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Top tips to create a forest bathing garden

Turn your garden into a mindful sanctuary with ideas to steal from the RHS Forest Bathing Garden

Taking time to connect with nature does wonders for your wellbeing, from boosting mood and aiding relaxation, to lowering your blood pressure. It can be a powerful antidote to the stresses of modern life, so much so that doctors in Japan prescribe the practice of forest bathing to improve health and wellness.

What exactly is forest bathing? Simply put, it means spending time outdoors in a mindful way and engaging your senses to notice the sights, sounds and smells of the forest – from the different colours, textures and patterns of plants around you, to the joyful sound of birdsong or wind rustling through the trees.

But you don’t have to be in a forest to experience the wellbeing benefits of observing nature. The RHS Forest Bathing Garden, created by award-winning garden designer Dave Green, shows how you can create a green space for mindfulness in a much smaller setting.

A stand-out feature of the 2022 RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, this woodland-style garden is packed full of take-home planting ideas to help engage the senses and relax the mind, no matter how big or small your garden space.
 

1. Go for green

To bring the feeling of the forest into your own space, stick to a planting palette of mainly green hues with a focus on verdant foliage. Green is a dominant colour in nature, associated with growth and renewal, and known to have a soothing effect.

To maximise the impact, mimic the planting layers of the woodland, incorporating trees to give a shady green canopy, shrubs to provide a hit of green at eye level, and lush plants at ground level to light up beds, borders and shady corners.
 

2. Visual variety

Sambucus nigra Black Lace (‘Eva’) and a Dryopteris fern
Create a planting scheme to aid mindfulness by giving the eye plenty to rest on. Use a variety of plants with contrasting leaf shapes, patterns and appearances, and take time to notice the details of each plant when taking a mindful moment in your garden.

Ferns are a favourite woodland plant and many have intricately shaped leaves and wonderful jagged edges to captivate the eye. Blechnum spicant (hard fern) has bright green lance-shaped fronds with smooth leaflets, while Dryopteris wallichiana (alpine woodland fern) has finely dissected, lace-like fronds on blackish-brown scaly stems.

Hosta undulata var. albomarginata
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’
Hostas provide a beautiful contrast with their large, luscious leaves. Some varieties have smooth foliage while others have rippled leaves. To make their lush foliage stand out even more, choose a cultivar with highlighted or variegated margins, such as Hosta undulata var. albomarginata, H. ‘Fire and Ice’ or H. ‘Patriot’.

Dot around plants with different foliage colours to draw your eye through the planting. Deciduous shrub Sambucus nigra Black Lace (‘Eva’) demands your attention with its dramatic almost black foliage and soft, feathery leaf shapes.
 

3. Textural treats

Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii ‘Doorenbos’
Not only striking in appearance, trees with ornamental bark bring a textural quality to the garden and can be therapeutic to touch, from the smooth copper red trunks of the Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula) to the peeling paper-like bark of many birch trees. Layers of cinnamon-tinted bark peel off the birch Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii ‘Doorenbos’ to reveal its silvery white trunks.

Positioning grasses next to paths or seating areas offers the chance to stroke their tactile foliage and enjoy the soothing rustling sounds they make as you brush past. The grass Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Bronzeschleier’ has touchable thread-like leaves and frothy golden flowerheads. For damper areas in the garden, use grass-like sedges, such as Carex testacea ‘Prairie Fire’, for textural effect.
 

4. Scented gems

Viburnum × bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’
Scents can be nostalgic, unlocking pleasant feelings while engaging our attention and connecting us with the natural world. For many, the smells of the forest can evoke feelings of calm and contentment. Why not leave areas of moss and leaf litter in your garden to add a subtle forest aroma.

For a more powerful hit of fragrance, add plants with scented flowers to your garden space. Viburnum × bodnantense ‘Charles Lamont’ is adorned with clusters of pink perfumed blooms on bare stems from autumn to early spring. Not only does Sarcococca confusa (sweet box) have lustrous deep green leaves all year, in winter its small but strongly fragrant, creamy-white flowers scent the air.
 

5. Seasonal stars

Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’
Pick trees and plants to provide interest throughout the year, so you can practise mindfulness in every season. Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is one of the earliest trees to come into leaf in spring with its striking lime green crinkled foliage. These leaves become bronze in autumn and are then held on the tree through winter.

The deciduous shrub Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ is sure to catch your eye in autumn, as its deep purple leaves turn to fiery red. For a shrub with showy flowers and radiant stems, Hydrangea paniculata ‘Wim’s Red’ is a fantastic choice. Held on red-tinted stems, its large white blooms mature to deep red in autumn before taking on a delicate skeletal quality in the winter months.

For flower colour to brighten winter days, the nodding flowers of Helleborus × hybridus Harvington pink speckled can last for months and provide important nectar for early pollinators on the wing.
 

6. Admire the view

Add a seating area to immerse yourself among the planting and relax the body as well as the mind. An angled seat or lounger is perfect for directing your gaze up towards the tree canopy.

Even if you don’t have a garden, you can still experience the feel-good power of plants. Choose a range of houseplants with interesting leaf shapes, colours and markings, and group them together in a quiet corner of your home, to create a leafy green sanctuary to practise mindfulness.
 
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See also

Discover the highlights of RHS Hampton Court 2022

Discover the highlights of RHS Hampton Court 2022

Trends from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022

Trends from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022

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