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How to create a feel-good garden

Create your own Feel Good Garden with Chelsea award-winning designer Matt Keightley’s top tips

It’s well documented that being outdoors in nature can promote a feeling of wellness and help reduce the symptoms of stress in our everyday lives. So it makes complete sense to create a green space in your own home that lifts your spirits.

Designer Matt Keightley built a Feel Good Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2018 that was packed with ideas that visitors could try for themselves at home – here are his tips to help you get started.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show award-winning designer Matt Keightley

“It’s crucial to have plants in your life,” says Matt. “We care for plants like they’re children and that gives us purpose, meaning and something to focus on outside of everyday life, which, in very simple terms, is a great way to alleviate day-to-day stress.”

But which plants are best for improving health and wellbeing? And how can we use them to their best effect? Follow Matt’s simple tips below:

1. Use cool-toned colours in your planting

Soft blue geranium ‘Rozanne’
Uplifting and bright foxgloves

Whites, pinks, blues and purples have been found to have a calming and relaxing effect on people’s state of mind, so incorporate those colours into your garden planting.

2. Don’t just grow ornamentals

Rosemary makes a great low hedge
Herbs can be grown in windowboxes...
...or even hanging baskets

Herbs are remarkable: “There’s a huge value from aromatic plants and everyday herbs and I think if they’re used appropriately throughout it can look and smell very beautiful.” Why not use Matt’s favourite plant – rosemary – a plant that demands you caress it as you walk past.

3. Maximise texture

Fluffy seedheads of grasses demand to be stroked
Grasses combine with layers of foliage texture to create a relaxed feel

Grow a variety of different plants. Evergreen structural planting, grasses and

perennials are all great choices as they offer colour and a variety of textures throughout the year. Grasses in particular offer lovely movement and can help attract wildlife. Think about texture in your hard landscaping too.

4. Encourage wildlife

Lavender encourages bees into your garden
Water is important for birds and other wildlife
Even urban gardens can be a valuable habitat for insects
Birds, bees and other garden wildlife will put a smile on your face as soon as you see them. Encourage them into your garden with plants for pollinators and a water supply for them to bathe in and drink.

5. Create an interesting route

Textured pathways encourage you to slow down
A meandering path invites exploration
Lay out a meandering path through your garden. Use different materials to encourage you to stop focusing on the mind and pay attention to where you’re going. Add points along the way that encourage you to linger.

6. Draw the eye deep into the garden

Add a focal point...
...or a view through the plants
...or a spectacular specimen plant
Build something so beautiful that it breaks a thought process. Rather than thinking about the everyday stresses or what anxiety you have, by creating something beautiful to look at, you'll be encouraged to forget about your problems and focus on the garden.

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.