The people living at Okeley Care Home recently showed off their green-fingered skills as they sowed seeds in celebration of National Gardening Week.
Gardening has many benefits for a person's physical and mental health. Not only does it help to strengthen a person's muscles and joints, but also helps to relieve feelings of stress and boost wellbeing.
Many of the people who live at Okeley have enjoyed gardening throughout their lives, so taking part in familiar activities, like seed planting, also helps to bring back fond memories from the past.
In celebration of National Gardening Week, residents made a start on their summer planting by placing seeds into small plant pots. There were a variety of seeds people could choose from, so they each spent time looking at the colourful pictures on the packaging and deciding which ones they wanted to plant.
The team were on hand to help, but the group needed little guidance. In fact, they were giving team members tips for sowing and growing plants in case they decided to do some planting this summer.
As people planted the seeds in the pots, they discussed their favourite plants, the types of things they used to have in their garden and how spending time outside makes them feel happy.
Now each pot is filled with seeds, they have been left in the sun to grow. Over the coming weeks, residents will help to maintain the seedlings so they can blossom into colourful flowers.