HUE ARE YOU?
Leigh Bramwell enjoys the changing colour palette of her winter garden
HOW MANY TIMES have you read something promising that people who garden live longer? There’s plenty of research that supports the theory, but the proof of the pudding, as they say.
There was university study done a few years back of centenarians in Okinawa, which at the time had the world’s highest ratio of centenarians at around 50 per 100,000 people.
Many residents maintained small personal gardens well into old age and found a high level of social connectedness like visiting local markets and sharing produce and ideas, helped them to stay grounded, if you’ll excuse the pun.
That sense of connection is important, but so is your individual connection to nature. One Harvard University study showed that people who were surrounded by lush greenery lived longer, with a lower chance of developing cancer or respiratory illnesses. If that’s the case, I’m good to go for another 30 or 40 years, assuming weeds and unwanted plants count towards the total making up the lush greenery that surrounds our house.
It’s also said that gardening gives you something to get up for every day, although that doesn’t apply to me, as in single figure temperatures I would rather not get up at all. However, in pleasant weather a pending garden project will have me out of bed in a flash.
Finally, there is also a dietary component to longevity that gardening can help with. (I knew they were going to ruin it).
Research has demonstrated a link between a diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and olive oil and slower ageing. The report didn’t mention a sausage roll and two squares of white chocolate a day. Or wine.
However it did concede that while eating an abundance of fresh vegetables, ideally from local gardens and markets, is important to longevity, they didn’t have to be “Mediterranean” vegetables. In Okinawa, for example, most people grow vegetables such as bitter melon and sweet potatoes in their gardens. Watch this space.
COLOUR
If I do say so myself, our garden looks brilliant in winter. Orange, pink and white vireyas, pink rhododendrons, bright red hibiscus, two tone apricot/orange hibiscus, grevilleas, lilies, camellias, magnolias, purple tibouchina, and troughs of multi-coloured annuals — not bad for a person who has always been a bit colour-phobic.
When I first started gardening I took my cue from my very talented niece who had just built a new house in Christchurch which was all white, with a white garden. It was a serene, stylish space and sent me along a minimalist path when it came to colour.
However, gardening in the sub-tropical far north doesn’t lend itself to a monochromatic palette, so I have had to bite the bullet to accommodate both the climate and The Landscaper, who is fond of the odd splash of colour.
There’s quite a lot to know about colour in the garden, especially if you’re a beginner, but for starters, hot colours like red, yellow and orange add an illusion of warmth to your outdoor spaces during cold seasons.
They’re cheerful, too, so if you’re suffering a bit of Covid gloom, they may give you a boost. In mid-summer, though, not so much. Hot coloured items tend to appear closer than they actually are and can make small gardens feel even smaller.
Cool colours, like green, blue, white and occasionally pale tones of other colours, are my favourites. In warm climates and seasons they help to create the illusion of coolness and a walk in the garden becomes more enjoyable.
Cool colours are recessive, too, so they give the impression that the garden is bigger than it really is. A scary thought for someone who already finds two acres far too much work!
And if you’re in the habit, as we are, of wandering around the garden in the late afternoon, you can try wine-matching to your garden style. Enjoy an icy cold flute of bubbly while admiring your coolcoloured plants, or a bucket of heartwarming red wine in your orange-toned mid-winter garden.