Flowers and Gardening Blog

Flowers immediately enliven any garden with their vibrant colors and sweet aroma. When planted in the right combination, they can keep your garden looking bright and beautiful year round. Following are tips to help you become a more effective and creative flower gardener:

• Use complementary colors or tints and shades of one color.
• Plant large groups of contrasting flowers next to each to create a dramatic effect.
• Plant shrubs and individual ornamental grasses in groups of odd numbers to balance out the visual aspects of your flower garden.
• Avoid overwhelming a small space with a large number of plant species. Select a few varieties so your flower garden doesn’t look cluttered.
• Consider plants with colorful flowers that will also produce tasty fruits like cherry and other fruit trees to serve as a great addition to your garden.
• Keep it properly maintained by pruning your trees and shrubs, deadheading flowers, and cutting back old, frayed growth.
• Plant in designated areas for ease of mowing your lawn.
• Choose flowers according to the area you choose to begin your garden. For instance, make sure the ones you purchase will do well in full sun or in the shade.
• Add romance to your landscape by growing climbing or vine-type flowers near a trellis or garden arbor.
• Exercise precaution when planting flowers under a tree so you don’t dig up any roots. Dig a small, separate hole for each plant.
• Keep in mind the mature size of young trees and shrubs you plant, otherwise it will be easy to plant them too close together.
• Avoid placing new structures or plants where they may damage existing landscape features.
• Plant in curves, not straight lines or perfect circles, for better visual balance.
• Add mulch to your finished flower garden to help retain moisture. The deteriorating mulch will add organic matter to your soil.
• Save water by using drip irrigation systems to water individual plants.
• Water when it’s not windy.
• Water early morning or late afternoon to avoid evaporation.
• Introduce lady bugs, praying mantis, and Trichogramma wasps (non-stinging) to it for natural pest control.
• Try plants that attract birds and bats, which will eat up insect pest species in your garden, instead of applying chemicals to eradicate insects from your garden.

Use these tips to create new gardens or enliven existing flower gardens.

Flower Remedies are not just for treating people’s emotions and psychological problems, but animals too.

The power of Flower Remedies is gentle and accumulative. They are completely safe, have no adverse effects, are not addictive and there is no possibility of overdose. They can be used alongside any treatment that a horse may be receiving; whether this is allopathic or another complementary therapy, with the result that it enhances treatment in aiding healing.

When are Flower Remedies useful for a horse?

Basically for any negative emotional circumstance and also as emotional support and encouragement. In other words, at any circumstances in which the emotions are involved. They can help a horse become more trusting, confident, re-assured, more perceptive

Listed below are just a few of the emotional upsets where Flower Remedies can be of help to a horse, and sometimes the rider as well:

Assists with bonding between horse and rider

Nervous behavior, being spooked

Fear of traveling

Dominating behavior

Moving to a new environment

Concentration in training

Loss of companion or owner

Acceptance of new owner/rider

Competition nerves and stress

Moving to new stables

Apathy and depression

Support during illness

Rearing, kicking, bolting and biting

Traumatic labour and birth

It is impossible to give a list of mixtures of flower remedies; this would be endless due to the uniqueness and diversity of emotions that may be experienced. There are 39 Flower Remedies in the Bach Flower Remedy system, each covering a different emotional state; and the whole system covering every possible emotional state. Sometimes just one single flower essence may be appropriate, for instance:

Aspen for known fears

Mimulus for unknown fears

Beech for down right stubbornness

Clematis is helpful for concentration, perhaps in competitions, shows, trials

Crab Apple for compulsive disorders such as box vices and helpful during and following illness

Gorse helpful for horses depressed on box rest; loss of a companion or owner

Impatiens to help with patience and irritability

Larch to boost confidence

Olive for tiredness or exhaustion, after a competition, ride or following illness

Star of Bethlehem for trauma (weaning, loss of companion, past abuse, accident)

Vervain for horses that are prone to being hyper

Vine for dominating horses

Walnut to help adjust to new circumstances (owner/stables/horse)

White Chestnut for a horse that seems to worry (when combined with Agrimony this is helpful for stable vices)

Rescue Remedy – this is actually a blend of fiver flower remedies: Cherry Plum, Rock Rose, Clematis, Star of Bethlehem and Impatiens) This is excellent for any emergency, accident, traumatic incident or injury being helpful in bringing calm and a feeling of security. If you don’t have any other flower essences in stock, this is the one remedy that is a ‘must have’, kept in the glove compartment; a handy drawer, coat pocket or handbag.

Flower Remedies will not cure physical disorders but they will dissolve negative emotions with positive ones, resulting in a confident, self-assured, well balanced horse which with the result that they are better able to fight physical disease.