Turning Japanese, A Cut Above, Thou Art Leafy, Autumn Glory & App-solutely Pain-free

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
23^rd October 2021

Turning Japanese

I love dry autumn days – there is something very special about them.  The sun is much more placid, having lost that intense heat of the summer months (well, some of the summer months), and the urgency has gone out of the gardens and their plants – and their gardeners.  

There is relief that anything ‘cut back’ now will indeed stay ‘cut back’ until next spring and not have shot up or out before you can put your secateurs away.  

My secateurs don’t get much chance to cool down at this time of year as they’re kept busy. I love them. They make a fabulous ‘clunk’ when used, so there’s no hiding in the shrubbery, but it makes them ‘good company’.  They are also lovely and light and sharp.  I was brought up using traditional Felco’s and have a couple of lovely pairs that were Christmas or birthday presents from Mum and Dad, so very much treasured.  However, I have since ‘turned Japanese’, and now wouldn’t use anything else other than the beautiful Okatsune secateurs from Niwaki. I use the small ones – 101’s, and bought my brother the 103’s for Christmas a few years ago (spot our traditional Christmas presents) as they are larger.  More choices at here. 

A Cut Above

The Japanese are passionate about their topiary, which has obviously encouraged them to develop the most amazing pruning tools.  I also love their shears – they are lovely and sharp and light, and great for smaller hedges and peaceful days.  Although do be careful if you buy a pair online as one of the options is over £500.  They take their clipping very seriously. 

Do have a look at the other tools they stock too. Some are fascinating – and beautiful to use.  I love the Hori Hori knife and the small weeding hoe and am determined to try a pair of their Tabi boots one day.  They look like sheep’s hooves but I am assured are extremely comfy to wear.  Top tip – get the socks too. They also do a Tabi Garden Shoe in the same design and which they claim all Japanese gardeners wear allowing extra sensitivity to feel the earth beneath them and connect with nature.  What a lovely sentiment. And although they actually do a toe cap option, which is recommended for landscaping, I think you’d have a tough time convincing Health and Safety Officers of their protective credentials. 

I always said that to run barefoot I had to be hardy, but to do any landscaping barefoot would be fool-hardy.  

All the above are available from the Niwaki website. 

Thou Art Leafy

The other thing I love about autumn is the opportunity for a bit of ‘leaf art’, as discovered in work one day.  You can see my quick coffee-break creations in the photos but why not have a go yourself and see what you can come up with.  I can’t repeat what my brother said about these little ‘works of art’, so there is no ‘He’s Hilarious He’s My Brother’ this week.  

I think it’ll be a great project for half term though and remember, ‘Autumn leaves are just summer waving Goodbye.’ 

Autumn Glory

Another Japanese triumph in all its glory at this time of year are the Japanese Acers which provide the most stunning autumn colour.  They are real show-stoppers.  And if the brilliant, vibrant autumn leaves don’t take your breath away at this time of year, you really need to look at your life. 

I have recently had a few emails asking, ‘What is this beautiful red bush in my neighbours/friends garden?’, and once we have ruled out an Acer, it is usually one of two others – either an Enkianthus perulatus or Euonymus Alatus.  Both have brilliant fiery red leaves at this time of year and as such, the latter has even earned the common name, the ‘Burning Bush Euonymus’. 

Both of these colourful shrubs are also native to Japan, which I had forgotten until I started writing this.  Wonder why I’ve gone all Japanese-sy this week? 

All three are also suitable for containerising, which is handy if you only have a small garden. 

App-solutely Pain-free

One of the things I love about this column is that I can share all the great advice and things I discover, with you.  It’s a real honour.  And you may have noticed that there’s often not much correlation between all the things I rate – apart from that fact that they will (hopefully) make your, or someone you know’s, life easier or nicer in some way. 

A conversation at my line dancing class last week led to someone telling me that they had spent the previous couple of years suffering form the most horrendous migraines, which often resulted in them being bedridden for days.  They are only 30-ish (I’d guess, I didn’t ask).  After trying all sorts of medication with varying consequences, and none of them good, they discovered an app called ‘Curable’.  The clever thing about this app is it addresses the psychology behind chronic pain rather than the physical aspect and works on the principle of helping you to manage your sympathetic nervous system (just done that in college too, which is another reason I was fascinated by the unexpected conversation). It’s the part of our nervous system that is responsible for the ‘fight or flight’ reflex.  

All three of Curable’s co-founders have experienced chronic pain first-hand. The education and tools that they have packaged into the Curable program follow the same evidence-based strategies that they used to recover from their own pain, including: degenerative disc disease, migraine, sciatica, RSI, knee pain, and more.

They all claim, thanks to modern neuroscience research and mind-body tools for chronic pain, they have their lives back and believe that every pain sufferer deserves access to these tools.  

For once I’m actually glad that I don’t have first hand experience of this recommendation but I do rate the person who told me about it. 

You can read the founder’s stories and much more at www.curablehealth.com.