Girl meets garden

Falling off a horse brought Laura Flint down to earth in more ways than one. Recovering from severe head injuries, Laura, a software designer, rekindled a childhood love for gardens. It became a form of therapy for her and, as it turned out, a way to connect with her environment and her community. ‘Gardening gave me something to focus on,’ she says. ‘It gave me a coping mechanism; it helped distract me from my anxiety, and everything just grew from there.’ To develop her vegetable garden, she researched what is known as the Square Foot Method, in which you divide the area you want to cultivate into raised beds of the same size. Then, you plant each bed with as many plants of a specific vegetable as it can comfortably accommodate. ‘It is a good method to get high yields from a relatively small garden,’ she explains. ‘I try to garden as naturally as possible by doing companion planting and using natural products to keep pests away.

Laura documents her garden journey on Instagram. ‘It’s incredible to see how many people are such keen gardeners. We share videos and even hold plant parties in our area,’ she says. Laura now finds herself happily ensconced as a millennial plant parent. ‘As millennials, we’ve grown up with technology and spend so much time looking at screens,’ she says. ‘We have a great need to spend more time in nature. Technology enables me to work from home, but it also gives me the flexibility to close my laptop and spend time in my garden. My garden brings balance to my life.’

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