Serenity in the Garden

Roger Ulrich (of Texas A & M University) found that viewing natural scenes in a hospital aided in recovery by  evoking positive feelings and reducing stressful thoughts. Now, Matilda Annerstedt of the Swedish University of Agricultural Science discovered that we recover faster from stress and our body returns to a normal, harmonious state after exposure to nature and nature sounds as compared to an ordinary indoor setting. It seems the nature sounds triggered a significantly higher activity in the parasympathetic nerve system which, in turn, calms us.  The active effect of natural sounds on our wellbeing indicates that we need to add sounds to a hospital setting, right? Little research has been done in the field of sounds but I think birdsong will do a lot in helping our bio-physiological recovery from the stress of urban life.  

Red Obelisk European Beech  Red Obelisk European Beech is a 2015 Cary Award winner and for good reason! It is a narrow, columnar tree with wavy, lustrous, burgundy-black foliage all spring and summer.  Ideal for tight planting areas, it can grow 40 ft. high and no more than 10 ft. wide after several decades.  Tolerant of urban pollution so it is good for city landscapes.  Red Obelisk European Beech Tree It is a pest-free cultivar, shows good tolerance to road salt, compacted soils and a little light shade (which reduces the intensity of foliage color). In fall its foliage turns coppery-bronze, holding for weeks, eventually dropping to display a distinct winter-branching outline against the sky. Plant it  for a strong vertical accent.  Or use several trees to form a hedge. Young Red Obelisk trees Red Obelisk is quite tolerant of soil conditions - it needs adequate drainage but other than that, fares well in almost all soil types...

Here is an eclectic batch of serenity in the garden photos...Enjoy! Sedum 'Mastro' - doesn't flop over like others! Purple leaves add a quiet note to the garden . Marbles in water in a Stone Basin.  Light splashing through the leaves on a summer day. Purples, light green, silver and burgundy contrast with a steel wall structure .  Gossamer wings on a butterfly. Garden of Visceral Serenity by Yoji Sasaki Miss Saori Hydrangea -  RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2014 - Plant of the year / RHS ...

Source: Fix.com

Icy Rose     My favorite garden writer, Eleanor Perenyi , wrote one garden book,  Green Thoughts,  and it affected me immeasurably when I first read it in 1982.   I thought how marvelous that she could combine great writing with the mundane joys of a Northeast garden.  She refers to chestnuts and it makes me wonder if she had a tree because  the once plentiful native chestnut trees are gone, killed by the devastating fungal disease, chestnut blight. (Although they have a foundation, go here: The American Chestnut Foundation .)  Here is a paragraph from her essay,  Autumn . It catches that early morning moment in a late November garden:   frost dahlia  by Ellis Hollow blog "Heavier dews presage the morning when the moisture will have turned to ice, glazing the shriveled dahlias and lima beans, and the annuals will be blasted beyond recall. These deaths are stingless. I wouldn't want it otherwise.  I g...

Sweet gum tree in November Deep down, in the warmth of the fecund earth, the spirits sing songs of life. Christmas Ferns stay green in November Hoping we hear, they inhale and exhale along with the seasons. Crabapple in my garden in November Now, in the cool days of November, they sing to us of rest, replenishment and they ask us to be calm. Hellebore from Pine Knot Farm in my garden The time has come to listen and of course, to rake the leaves... the leaves... -  Jan Johnsen

Let it be admitted that the world’s problems are many and wearing,  and that the whirlpool runs fast.  If we are to build a stable cultural structure above that  which threatens to engulf us  by changing our lives more rapidly than we can adjust our habits,  it will only be by flinging over the torrent  a structure as taut and flexible as a spider’s web,  a human society deeply self-conscious and undeceived  by the waters that race beneath it,  a society more literate, more appreciative of human worth than any society that has previously existed.  That is the sole prescription, not for survival — which is meaningless —  but for a society worthy to survive. - Loren Eiseley, from 'A Firmament of Time'