Could our lack of contact with the natural world be a contributing factor to high levels of inflammation, which could be related to depression and other mental health disorders?

the ‘obvious is usually profoundly significant’.

lack of access to nature isn’t the only barrier.

‘The’ environment, rather than ‘our environment’, underlines the misconception that we live on some kind of separate planet, that we are somehow not alive because of the living world around us.

‘When you look at environmental legislation as a whole, the main caveat that gives people the excuse to concrete a garden is this concept of overriding public interest,’ she says.34 ‘This runs through legislation like DNA. Let’s protect that park, or that mountain, but only if it’s in the public interest. It’s this concept of public interest we nee

how to create grass-free lawns and suggests red flowered daisies (Bellis), white flowered buttercups (Ranunculus) and bronze-leaved bugle (Ajuga) as examples of plants that would work in the climate of Western Europe.18

The human desire for things, comforts and luxuries has competed with nature to breaking point. Living to excess must be replaced with living responsibly and sustainably.

Rejecting our animality, as the American environmentalist and writer Paul Shepard put it, may evolve into a ‘rejection of nature as a whole’.

Simply put, we’ve moved inside. We live in cubicles, cars and tower blocks, spending only 1 to 5 per cent of our time outdoors.