have relaxing qualities, but many will agree flowers seem to bring instant peace and contentment. Is it the fragrance? Color? Texture? More than likely the combination

Flower Thereapy in healing is beoming more important in many hospitals and therapy center. Many are incorporating gardens, greenhouses and floral arrangements scattered in hallways and rooms.

A study called “The Art of Healing” is being studied and practiced aroung the world. The concept was started by Dr. Edward Bach in England. Through his obseravtions and study of homeopathy he studied the effects of flowers on health.

As stated in the article, “Flower Therapy acts on man as a whole, awakening his inner healing force, stimulating a change of conscience and, indirectly, a change in the energetic structure that acts over pathologic processes, modifying them. “

If you would like to know more about his studies and how he used this information check out the story from the Cuban Daily News and Cuba Now. http:www.cubaheadlines.com/2007/10/30/6726/flower_therapy_an_approach_to_the_art_of_healing

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Healing with Art – Reno Gazette Article – Art and Garden Therapy

Denise — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:23:21 +0000

Its proven that art acts as a therapy and has a relaxing healing effect on many people. Hospitals and therapy center are incorporating art in their building and garden areas to help relax patients and their families that visit.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney

Maggie O’Neill wrote the article Healing with Art which was in the Reno Gazette October 30, 2007. It covers the art that is being hung this week and is on exibit at the new Tahoe Tower in the Renown Regional Center in Nevada.

The article covers the topics of art and its relaxing effects. The Renown Regional Center has a “Healing Arts” program that they have used since the 1990’s.

The article is interesting in the fact that is also talks about the hanging of the various art styles, art media and the work involved in hanging a show.

Healing Garden

Plans will start in a year at the Renown Center for an outdoor healing garden that will be located between 3 of their buildings. It was called a “Central Park” in the article. The outdoor healing garden will have a water theme and one piece by David Kessler called the “Sunrise Shimmer” which is located in the Tahoe Tower will be the link between the indoor art and outdoor healing gardens.

The Tahoe Tower will be the introduction to therapy that relaxes both patients and their families with the addition of the gardens as a place to relax and enjoy family.

Technorati Tags: art therapy, garden art, Theme Gardens

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