A healthy harvest   
   - Yoga & gardeningDisplay from Royal Horticultural Society's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

“Yoga and the natural world are closely linked. Many Yoga poses mirror elements of sky or earth and, combined with stretching, reaching and drawing up towards the sky, are evocative of all living, growing things. It is said that Prana, the life force that rides upon the breath, is strongest in the places that are most alive, green and vibrant, while joining internal and external elements together is key to attaining a balance for focus and reflection
   Essential to human life on earth, plants nourish and sustain us. They support the air that we breathe and the food that we eat. For many people being outdoors, gardening, growing and connecting with the environment is powerful and energising, and making a garden can transcend simply creating a place to meditate or engaging in a peaceful activity, and enter a realm of artistic expression.
Hampton Court Flower Show
  The Royal Horticultural Society’s Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is the largest gardening event in the world. Unconstrained by space and with international connections it is inventive, experimental and daring. It pushes boundaries, introduces new concepts and engages with issues of health and humanity. This year the holistic approach was more in evidence than ever as the RHS turned floristry on its head, used gardens to raise awareness of mental health issues while educating the public about home grown food and climate change.
  In an unorthodox but effective take on floristry, the work on Floral Energy rendered black holes and tornadoes in flowers and plant material. Vivid colours and reaching stems represented ‘Growth’. Bowls of tropical flowers linked by grasses depicted ‘Wellbeing’, while ‘Earth’ became successive strata: clay tiles, stones and up through the living canopy of moss, succulent plants, flowers and branches, symbolising a stability related to the physical body and its sensations...”

Author Naomi Slade is a keen gardener and Yoga practitioner. The article continues to show the interconnectedness of Yoga and gardening, and follows with some examples of appropriate postures.