SPEAKER_01 0:00

BBC Gardeners World Autumn Fair returns to the stunning setting of Audley End House and Gardens near Staffron Walden from Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th of September. Among the many experts who are going to be there, passing on their worldly knowledge is Ashley Edwards. Ashley, lovely to catch up with you. Now, you're a horticultural therapist, is what I'm told.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

What is a horticultural therapist? Well, I use horticulture to help people. It could be helping people physically, it could be helping people mentally, but it's harnessing the power of plants to improve people's well-being in all sorts of ways. And it can be if you've had an injury. So my previous role, I was working at Horatio's Garden and people with spinal injuries. Um, so it's about using your using hands for dexterity, trying to get movement back. Also, just getting out of the hospital walled and being able to be outside in nature. It's about improving your well-being, using nature, and that is the kind of basis of horticultural therapy.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

It it sort of sounds like common sense, but I but I guess there are people who don't realise what they can do with a little bit of guidance and help, and of course, the the overall impact it can have on them. Explain a little bit more about how that works.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

I mean, there is so much science now that backs up what we already know about being outdoors and just spending 15 minutes outside can drop your heart rate, it can lower your cortisol levels, it can make you sleep better. And you feel good when you're outside, we all know that. But it's about how do you slow down, be mindful, and really take care in what you're doing, and that's when you'll get the best benefits. And also a lot of people don't have access to nature. A lot of people that live in cities, they aren't able to get into a green space, they might live more than 10 minutes away from a green space, and they are the ones that really need to engage more. So it's about showing people what they can do, um, giving them the kind of simple steps that they feel confident to do it themselves at home, and take time and slow down and let that part of your brain switch off that's always tick-tick tick tick tick.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

That sounds like good advice for us all, doesn't it, in this modern world that we live in. So you didn't just sort of wake up one day and think I'm gonna be a horticultural therapist. What's your background? How do you how did you get to where you are now?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

I um many years ago I was working at a garden centre, and that's where I started working with plants. I've always loved nature, but yeah, that's where I started working with them, and I thought, why don't I take this on to a career? You never hear about gardening at school as a career ever. I never heard about it. What is that, do you think? I think it's really wrongly seen as an unskilled profession. And I think that a lot of people that go into it, you know, they it's just not promoted by schools. They're they're interested in getting you into uni and that's what they want. And um, yeah, with gardening, it's not seen as a skilled profession, even though you study many, many years and have to learn so much, you're constantly learning. So yeah, I really don't like that. But um at the garden centre, I met a colleague who had just finished the uh Q diploma, so that's what I went on to do. I applied at Q Gardens, uh Royal Botanic Gardens, studied there for three years, then I I went to America for a year with an RHS interchange fellowship. I came back and then I went to Sicily and I did a management uh internship there at cooking school. I grew vegetables. Then I came back again and I got a job at Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham and I started to see like how people use spaces during COVID to help them feel better. People were having picnics outside, and you could see people's um energy lifted. I was helping to facilitate um, I was helping to facilitate workshops with people living with dementia and loneliness, and I saw the results that had on people, which is incredible. And then going on to to um move to Horatio's garden, I got a job there, and I was working at the London Garden, started with the garden, planted it all up with Tom Stuart Smith's team, and yeah, and then I got to do one-on-one training, uh one-on-one horticultural therapy with patients, did my training with Thrive in Battersea, and it was just incredible to see how much impact the garden was having on daily daily on people there. Um and that's where I really fell in love with horticulture therapy. I'm not doing as much of it now as I would like, so I really want to get back into it. Um, but it is a transformative thing to do.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Uh is the medical profession recognising the benefits of gardening now? I mean, uh you know, are are they saying look we can we can see a change in an individual who's maybe stressed or or or struggling with certain things? But is it measurable? Are are they able to measure the you know the impact that it's actually having?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

There are so many studies from the 70s onwards, and it's still happening now, and yes, um it scientifically is recognized. Whether or not that's then being put into practice is really down to where your GP is. Are they gonna refer you to social prescribing? And that is becoming a bigger thing, but we're still behind in uh other countries in Europe and Japan, even America.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Social prescribing, just for people who don't know what that is, explain how that works. This is where your GP or your your primary carer um can actually refer you to somewhere, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Exactly. So they will have a database of people in the local area who are practicing horticultural therapists, or there may be a community garden you can go to, and they will recommend you go there for a certain amount of hours a month and um get involved and feel the benefits and meet other people and be able to talk to a horticulture therapist one-on-one. Um, yeah, it's it's it's something that is becoming more popular, but it needs to be pushed by um the actual patient. So if you are a patient and you have you're struggling with mental health issues, ask your GP is there anywhere near me that has social prescribing? I'd love to be a part of it, and that's how it will grow. Um, because not all GPs know about it. There are a lot of great GPs that are doing it, um, and um a lot of great organisations like Gardening for Health who have a whole map where you can find your local social prescriber. So, yeah, it's definitely becoming more popular.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

I suspect there will be a lot of people coming to see you at Autumn Fair wanting to know how they can get involved in this, and particularly those people who are carers for other people. What are the sort of tips that you're going to be passing on to enable them to help the people they're caring for get the most out of their gardens?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

I think it's about making it as accessible as possible, and that's not just physically, it's about actually making it a space you want to be in. So put in plants that you love, put in scent and lots of sensory textures and colour, and you know, think about how is the person you're looking after maybe going to use that as well. Um has it got pathways with centered plants along that you can rub up against? Has it got things you can eat straight from the garden? I mean, there's so many um different aspects you can put into a space that will be great for your well-being. Encouraging wildlife and insects and being able to sit and watch birds and insects is really therapeutic. So think about that and water as well. Can you have water in the garden? Um, so yeah, it's about sitting in a space. How can I make this space as peaceful and calm and tranquil as possible? And yeah, let it let it let it guide you, really.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

I it you something you mentioned there is struck a chord with me because I I can't resist walking past lavender and just running my hand through it, and you you feel that, and then the smell. You're you're right, it's a very sensual thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:37

Yeah, definitely. And we like I said, we've we've known this for years. I mean, people have been using these plants for centuries and millennia. So it's about engaging with those plants, really getting up close, smelling, rubbing, using all your senses, and that is how how plants ground you. And there is chemical effects going on. These plants have chemicals that interact with your brain. So it is a real physical thing as well as an emotional thing, and it triggers that happy chemical in your brain. So the more you're smelling flowers, the happier you'll be.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Now, there is a truism for sure. Uh, Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th of September, the dates for your diary, the location, the stunning setting of Audley End House near Saffron Walden. Lots of information on the website BBC GardenersWorldfairAutumn.com or BBC GardenersworldLive.com, where you can find out who's going to be there and how you can book tickets. And of course, make sure you go on Sunday where you can listen to the brilliant Ashley Edwards. Um, Ashley, you mentioned uh, and we've we've talked about lavender and and uh the sort of sense side of things. Uh what are good plants to put in a garden? Maybe a raised bed or whatever that people can some may have a you know a visual disability or whatever it might be. What are the good things, the easy things that people can can use?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I think all the herbs are great. I always try and put herbs in gardens, but yeah, specifically rosemary, lavenders, really calming scents. And they're easy to grow, aren't they? So easy to grow if you've got a sunny garden, they're really easy. Not so great in shade, but um, there's lots of plants that work in shade. There's many scented polygoniums that you could put in during the summer that will do really well in shade. Um, and I love them. I've worked a lot with patients um using those, being able to take cuttings, you can pass them on to family, so that's really nice. So, yeah, scented polygoniums, I love all the grasses. There are some like um there are some that do have uh a bit of sharpness to them, so just be careful with that. But things like steep attenuissima, which is a really soft ponytail grass, and you can run your hand through that really easily, really nice. Um, and yeah, also think about colours. So uh if you want a calming sense, then think about blues and whites, and just shades of green is amazing, like green is a colour, and to have multiple shades of green is a really calming effect, and the human eye can actually pick up many shades of more shades of green than any other colour because it's how we evolved. Um, and then yeah, if you want something stimulating, you can have hot colours, reds and yellows and oranges, and that might be an area you sit in where you entertain or you want to feel invigorated. So, yeah, think about zoning your garden, having different colours, having scent, um, and sow seeds like sweet peas are great, you know, sowing seeds and watching them grow. There's not just is the scent amazing, you can bring those flowers into your house, but it's the sense of achievement and being able to grow your own plants. So I would recommend annuals and biannuals are amazing from seed, cheap and easy.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

There will be many people who don't have necessarily the luxury of a garden, they might have a window box or a patio, whatever. This all still applies to them as well, doesn't it? You don't need a big garden to benefit from the things you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, absolutely. I don't have a garden, I have a terrace uh on a you know on a balcony. I bet it's a nicely done. Yeah, it's nice. So I've just put I've just planted it up this year, only just moved there. I'm renting, so I have to be also you have to think about if you're renting, you know, having containers. So I've got lots of containers that I will have to move at some point, but I'm not thinking about that yet. Um but yeah, filling those with lots of colour. I've got scented pelagoniums and I've got um all sorts of herbs. I've got some that are just green, so calming to look at with hostas, and um, I've got uh ferns in there and things and fatsias, and then I've got the hot colours. Well, I've got um I've got things like verbena and some pheasant grass and like quite bright oranges of um a petunia, uh the mini petunias. So yeah, it's I've I've managed to zone it a bit, um, and yeah, it's it works really well. And from the living room, I can see out and I can see my containers, it makes me happy every day. So you don't have to have a massive garden.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Now, Autumn Fair, the stunning location of Audley End. Um, it's just beautiful. It's an assault on the senses. There is so much to see. There's the show gardens, the borders make them into matter, there's all of the exhibitors there, lots of stages, lots of experts to see. A lot of people going in at this time of the year in September will be thinking, oh, the gardening world is over because summer is nearly over, which we know, of course, isn't true. What can they be doing when they go home from the show?

SPEAKER_00 12:09

I think having a look at um late summer perennials. So September, you've still got so many late grasses. There's lots of late summer perennials like um Rebecca's and uh Astor's flowering, it's a perfect time for those. So have a look at your think about your borders. If you've got gaps or if you've got gaps in your containers, you think what can I fill this time of year to get a bit of colour in there before the summer's over, have a look and um yeah, see what's flowering there and then and think maybe I can plant that. Maybe there's a combination I like. Um, but also think ahead, like I'm sure there'll be people say um with I'm sure there'll be uh nurseries for bulbs there, and think ahead and think about bowl planting. That is the time of year to start thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

It is one of the shows to go to, like all of them throughout the year, where you need to take a little trolley with you. You need to take everything trolley, which I know really upsets the film crews because the sound, the sound guys don't like the sound of trolleys, do they? Which is really good, but a great setting. Um, really good. So uh you're busy with so many uh different things. What else are you up to? In my life, or you're obviously your TV work and things like that, but I mean anything exciting coming up, is there books or films or anything else on the horizon?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

I don't well, not at the moment, not that I can really talk about, but I've got um yeah, I'm still I'm still a head gardener at Crocus. I'm still doing lots of work there with doing an amazing job there renovating the walled garden, which is really beautiful, and um yeah, lots more filming with Gardener's World. Um and um yeah, maybe oh well, I don't know what much I can say, so I'm not gonna say too much, but there are other things coming, so just keep posted. Maybe follow me on Instagram or something, and um you'll you'll see what's going on. That's the way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Uh website and Instagram, give us the details so people can find out more.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

If you can follow me at Plants for Wellbeing, then you'll see everything I'm up to.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

And that website has hints and tips and stuff on it for my Instagrams.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

And you'll see all the hints and tips.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

True. And I'm always giving uh nice advice out there.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

And I'm sure people will want to come along and ask you many questions. Audley End House in Saffron Walden, Friday the 11th to Sunday, the 13th of September. BBC GardenersworldLive.com for all the information, particularly on how you can book tickets. And Ashley, you're going to be there all day on the Sunday, aren't you? Exciting. I can't wait. I've never been, so I'm really excited for it. Good to meet you. You too.