Wellbeing through gardening
Watch our inspiring online event where passionate gardeners share how cultivating plants has transformed their mental wellbeing.
Speakers
Linda Aradi: Water, Wonder & Wellbeing: Transforming Your Garden into a Sanctuary
Linda explained how adding water features to your garden can open up new pathways to wellbeing, offering soothing sounds and visual interest that help block out the outside world. This session explores how water invites biodiversity and enhances sensory experiences. Learn practical tips for making any size space feel like it’s embracing you, and how to create pockets of interest that evolve with the seasons—ensuring your garden remains a source of joy, curiosity, and comfort all year round.
Dr Lania Knight
Dr Lania Knight, originally from New Orleans, shared her experience of receiving her first allotment in the UK months before lockdown, and her thoughts on how looking after a garden can provide inspiration for wellbeing, connection and creativity. Dr Knight's first degree is in Plant Science and Environmental Conservation, and she's working on a memoir drawing upon her lifelong interest in plants and the natural world.
Carla Benzan, Art Historian
OU art historian Carla Benzan celebrates gardens as spaces of creativity and connection in a more-than-human world, weaving together fragments from garden history with her own lived experience.
Carla Benzan, Weeds, 2025. Oil pastel on paper.
This event is part of Open SU's commitment to sharing ways to improve mental health and wellbeing as outlined in the Student Leadership Team priority areas.
Hedgehog Awareness Week: hearing from Holly about her work at Emma's Hedgehog Hospital
During Hedgehog Awareness Week, we heard from Holly, who volunteers at Emma’s Hedgehog Hospital in Norfolk. She's also studying with The Open University and saving wildlife in the meantime!
Hedgehog Friendly Campus re-launch and Nature on Campus
For Welcome Week, our Sustainability Representative and OU Environmental Sustainability Society Chair hosted our Hedgehog Friendly Campus launch event and then Ralph from the Estates team told us all about nature and wildlife on the Walton Hall campus.
Welcome Week Green Impact Panel 2024
For Welcome Week, the Environmental Sustainability Society is bringing together OU academics and sustainability innovators to share their incredible work with OU students at our Green Impact Panel.
Members of the Environmental Sustainability Society and the Sustainability Representative are hosting this panel event and will be introducing the following speakers to you:
- David Bryan, Associate Lecturer, discussing how communities are achieving sustainable development.
- Yasmine Abdu, University College London graduate, telling OU students about undertaking a sustainability-driven project to develop a software to help people make sustainable grocery choices effortlessly and get rewarded for it.
- Shonil Bhagwat, Professor of Environment and Development, on nature conservation and food systems.
Chris Packham: Love and Rage – How to Change Your Mind | Conference 24 (five-minute compilation)
Here are some highlights from Chris Packham's talk at Conference 2024, where he talked about change (and how we can bring about it).
Perspectives on Sustainability: panel discussion on OU research
We were joined by Dr Kevin Collins, Ramla Khan, Dr Marcus Badger and Dr Leslie Mabon to discuss their research relating to sustainability for Freshers in January 2024.