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Curated News

How To Grow A Mood-boosting Garden| Financial Times | Clare Coulson

Here's an excerpt:

“Isabel Bannerman – who along with her husband, Julian, has created atmospheric gardens for the Prince of Wales at Highgrove [and other royalty] – is a passionate flag-bearer for good-for-you gardening. “Plants are a really good steadier. You can’t let them die, you have to keep going. Like having children, but less demanding,” she says. But as she also notes, gardens are very forgiving.

For Bannerman, scent is key to creating gardens that transport and revive – a subject she explores in her book Scent Magic: Notes from a Gardener. 

American journalist and author Florence Williams has gathered and simplified the research in her book The Nature Fix, which reveals that we are hard-wired to be in the natural world. “Our brains become relaxed because these are things that we are designed to look at, hear and smell,” she says. “The frontal lobe – the part of our brain that’s hyper-engaged in modern life – deactivates a little when you’re outside, while alpha waves, which indicate a calm but alert state, grow stronger.”

Botanical History On This Day

1703 Daniel Defoe, the English journalist and author of Robinson Crusoe, was made to stand in the pillory at Temple Bar. The public, sympathetic to his plight, showered him not with filth but with flowers and songs of support.

1860 Mary Vaux Walcott, the American botanical illustrator known as the “Audubon of Botany,” was born in Philadelphia. Her five-volume North American Wildflowers remains a masterpiece of precision and natural beauty.

1895 Richard Morris Hunt, the Gilded Age architect who worked alongside Frederick Law Olmsted to design the Biltmore Estate and other iconic landmarks, died on this day.

1917 Francis Ledwidge, the Irish poet and soldier known as the “poet of the blackbirds,” was killed in action during World War I. His verse captures the pastoral heart of Ireland and the fleeting beauty of summer.

1972 Sidney Dylan Ripley established the horticulture program at the Smithsonian, later known as the Smithsonian Gardens, ensuring that gardens would become a living and integral part of the museum experience.

Unearthed Words

Today’s words bid farewell to July and muse on the passing of summer. Goodbye, July—Words for the End of Summer

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Outstanding American Gardens by Page Dickey

Buy the book on Amazon: Outstanding American Gardens by Page Dickey

Today's Botanic Spark

National Avocado Day — Celebrating the Alligator Pear
Today, we celebrate the avocado, once called the alligator pear by Sir Hans Sloane in 1696. Remember, avocado flesh is rich in potassium (even more than bananas!), but the skin is toxic to cats and dogs. And here’s a curious twist: conquistadors used avocado seeds as ink, for the liquid turns red upon meeting the air.

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And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.