Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael hosts guided experience
Get outdoors in nature for a walk specifically designed to de-stress the walkers. Courtesy Effie Yeaw Nature Center
Feeling stressed? A walk in nature is a proven way to help ease tension and lower stress levels. Mother Nature is good for you; gardens in general can help you feel more relaxed.
Get in touch with nature while lowering your blood pressure during a special Nature and Forest Therapy Walk at 8 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael.
Nature and forest therapy guide Jane McCluskey will lead the way.
“The forest provides more than we typically perceive,” she says. “Have you caught yourself day dreaming as you look out a window? Caught yourself laughing with baby animal videos? Forest therapy walks are not nature hikes and not meditation retreats. Drawing from old traditions and relatively new findings, nature and forest walks are brief immersions into something you create with nature.
“Forest therapy walks are slow journeys through an area populated by natural life,” she explains. “We cannot tell you what you will experience; we can only tell you what we will be doing in these guided visits. We sometimes walk, sometimes we touch the earth, sometimes we sit and sometimes we do something different.”
This is not about exercise, she adds, but experiencing nature on a personal level.
At Effie Yeaw Nature Center, there’s plenty of nature to experience. Located close to the American River, the center reserves a slice of nature now surrounded by suburbia. See native oaks and the wildlife that make those trees their home. Explore the center’s picturesque plantings, designed with bees and butterflies in mind.
Fee is $35; advance registration is required. Additional Therapy Walks are planned for Nov. 12 and Dec 3. Effie Yeaw Nature Center is located at 2850 San Lorenzo Way, Carmichael.
Details and registration: https://www.sacnaturecenter.net/event/fall-nature-forest-therapy-walks/ or 916-489-4918.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.