When we get bogged down in the unfavourable aspects of our existence, we don’t always think of gardening as a solution. But this year, the RHS Flower Show is championing mental health as its latest show blossoms in Cardiff’s Bute Park this April.
Speaking with show manager Anna Skibniewski-Ball, she explains why health, wellbeing and gardening are symbiotic. “It’s just the combination of all the scientific studies praising what we have always known – that gardening has a positive impact on your physical and mental health.” Several shows and displays promoting wellbeing are being exhibited in 2019. Gardd Lles (Welsh for ‘Wellbeing Garden’) promotes contemplation and the idea that being near plant growth benefits personal growth.
Wellbeing gardens are a concept being shared to bring mindfulness to communities, says Skibniewski-Ball. “People who attend will hopefully realise that there are so many options to help you with your health and you don’t need to be an expert to reap those benefits.” After the show, the garden is being transported to Morrison Hospital so that patients there can benefit from it: “We always encourage the gardens to be a permanent contribution to a community after a show.”
Grow Cardiff are a charity who promote the power of community by getting the patients of their Grow Well project to curate a display at the show. “They prescribe gardening as a medication. We are just trying to show that it isn’t just once a year these things happen, it’s the whole year round.”
Further on that theme, the ‘Wheelbarrow Competition’ returns, where local schoolchildren craft gardens within a wheelbarrow based on a theme (this year’s being ‘discovery’). It’s as vital as ever to get children mucking around in the mud. “You don’t have to give detail as to why it’s good for them to be out there gardening – they come up with these beautiful narratives about their very small gardens and wheelbarrows.
“The effect [the competition] has on adults has gives them an outside-of-the-box way of thinking and they then start to think they can replicate this on a bigger scale. It provides inspiration for any age, but it comes from the minds of a younger generation.”
words Dylan Bellis
Bute Park, Cardiff, Fri 12-Sun 14 Apr. Tickets: £15/£12 (discounts for RHS members)
Info: www.rhs.org.uk