Let happiness bloom by planting flowers
The spring months bring warmer weather making it a good time to plant some seeds ready for the year ahead, read about the wonderful benefits of planting and how to prepare.
Posted on 10th March 2023
There’s nothing like the beauty of flowers to make you feel good, they provide food and shelter for birds along with feeding our all-important pollinators such as bees and butterflies. You can read about making a bee hotel here.
Spending time outdoors in nature is good for wellbeing, planting and gardening are good activities to undertake alone or with the family, which can improve mental health, encourage exercise, provide stress relief, and ignite happiness and wellbeing.
Planning and preparation
You can add scent, texture, and colour to your garden. Think about colour schemes, you may want to go for a mix of colour or add pops of colour to different areas of your garden or balcony. You don’t have to have a garden to enjoy planting, seeds can be grown in pots and on balconies, a variety of herbs and chillies grow well on window ledges.
Early spring is the time to propagate a selection of seeds ready for summer flowering, including marigolds, sweet peas, delphiniums, and sunflowers. By choosing a mix of plants that bloom throughout the season, will ensure pollinators have plenty of food sources, look out for bird and bee friendly flowers in your local supermarket or garden centre. Primroses are a fantastic early nectar source and larval food for early butterflies and bees. You can buy these ready grown to plant in pots and garden beds.
You will need to research the growing conditions your seeds require and consider sun, soil, space, water, and temperature. Lots of flowering plants like nutritious soil with good drainage, however wildflowers can flourish in poor quality earth, perhaps an easier option for the lazier gardener! When weeds start to emerge it’s a good sign that the soil is ready to start sowing your seeds. You can also start off a lot of plants indoors from seed, using trays and good quality compost, sowing your seeds as directed on the packet and placing in a warm, moist, well-lit location.
Get the children involved
What better than to introduce children to gardening, helping them develop an important new life skill and giving them an understanding of the plant growth lifecycle and where their food comes from. It can also be fun working as a team, seeing your labour of love come to fruition. You may fancy growing your own vegetables and the RHS have all the tips and advice you need.
Discover the blooms at Explore Essex Country Parks
It’s great to get outside, especially after the winter months, connect with nature and enjoy a slower and calmer pace of life. Visit an Explore Essex Country Park this spring where you will find a variety of early blooms, including the Lesser Celandine, Galanthus (snowdrops), daffodils and many more varieties. You can also read about our Bluebell walks here.
Or take a wander around the Tudor Walled Garden at Cressing Temple Barns, a place of beauty and tranquillity and which is home to the largest and most comprehensive collection of 16th century plants in the area, from fresh herbs and medicinal plants to Marigolds and Rosa. Enjoy beautiful tulips and blossom later in the spring. Discover some seasonal gardening tips from Head Gardener Rebecca.