A New Perspective on stress Management

We all know how important it is to reduce our stress levels, but did you know that if your surrounding environment is aesthetically beautiful that this improves your thoughts and feelings of happiness? This in turn motivates you to do more in your own home environment and this reduces your stress levels. Being outside in nature is very important in improving your general feeling of well-being. A neat and tidy home and garden makes you feel less frustrated and cluttered in your head. You want to be home as it makes you feel good. 

According to Hoodgoods, when you spend your money within your own neighbourhood, you will improve it's economy and thus when people in your neighbourhood have increased funds, they will improve their homes and gardens and shopping centers will improve their outward appearance.  This becomes contagious as when you see your neighbour improving his home and you notice how dilapidated yours looks, you will fix yours too. 

When you have beautified your own home and garden you are then able to branch out and help improve the community areas. This is what Lesley Meyer has decided to do. 

Every day as she drives past the different areas in the neighbourhood, she notices how dilapidated they are and how the parks, pavements and post offices are not being maintained. At the same time, new roads are being tarred and new shopping centers are being built with indigenousplants on their pavements. So this means that there are things happening. This motivated her to pick a random area to beautify using her own indigenous plants from her luscious garden. As they are indigenous, they are easier to transplant and only require water for the first few weeks until they are established.

She picked the Clubview post office and has divided it into 4 phases. The first phase has been completed and she has been watering these plants using buckets, as there is no water point on the premises. Over the next 3-4 weeks she will implement the other phases until the area has been completed. She is hoping that this will inspire others to do the same and even if they only focus on their own gardens and beautify them, then this will already make a difference for the environment and the local birds and bees. 

There is a huge difference between planting indigenous plants or exotic plants. If you choose indigenous plants that have flowers and berries that feed our local birds, we improve their well-being too. We provide areas for them to build nests in as they like to live close to their food. Be aware of the plants that you choose for these purposes and the area you plant will not only look beautiful from plants but will attract wildlife. The more diverse the plants you plant, the better the ecosystem that is created until you have a perfect balance where mushrooms and other things begin to grow naturally. 

Before and after photos of phase one garden project at Clubview post office. The plants that were used in this phase are Pienk Salie Bush, Dietes Grandiflora, River Indigo shrub, yellow and purple vygies, daisy bushes and the Slime lily. These all attract bees and feed birds. There were already some aloes someone had planted there that I kept as these specifically feed the Honey bird. Watch this space and feel free to water the plants if there is no rain in the near future.