European garden spider (Araneus diadematus) drinks from a water droplet in the garden. (Photo from personal collection)
Begrudgingly, I live five minutes walk from a town centre. It is a setting of red bricks and grey concrete. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, splashes of puke and discarded takeaway containers dot the pavements. Plastic wrappers and aluminium cans just as likely to colour grass verges as wildflowers. But there is the garden . . .
The mornings are informed by coffee aroma, bird calls, and flowers. Recently, the poppies (Papaver rhoeas) started to bloom, petals like vibrant drops of blood, or a saucy lipstick shade. The Spring sun has been coaxing the plants into flower. And, as rich dark coffee filters through paper, the mornings are a tableau of visiting birds, those pretty flowers, and the squeal and strain of concrete urban noise.
A blackbird (Turdus merula), a female, has caught my attention recently. She visits my makeshift bird bath for tentative sips, more often than not hopping into the water afterwards. She splashes about and scratches at her head with one of her feet. Then she'll visit the peanuts and oat mix I leave on the ground for her, and whoever else might fancy the food. She is braver than some of the other garden visitors and seems to mind my presence less.
Woodpigeons (Columba palumbas) visit and, despite their being larger than other birds in the garden, they are some of the most skittish visitors. They absolutely will not land and partake of anything on offer if I am out there. From a window I might be allowed to watch one of them, but even then they circle food and water warily. They draw close, take a beak full, and move away again.
The pigeons are often thought of as dirty and grey things, but this isn't quite fair. The Woodpigeon might just seem grey at first glance, but their chests have a little splash of purple, and around their smart white collars there are patches of slightly iridescent green. Their plump and proud breasts belie their timid hearts. Even their relatives, the Feral pigeons (Columba livia), common to many a town and city centre, can be quite colourful. And their often unkempt appearance and poor condition has much more to do with how our own inefficient waste disposal impacts upon the environment and wildlife. Perhaps their appearance reflects more poorly on us than it does them. Those scrappy little underdogs are just doing the best they can with what they have.
A timid Woodpigeon (Columba palumbas) visits the peanut and oat mix. (Photo from personal collection)
Coffee cup empty and a desire to get outside, I go and check on my plants. My little garden is expanding and I, at the time of writing, now have six pots containing chilli pepper plants, three potted strawberry plants, and a variety of wildflowers for pollinators and any other little lives that might benefit from their presence. It is not the most impressive garden anyone could set their eyes upon, but it suits me just fine for now. Though I do hope to expand further as time goes by - their is a pride in bringing a plant to flower and fruit that is quite addictive. And, oh, then to see bees, butterflies, and beetles benefit from the plants of the garden!
Last year, I introduced a single potted strawberry plant to the garden, and that parent plant provided me with two other plants, as well as delicious fruits. I was proud to find that they survived their overwintering, snuggled up quite cosily beneath a blanket of straw during those cold months. They have returned this year, green and strong. Flowers come before the fruits, and a number of blossoms have appeared on two of the plants. The third, the smaller of the three, shows no flowers yet, but is green and vibrant. And I am proud of that little verdant plant; through the winter it looked unwell to my eye and, at one point, I thought it was dead. It had looked like nothing more than a little brown stump of a shoot to me.
The chilli pepper plants are a first for me. A little research lead me to understand that they fair better in glasshouses before being planted outdoors. However, without a glasshouse or proper propagators, I decided instead to use a pair of transparent buckets to cover the pots in which I planted the seeds. Then I placed them in the sunniest spots of the garden. And, so far, it seems to have worked. Of course, as I said, this is a first for me, and these are early days . . . But the seedlings are promisingly green and healthy in appearance.
My little garden - strawberry plants, chilli pepper plant seedlings, and Evening primrose at the centre. Those vibrantly red poppies in the background. (Photo from personal collection)
I quietly advocate for gardens that are as wild as possible. Wildflowers are where my own interest in gardening began a few years ago. Or, to be more accurate, my interest began with a concern for the pollinators, their importance in that big wide wonderful ecological web, and the trouble that they were in, and still are unfortunately. From there, my endeavours increased and grew to encompass a seed of interest in self sufficiency. So, amongst the flowers for birds and bugs, there are fruits for myself too.
Yes, though these efforts and these plants are for the lives that call the garden home, they are also for me. And they not only satisfy my health in terms of cultivating fruits and food that I know are as fresh and organic as I know how to produce. They also calm the mind.
It has been discovered, through EEG measurements (Electroencephalography) that when human beings see fractal patterns in nature brainwaves indicate a relaxed state. These patterns made up of smaller and smaller patterns, these fractals, are ever present in nature. They are found in flowers, in snowflakes, and trees - just a few examples. The closer you look at the patterns, the more patterns are revealed.
Why do these fractals produce such a reduction in stress? By as much as about 60%? Induce a relaxed state of being?
It is thought that, put simply, human beings feel so much calmer in the presence of nature's patterns because we evolved alongside those patterns in nature, and so our brains are wired in such a way that we process this visual information quickly. *
So, as I gaze into flowers and leaves, and I feel calm and peace descend, there's a scientific explanation for that!
There's also those little antidepressant bacteria in the soil. And, oh, just the poetry and romance of being around nature.
Yesterday, in the evening, I sat for an hour, just watching what took place in the garden. I watched the poppies wave in the breeze, their delicate petals already bruising and ruining. I listened to sparrow calls and train wheels squealing on tracks. The calling of a collared dove in the distance, the calls of children playing out there somewhere too. The smells of food cooking wafting from some neighbour's flat window. But, yes, through the urban sounds and smells, there are the birds and flowers.
The garden is a collage of House sparrow calls, the flap and clap of a startled Woodpigeon's wings, and a Magpie's harsh voice from a branch somewhere behind me. A little splash and my attention is drawn to the bird bath - the female blackbird is bathing. I take in the plants I have grown , the birds and bees invited by food and flowers, and just feel calm. And I feel quiet pride.
A good garden, perhaps especially when it is situated in the middle of a concrete town or city, is a blessing.
* If you would like to read a more detailed description of fractals in nature and their impact on our wellbeing, you can do so here, in this article from The Atlantic (26/01/2017).
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