The SGD Spring Conference will take place on Saturday 17th April. It will to explore in detail how the restorative power of nature can impact our future health.
Live-streamed, ‘Our Future Health’ will be presented by a panel of leading experts. They will examine evidence showing how important green spaces are to mental and physical wellbeing.
They will also explain the role garden design plays in sensory experiences, psychology and health.
Chair of the SGD Conference committee Stuart Towner said:
“As garden designers we often wonder what it is about the garden that is so appealing. Most of us appreciate the sensory qualities of plants, the calming nature of a garden pool, the soothing power of green. What can be harder to pin down is the science behind this sense of wellbeing.
“The SGD Spring Conference will explain why people have sought sanctuary from their gardens and nature to help them through 2020.”
Speakers at the SGD Conference 2021
Speakers at the event will include psychiatrist, psychotherapist and author of The Well Gardened Mind Sue Stuart-Smith. She will explain how gardening can help people recover from experiences of loss and trauma.
In addition, she will be alongside her husband, the world-renowned garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith. His projects include the Serge Hill Project for Gardening and Health. This is a community garden for schools and charities.
Joining them, Chelsea gold-medallist Olivia Kirk. A garden designer who specialises in creating healing and therapeutic gardens for hospices.
Johanna Gibbons, a landscape architect whose work includes exploring how the urban environment affects mental wellbeing, will also speak.
Also, Dr Tijana Blanusa, who leads and delivers RHS research on the environmental benefits of gardens and urban green infrastructure, and who has a particular interest in the contribution of plants to the improvement of air quality, and US-based artist Topher Delaney whose medium is the land, where she creates healing spaces and sanctuaries.
Garden and planting designer Faith Ramsay will chair the conference. From her design practice in Berkshire, Faith has designed five therapeutic and healing gardens. She is the Chair of Thrive, the UK’s leading gardening for health charity.
The SGD Spring Conference will be streamed live on 17th April 2021. It will be available to watch on-demand at any time over the coming year. To find out more and book places visit the SGD website
