“It was very nerve-wracking,” he tells me. Award winning garden designer Mark Lane Designs Ltd. I met up with Mark Lane at Gardeners’ World Live to talk about kneading soil, digging for roots and putting his garden in the public spotlight. 49 talking about this. Get the latest posts by email. and then the extensive job of weeding the driveway – something I was studiously ignoring! Thrive is a charity that uses gardening to help people with a disability or ill health, or who are isolated, disadvantaged or vulnerable, with centres in Reading, London and Birmingham. Recently, my husband, younger than me, from a family where gardening isn’t in the genes, like mine, has ‘discovered’ the same comfort, and a release of stress from his extremely high-pressure job, whilst helping me mow the lawns (it started off as jealousy of my new red fuel mower!) “I dragged my feet and would trip up. He describes the garden as “contemporary wild” with a loose, natural feel. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to The Chatty Gardener with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. That will come in time, I am sure! Chas Hodges of Chas'n'Dave: Cancer can sling its hook, Nip flower feuding in bud, says ALAN TITCHMARSH, (Image: BBC/GLENN DEARING/GEFFRYE MUSEUM), Mark found he was happiest when he was outside in the garden, Alan Titchmarsh net worth: Love Your Garden presenter has THIS much, Slash your arthritis pain with these five summer gardening tips. Express. peonies and hydrangeas but he’s planning to try them with ornamental grasses At the moment, they’re with traditional companions of newspaper archive. perspective.”. Mark and Jasen, a computer programmer, moved to a bungalow near Canterbury, Kent, where they had a bigger garden than they’d had before. “Just getting our fingers in soil releases serotonin, a feelgood hormone – it’s the same as eating a bar of chocolate. Within a month I had a gradual loss of feeling in my legs. “Have a look at it and see if it still looks right. Having a purpose lifted my spirits. T, These are one of this year’s gardening trials ex, On the blog - a round-up of the Malvern Plant & Ga. “Looking back, I’d had a strange gait from when I was a child,” he says. I felt as if someone had put bricks on my back. the same way for water and nutrients. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Gardening has also been vital in combating physical pain and One is the first wheelchair garden designer who also presents “Gardener’s World”… to play with plants, colours, textures.”. Even so he’s planted 98 per cent of When cutting rose stems use sharp, clean cutters and cut the rose at an angle so they do not sit flat at the bottom of the vase, which could impede water intake. often than not you’ll find one plant might have to move because of the views opened the garden under the National Garden Scheme – something he describes as If I tried to exercise, I was bed-bound for two or three days,” he says. Spina bifida occulta is thought to affect between 10 and 20 per cent of the population but most people don’t know they have it as there are usually no symptoms. It’s been divided into varying areas: an orchard with long grass and wild flowers, a herb garden, a blue and yellow border, a new white border, an ornamental grass border, and a 30m-long herbaceous border. A month later, again disaster struck when Mark was involved in a car accident. I love the fact gardening makes people happy; it gets them talking and they laugh, often for the first time in years.