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Wake Up And Smell The Flowers – Why Gardeners Are The Happiest Workers

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There is this hallowed idea among the general working population that some of us are happy. Do you know any of these people? I know a few but I also know a few more that aren’t  Maybe in your social circle job satisfaction is the norm but there are an awful lot of people for whom this is not the case. They may have had ideas and dreams as a child or teen but somehow life didn’t pan out that way. We’ve all heard the cliché that money doesn’t bring happiness. According to a City and Guilds study, gardeners are the happiest workers and the least happy are, wait for it… bankers! What is it that makes us happy and contented in our work and why is it so important? We spend such a large part of our week at work. Even when we’re not there, we’re often thinking about it or preparing to go back, so it makes sense that our feelings towards our work will affect our general well being. Apparently, to be truly happy and contented at work, we need to feel recognised, appreciated and supported. We need to feel as if we’re doing something worthwhile while being able to use our skills every day, as well as receiving training and having the opportunity to learn. Gardeners, it would seem, are getting all of this in spades. Ahem. Read on to see how they manage to tick all these boxes.

Exercise

It’s good for us! We all know that really. Many of us spend the day sitting at a desk and call at the gym after work, or go out for a run. Well, I have heard of such people anyway, but gardening is pretty much hard core exercise all day long. Bending, squatting, digging, weeding, hoeing and raking makes a pretty good workout for the whole body and most gardeners will be fit and toned, presumably adding to their general contentment as well as filling them with endorphins.

Breathe

An added bonus of all of this lovely, happy exercise is that it is executed outside in the fresh air. Plenty of sunshine, vitamin D, and lots of lovely oxygen in the lungs contribute to a healthy lifestyle. The downside is being required to work in bad weather but fresh air is mood boosting even if it is a rainy day.

Creation

People tend to feel real pride in creating things and gardeners are constantly surrounded by the fruits of their labour. Planting a seed and watching it grow into a plant is one of life’s simple pleasures and in gardening this will often be happening on a grand scale. Being surrounded by beauty that has been cultivated and created by ourselves is extremely pleasing, leading to that all elusive job satisfaction.

Nurture = Love

Creating a wonderful garden is an act of love. It requires the gardener to nurture and care for their plants and raise their babies into healthy adults. This is the same for relationships and well, if it can be done in the garden…

Dirt is good for you

As well as the digging part being good for you, there is actually something in the mud that improves mood and reduces anxiety. A particular bacterium has been shown to be present in the soil that can have all sorts of health benefits as well as increasing serotonin. With all of these pointers for happiness and well-being, I, for one, am going to log off now and get out in my garden.

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Sam Wright is happily growing and working as a journalist for HorticultureJobs.






Three Steps to a Fungi-Free Garden

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If you love gardening, there is nothing more frustrating than seeing all your time and effort go to waste due to fungi attacking your greens and blooms. To make matters worse, these culprits spread rapidly when conditions are favorable and eventually cause a wide variety of parasitic diseases on plants.


However, plant fungal diseases are usually the result of some factors that you can actually control. In fact, as simple as paying attention to your garden’s hygiene and cleanliness can do a whole lot in protecting your plants against fungi attacks. Written below are three more ways you could follow to keep damaging fungi at bay.

Mind your plant placement

Remember that fungi thrive well in damp conditions and planting your greens too close together will eventually result to crowding, which limits the amount of air circulating between the plants. When this happens, your greens are not able to shed water well, especially on their leaves. And if left unattended, fungal spores that are carried by air easily attach themselves on leaf surfaces, thereby setting the stage for fungal invasion.

To avoid this, it is vital that you site your plants properly to allow optimal air circulation around them. It is also wise to group plants together base on their level of water needs so that when you create an irrigation system, you will be able to apply the same amount of water to specific plants within your garden.

Ensure good landscape sanitation

As mentioned earlier, the key to keeping your garden free from fungal diseases is to observe cleanliness. Hence, if you have greens or blooms that are susceptible to fungal diseases, make sure that you regularly remove and discard leaf trimmings, old root systems and fallen fruits from their growing area to avoid the onset of fungi attack. If, for instance, you will reuse old pots, sterilize them before you put the greens in to minimize the risk of fungi infecting the plants.

Practice preventive measures

Keeping your plants in tip-top condition by properly attending to their needs is your safest bet to ensure that they will be able to withstand fungi attacks. Therefore, when gardening, don’t forget to practice preventive measures such as watering the plants’ bases instead of their leaves, applying fresh mulch every now and then to prevent spores from bouncing on the surfaces of leaves, and applying compost to keep both your soil and plants healthy.

Additionally, use horticultural oils and baking soda solutions to keep fungal diseases from infecting your plants in the first place. And don’t forget to provide your greens and blooms with optimum growing conditions (sufficient light, water and soil) so that they will grow healthily.

This gardening advice was penned by one of the regular contributors of Heritage Cleaning, a stone cleaning specialist in Scotland. Their steam-based stone cleaning system is acknowledged by Historic Scotland and has been used in the restoration and conservation of listed buildings throughout the country.

Keeping Gardens Green

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In these environmentally conscious times many of us are keen to garden in as green a manner as is possible.  Just where does one to start?  So often the word green is just inserted into a description but might not mean anything more than the colour of the paint on a gardening tool.  A little bit of research can go a long way although it will take a long time before being able to do everything.  There is no need to do everything at once.  In marketing there is the well-known 20/80 split.  That means that 20% of smokers buy 80% of cigarettes!  It is a remarkably consistent pattern for many products. So with 20% of the effort required you can achieve 80% of results that you want to achieve!

Nowadays one of the big problems is that people want to pave over large parts of their garden.  On a small scale this does not matter but when whole streets cover their front gardens for parking and put down slabs for patios in their back garden the amount of rain that can be absorbed into the soil is reduced and the resulting run-off can cause flooding.

There are ways around this and still avoid the need for weeding.  Where hard standing really is a must there are various types of concrete grids which allows rainfall to seep through into the soil but is more than capable of keeping vehicles from churning up any mud.  Any greenery growing through the grid can be kept orderly by using a strimmer.  The greenery softens the visual impact of the concrete but does not hide it.

Alternatives include putting down permeable matting and topping it with chippings.  This arrangement will allow rainfall to seep into the soil and boot water supplies for nearby plants during dry spells.  This can reduce the cracking of clay soils which in turn reduces the risk of subsidence of buildings in droughts!

One can use decking instead of concrete or stone slabs for patios.  By leaving a few gaps the rainwater will soak into the soil.  If one does not want to be bothered by having to keep undergrowth in check lay down permeable matting and most problems will be kept manageable.

No option is perfect but some are definitely preferable to others.  A few stepping stones across a lawn can make it easier to cross without having much impact on the environment.  By having some herbs growing next to a path one can breathe in the scent when they are crushed underfoot!  (Do be careful not to slip!)  A garden can please more than one sense if a little thought is given to it.

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Post written by London Florist – Flowers24hours.co.uk , know more about the florist on their About Us Page.

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