What to do in your garden in July
To ease your mind and soothe your soul
Hi darling, I’m Kendall, a horticultural therapist. Here on my Substack, I share tips on how to use your garden to grow your personal power in a world that tries to keep women stuck, exhausted & burnt out. Come grab your trowel and join the rebellion, we’ve got a patriarchy to dismantle.
Welcome to the Seed, the place where you’ll learn to resource yourself in the garden using 5 minute mindful gardening activities so that you can unlock more joy in your life.
Wowsers, June was a ride over here. How was yours?
Ours was vibrant with holidays, birthdays and trips to Harry Potter studios (so fucking magical) but i’ve also been going through a HUGE evolution personally.
My business has been feeling heavy since April time and I knew I needed to do something about it. No one wants to spend their life feeling heavy and frustrated. I started working with
in her 1 month container The Woman Who and it has shone a light on all the ways I’ve been holding myself back, by allowing my conditioning to drive the fucking bus.My biggest realisation was that I have been equating my worth to how much money I’m earning. Hard not to in a capitalist society no?
It’s important to me to not burnout again because then I literally cannot earn a penny. And as such I have created lots of space in my day for activities that regulate my nervous system- gardening, journalling, pilates. But that leaves me less time to work around school pick up and i’ve been telling myself the story that because i’m not working as hard I can’t earn as much.
No matter what the presentism obsessed dinosaurs would have you believe time served does not equal money in the bank. If it did all women and especially mothers would be out earning men ten fold.
So why are you still pushing yourself to work constantly, believing that you’re not enough because your bank balance doesn’t reflect all the unpaid care you’re doing.
It’s time to say enough is enough before you end up burnt out and utterly overwhelmed and get in the garden. And sometimes you need someone else to hold a mirror up to you to show you where you’re telling yourself stories that are a load of old bull.
I am currently enrolling new 1:1 clients so if you’re ready to find out where you are holding yourself back and start to unravel your conditioning click here to find out more and book your place.
And if you’re ready to DIY it in just 5 minutes a day here are this month’s mindful gardening activities, available exclusively for members of the Seed.
Mindful Gardening activities
These activities are designed to be done throughout July so you can grow your gardening confidence in community without feeling overwhelmed. With at least two 5 minute activities a week, they’re designed to fit into the busiest of lives and meet you where you’re at. Come and join us for £80 for the entire year and garden alongside us instead of figuring it out alone.
If you’re using the Substack app, click the 3 dots in the top right of your screen and choose save from the drop down so you can find this signposting article throughout the month and easily access your mindful gardening activities. Or if you’re reading on email I really recommend creating a folder in your email inbox called The Seed and popping this email in there for easy access!
Do this one thing in July to grow your garden and improve your wellbeing and mood
Our focus for this month is feeding your plants. We’ve got to the time in the season now when your plants are starting to struggle a little. Not only is it hotter than the surface of the sun, but your plants will likely have used up a large proportion of the nutrients in the soil they’re growing in. Especially if they are annual plants- so much growing to do in one year so they are HUN-GRY!
I dive deep on the different types of plant food and when to use them in my signature horticultural therapy course, soon to be available inside the Bloom tier of membership right here on Substack.
But I will share this here. If you’re growing plants in pots and containers or in soil that hasn’t been improved by mulching in the last year, get yourself to the garden centre and buy some plant food.
You can of course buy the man-made bollocks (Miracle Gro and the like) but I always nudge my clients in the organic direction with some liquid seaweed.
You can thank me later when you’re cutting more cosmos than you can handle and the kids are so stuffed with fresh ripe tomatoes they could burst!
What’s coming up in the Seed in June for paid members
My top 5 plants low maintenance plants to grow in a shady spot
The sunny version of this article was super popular. So this month I’m sharing, exclusively with my paid members, some sensory plants for a shady spot that won’t take up tonnes of your time to keep them looking gorgeous.
The next of my Garden Adventures
I’m heading to Lower Norton Flower Farm for a day learning how to paint florals with artist Jo Richards (one of my bucket list experiences). So I’m going to take you along- expect tips and tricks on how to care for your flowers in our every changing climate and inspiration for what flowers to grow if you want to cut flowers for the house or to give as gifts to others.
Going forward LIVE Q&A sessions are going to form part of the Seed Bloom tier for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, energy conservation and boundaries. I’m here harping on to you about using boundaries to conserve your energy and then giving out bespoke gardening advice for £8. So here is me demonstrating to you that in order to conserve your energy you need to put in place and hold firm boundaries, even if they make you unlikeable.
Secondly, I’m envisaging the Bloom tier being a therapeutic gardening mastermind and because I know how impactful this work is I need to charge accordingly for it. So the Bloom tier will include a monthly group mastermind session in which I answer all your questions, but this will be a smaller safe space that isn’t blasted out to the whole of the internet. Because this work digs up deep stuff, as it needs to in order to create lasting change in your life. And I want you to feel comfortable to share and discuss it with the small group. My wonderful right hand woman Clare is currently working on getting my signature Horticultural therapy course loaded onto Substack and once it’s live I’ll start inviting you to join so that you can come and do this work in community alongside some other women who are done shoving themselves to the bottom of the priority list.
Kendall xx
If you want to be part of a gardening community where you can learn to garden without judgement, a place where you can share your wins and your struggles without feeling like a failure, then come and join the Seed as a paid member.
Have you got a border that could do with some love, or perhaps you’ve got a brand new area that you’d love to fill with gorgeous plants?
Come and learn what plants and colours to include to boost your mood and improve your wellbeing and create a border that has visual impact!
Oof, the working hard / earning debate is a thing! I don't have traditional (parent) caring duties but I'm really feeling that unseen work dynamic kick my ass, especially as I was the main earner when I worked in corporate so its tied up in me questioning my independence and value now if I'm not bringing as much cash money in. Lots to unpack there 😬