Sort of Nothing Like A Book Club: Issue 28

This weeks' editor:
Kate

Hello,

Welcome to Sort of Nothing Like A Book Club, the newsletter from Creative CoLab.

26th April - 2nd May is National Gardening Week, a celebration of our gardens, green spaces and the power of plants. Plants and gardens are a wonderful way to connect with nature and have many benefits.

For this edition, we've been taking a look into the world of gardening and how it impacts many areas of life.

Read on to find out what we've discovered.

National Gardening Week 2021: Why I Garden

Over on the blog, Heidi has been discussing her love for gardening. She explores the positive impact of gardening and how it is an act of expression and creativity. Looking beyond her own personal garden, she examines how gardening can be political and its links with class, colonisation and community.

Barcelona opera house reopens with a live audience of 2,292 plants
This is a wonderful story from June 2020. Barcelona opera house reopened after a lockdown to perform a concert to a live audience of plants (whilst humans also watched via a live stream). This move reflects the social effect that lockdown has caused and to reflect how ‘nature has crept forward to occupy the spaces we have ceded’.
See a clip of the performance here

Can plants really hear you if you sing to them?
This article looks at the common practice of singing to plants to help them grow. Whether it's because it produces more carbon dioxide for the plant or another reason, many people are convinced it helps growth. The piece looks at how vibrations and sound could biologically affect plants, their hormones and how they react to the environment.

Art That Breathes: 17 Living Creations Made with Plants, Bacteria & Insects
This fascinating list compiles 17 works of art that uses living plants, bacteria, fungi and insects. The art manipulates these creatures and puts them in unnatural environments and situations. These live art pieces raise interesting questions about humans responsibility to nature and other species on earth.

A Hobby for All seasons: 7 Science-Backed Benefits of Indoor plants
This article lists 7 benefits of indoor plants. These benefits include reduced stress levels, boosted productivity, and increased wellbeing. For each example, studies and research papers are linked for you to explore further.

Guerrilla gardening - why people garden without boundaries
In this talk, environmentalist Richard Reynolds speaks about the 'Guerilla Gardening" movement. He discusses his gardening of neglected public spaces and land he doesn't own. He speaks about the practice as a form of protest and how it has connected people all over the world.

And Lastly...

With the pandemic and lockdown, we've relied on our gardens and local green spaces more than ever before. It's wonderful to be able to connect with nature, and National Gardening Week is the perfect opportunity.

To find out about the week, activities you can do and gardening tips visit the Royal Horticultural Society.

If you have any thoughts you'd like to share about anything we've touched upon in this issue we'd love for you to get in touch.

Bye!