Winter is a great time to prune many Holly trees and shrubs. A light, late fall pruning restores the plants’ shapes and enhances the prominence of the berries–just in time for Christmas and New Year’s.

A deeper, more thorough, late winter pruning provides room for future growth. This is also a good time to do any significant thinning for two good reasons: allowing additional light into the plant will generate good internal growth when the spring push arrives; it will create a less attractive environment for pests, funguses, and diseases. As spring approaches, it is a good idea to make plants as uninviting as possible for those unwanted guests.

Although you may not relish the cold, the emotional and physical benefits of spending a few hours in the sun during winter can be profound. It’s also quite possible your Holly plants are the most attractive plants in your garden in this season, which makes working with them far more fun than working on a barren Maple tree, for example. In addition, the winter clothing required by the cold has the added benefit of protecting you from the scratches and cuts that are a regular part of pruning Hollies at any other time of year.

So have fun, and enjoy your Holly-days!

Contributed by Peter Dymond
Hanselman Landscape’s Garden Care Supervisor

LIVING ART: The “Ring Stone” Sculpture at MIT

Roughly twelve years ago, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang (designer of the fireworks displays at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing) created a sculpture for the new Sloan Finance Building at MIT in Cambridge, MA. The finished project, “Ring Stone”, is a chain carved from granite.

To complete the project, he envisioned pines growing up through the links of the chain. But finding pine trees small enough to fit into the tiny openings and healthy enough to survive in the restricted space was more difficult than he imagined. That is, until one of his associates discovered Hanselman Landscape. And, as they say, the rest is history (and a story for another day)!

Photos below show the pine planting process and artist, Cai Guo-Qiang with James Hanselman. Also shown is bonsai master, Jim Doyle, whose expertise in bonsai informed the pruning of the pine roots, enabling them to fit into the limited space inside the granite links. Finally, Hanselman Landscape’s Sean Kramer is pictured on one of his curating visits to tend the pines in MIT’s “Ring Stone” sculpture.

Joyfully shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& living art enthusiast)

In the Stanford study referenced last week, brain scans on the walkers before and after the timed walk showed that, for the participants who walked through the natural area, neural activity in the area of the brain active during rumination had decreased. These participants confirmed this finding, “reporting that they found themselves ruminating less during the walk” (Dockrill). In contrast, those who walked by the highway showed no changes in their neural activity or in their self-reporting on rumination.

According to Gretchen Daily, a co-author of the study, “These results suggest that accessible natural areas may be vital for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world. Our findings can help inform the growing movement worldwide to make cities more livable, and to make nature more accessible to all who live in them.” With 70 percent of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2050, it is important that “work be done to counteract the negative psychological effects of residing in what are essentially unnatural living spaces,” concludes Dockrill.

Shared by Betty Hanselman
–Gardener’s wife (& grateful green-space resident)

The video I’m sharing here shows how a Hanselman Landscape garden is making nature more accessible to residents of a high-rise apartment complex in Philadelphia’s busy Chinatown!

THE BEAUTY OF STONE

Whether it is quarried, hand-cut, or smoothed by eons of river tumbling, natural stone is unrivaled in beauty, texture, interest, and endurance. The photos below show different types of natural stone products used for a variety of garden purposes. If you like what you see, please give us a call (717-653-1273). When it comes to sourcing and creating natural stone artwork, Hanselman Landscape’s craftsmen are rock stars!

Joyfully shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& dedicated fan of “classic rock”)

ACCESS TO NATURE CAN IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH

In the fret and frenzy of a fast-paced urban life, getting out “in nature” would seem an obvious way to mentally and emotionally slow down and restore tranquility to our lives. Research increasingly validates this assumption.

In a Science Alert article, Peter Dockrill referenced a study published by researchers at Stanford University which “has quantified how access to nature could be a vital component in our overall mental health.”
(https://www.sciencealert.com/access-to-nature-may-be-vital-for-mental-health-study-finds)

Since an increasing percentage of the population lives and works in urban areas, researchers from Stanford University wanted to examine the link between urbanization and the increased instances of mental illnesses and anxiety disorders among city dwellers, compared with people who live in rural settings. In a controlled experiment, the researchers looked at whether exposure to nature could influence depression levels, especially ‘rumination’, which is defined as repetitive, negative thoughts about oneself.

The researchers divided participants into two groups and led each group on timed walks in very different environments. One group walked beside a busy highway, while the other group wandered across a grassy area in which trees and shrubs were growing.

As you look at each of the photos below, do your responses differ? How so? Based on your responses, you probably already know the outcome of the Stanford study, but I’d still love to have you come back next week to read the “official” results of the study, so you know I’m not making it up. I’d also love to show you how a Hanselman Landscape garden is making a difference for apartment residents in the heart of busy Chinatown, Philadelphia. Come back, won’t you?

Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& grateful green-space dweller)