Within a quarantine situation, we are all learning to become more self-reliant and to develop a more acute awareness of how we live our lives within the confines our homes and especially now with warmer weather arriving, within our gardens. With this in mind, the warmer season is arriving in many places allowing us to begin the ground-work on our gardens and to sow seeds indoors that will later be transferred to the ground when the temperature is clement.

Garden therapy has been used for generations to not only create a community-based activity, but has been known to aid better mental health overall – two fundamental essentials for the many months ahead. Self-sufficiency can be a much-needed jolt to help manage your days and take benefit from the creation of your own vegetable garden and the later fruits of its harvest.

If you need some sustainable garden ideas, you might want to give a look towards Lily Polstein, founder of Sustainable Landscapes as your go-to inspiration. Coming from her strong commitment towards creating a better environment that reduces carbon footprints, Lily is keen on instructing clients on how to optimize their outdoor space whether they want to create a zen place to absorb nature’s beauty or actually cultivate their own organic kitchen garden – or a combination of both.

Growing up with a vegetable patch in her back garden throughout her childhood, Lily is no stranger to how to design, manage and cultivate a garden that can sustain your dietary needs and allow you to become more empowered about your interaction with nature.

Her “Guide” section on her website also provides a very clear instruction for composting, which is an excellent way to re-purpose all the organic vegetable bits that are left-over from preparing a meal and use them as a future fertilizer for your garden. It is a wonderful starting point to find your equilibrium with nature.