How to make a healing garden

Your garden can deliver a lot more than just outdoor decoration. Charles Solomon is an Indigenous plant consultant and founder of Garawana Creative. He shares tips on how we can incorporate Aboriginal knowledge into our garden to enhance our holistic wellbeing.Most of us can attest to the fact that being outdoors feels rejuvenating and it turns out science actually backs that up. Research has shown that three to five minutes of looking at trees, flowers or water can induce a relaxation response and reduce anger, anxiety and pain.In addition, a study of hospital patients found those who had a bed that looked out of windows towards leafy trees had shorter hospital stays and required less pain medication than those staring at blank walls.While any garden is a 'good' garden, Charles Solomon, who specialises in native Australian botany, land management, conservation and ecosystems, says that using Aboriginal knowledge when planting a garden can increase its healing power. For more information go to www. sbs.com.au/topics/walk with us. This feature was prepared by Kimberly Gillen and Amy Chien-Yu Wang

Charles Solomon Source: SBS