The emotional and physical investment that working on a place entails means that over time it becomes woven into our sense of identity. As such it can be a protective part of our identity too, one that can help buffer us when the going gets tough. But as the traditional pattern of a rooted relationship to place has been lost, so we have lost sight

He regarded the plants in the garden as his ‘gentle guides’ because they showed him a different way of being.

The ancient Romans called it rus in urbe: literally bringing the countryside to the city. Rus in urbe compensated people for living in a state of separation from nature and made it possible to have the best of both. The ancients recognised that gardens were revivifying and used the lushness of vegetation, the shade of trees, and the beauty of flowe

There is, in fact, no neat dividing line between foraging and cultivation. Instead, as the American anthropologist Bruce D. Smith writes, there is a ‘vast and diverse middle ground’.

however much they can offer us respite, gardens also put us in touch with fundamental aspects of life.

Dopamine generates a sense of purpose and a state of optimistic expectation and it boosts connectivity and communication throughout the brain so that if our dopamine levels are low, we feel that we have lost our ‘mojo’.

one of the fundamental laws that govern life – that health is not a passive process. What is taking place on a microscopic scale also needs to happen on a larger canvas. The mind needs to be gardened, too. Our emotional lives are complex and need constant tending and reworking. The form this takes will be different for each one of us but fundamenta

Both daydreaming and playing are increasingly recognised to contribute to psychological health and these benefits do not stop with the end of childhood.

Children need to see positive confirmation of themselves in the world around them and they need to believe in their capacity to love. Adults are no different. But when we get into a spiral of anger and resentment, as the little boy did with his mother, it can feel hard to let grievances go, especially if pride is at stake. What eventually allows th