Health

Nature as medicine: ‘Don’t treat your lawn like a countertop. It’s not to be cleaned and dusted. Let it go wild’

Last year I swapped rooms, from living upstairs to living in a ground floor garden-facing room. My work desk looks onto a hedge, so I hung a birdfeeder and put out a tub of water. Birds came – sparrows, robins, blue tits, magpies, wood pigeons. Occasional flocks of starlings. Seagulls began splashing about in their improvised bird bath.

Time outdoors helps us to realign with the natural world. In his new book, conservation biologist Thor Hanson offers tips on how we can notice nature Conservation biologist Thor Hanson encourages nature as a form of medicine Last year I swapped rooms, from living upstairs to living in a ground floor garden-facing room. My work desk looks onto a hedge, so I hung a birdfeeder and put out a tub of water.

Birds came – sparrows, robins, blue tits, magpies, wood pigeons. Occasional flocks of starlings. Seagulls began splashing about in their improvised bird bath.

An urban fox has set up home too; it’s cub season in March. (I Googled it when I heard her digging around)..