Botanic Shed

Botanic Shed Botanic Shed creates sanctuaries - we are a community of gardeners and healers developing gardens and running events. Lara Cowan

Through expert design, consultancy, and nature-based experiences, we reconnect people with the healing power of the natural world. Botanic Shed membership will help you move towards a brighter future, by focusing on the power of nature. You will collaborate with world-class members, and learn to heal and grow through a range of nature-based therapies and ideas. Through nature connection, we hope to help you to build new neurological pathways to sooth your mind and protect your well-being whilst empowering your existing personal strengths. "If every person could take a non-negotiable 1 hour out of each day and spend it outdoors in nature, deepening that innate connection we have with it then stress and depression levels would plummet."

Another day another garden under our care and creative direction. This one is in Brightwalton, Berkshire and was quite u...
27/03/2026

Another day another garden under our care and creative direction. This one is in Brightwalton, Berkshire and was quite unkempt when we took it on in 2023.

25/03/2026

Garden edits are a Go-go in our gardens.
I don’t know if you are as excited as me about all the new growth but I am starting to think that spring time is such a tonic for ADhd symptoms because there is so much going on it’s a dopamine party everywhere we go!

A slice of heaven
23/03/2026

A slice of heaven

We are looking for a wellness venue where we can house the Botanic Shed School of Nature. Can you help us find it?It wi...
22/03/2026

We are looking for a wellness venue where we can house the Botanic Shed School of Nature. Can you help us find it?

It will be a wellness sanctuary championing the healing power of nature

- courses, tools, retreats and 1:1 sessions
- natural wellness
- nature connection
- movement rooted in breath, fascia and nature
- holistic energy healing
- soil to soul gardening skills
- food, flowers and wildlife
- the language of flowers, herbs, birds, insects and trees.

Pic 1. Tehya, my insanely gorgeous girl and plant love partner in crime whose mind and heart is as beautiful as her face. How proud I am of you Tey is beyond all words.

Pic 2. Venue vibes (this is me and the almost antique Land Rover that we are lucky to have as a team player

Pic 3. Venue vibes (this is a plant sale .generousgardener)

Pic 4. School of Nature vibes - lessons on growing

Pic 5. Sound healing gong bath outdoors - heaven. I met Karen in 2019 where she held gong bath sessions in the woods. She then ran a session at our retreat in Wasing Woods in 2022. Love her!

Pic 6. Qi gong by the sea. The foundation of my wellness system and the most beautiful ancient breath and body healing practice I can recommend.

Pics 7 onwards more venue vibes.

Any ideas please come forward.

Love always,
Lara x

Painting and laughing together is officially the best tonic. Particularly when hosted at this most beautiful venue The W...
21/03/2026

Painting and laughing together is officially the best tonic. Particularly when hosted at this most beautiful venue The Walled Garden. Thank you for hosting and for your wise and joyful ways. Bumble this was a magic conjuring of new friendships and a very healing day.
Art and gardening truly are the greatest therapies.

20/03/2026

This is your calling.

Swipe for the sunset after an invigorating day of pruning, planting and preparing a kitchen garden at in a walled garden...
19/03/2026

Swipe for the sunset after an invigorating day of pruning, planting and preparing a kitchen garden at in a walled garden with Gravetye vibes. I didn’t even post pics from yesterday yet…and that was a big planting day with the team out near Stroud.

Today was about ancient trees in a forgotten orchard, and sun-baked figs and roses in an old English walled garden.

The fig needed a major pruning. I’ll share photos of the work…basically me up a tree!

And yes! We’ve got a new ancient apple orchard to look after…reached through a beautiful church marked by a 600 year old yew.

Did you know that yew trees don’t have an end of life code for their DNA - they are eternal!

Did I even tell you yet that we have an agroforestry project on a 2 acre field near Pangbourne commissioned and another two in the pipeline?

Happy Mother’s Day to every single one of us on earth! Especially to this insanely intelligent and beautiful woman Karen...
15/03/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to every single one of us on earth! Especially to this insanely intelligent and beautiful woman Karen O’Brien Brave and a Lion.

This can be an incredibly uncomfortable day. Possibly the most uncomfortable of all if you’ve suffered loss of a mother or a child. And it’s not a surprise knowing how strong the mother bond is. Maternal cells stay in children for life through a phenomenon known as maternal microchimerism. Most of us live life in such a superficial way really compared to the depths of beauty that are within and around us.

I’ve had the idea brewing today that Mother’s Day should not be mainly about focussing on our own Mum’s and casting those who don’t have Mum’s or those who aren’t Mums, into the shadows for a day. This day should be about remembering what a mother is. It should be about learning and relearning how to mother ourselves, about remembering the essence of motherhood and how to therefore respect and honour the forces that bought us here on earth.

Just a thought.

But God am I grateful for the love and strength Mum has given me. She helped me bring Tehya up since we came back from the Caribbean in despair in 2002. Bampton has been a sanctuary for us ever since. She lost her rock 10 years ago but she’s gained strength (if that was even possible) and she has been so interested and curious about my work in these last few years….so much so that mindfulness events and gardening has bought us closer together…who’d have thought?! Thank you

Gratitude is one of the most powerful healers and a strong antidote to fear - even more reason to be thankful for the mother and the motherly archetype that exists within us all.

Love,
Lara

Bampton. I think we fan safely call Mum’s house a ‘messy chic farmhouse’.
14/03/2026

Bampton. I think we fan safely call Mum’s house a ‘messy chic farmhouse’.

13/03/2026

Now is the time to make your own plants from spring cuttings. These are Hydrangea Annabelle cuttings. This plant can be pruned as early as February. If you haven’t done yours yet or you’ve noticed that a neighbour hasn’t done that you can take cuttings.
The roots grow from bud points. As you can imagine all the activity is at that nodule where the leaves come out so you are going to put that part into the soil. First remove the leaf buds from that point then dip it in root hormone powder if you have some and put it into a small pot of compost mixed with griddle sand. Keep it well watered. And boom once the plant is established and you’ve potted it up into a bigger pot, you’ll get some summertime magic!

We help our clients save money in their gardens by creating plants from the stock that they’ve got all from the stock that we’ve bought them in previous years.

Now is also the time to prune all the other hydrangeas.

Hydrangea Annabelle (white puff balm flowers) and Paniculata (ice cream cone flowers) can be pruned as early as February because their buds don’t come out until later on in March. You’ll have started to notice the leaves by week two of March, usually if you’ve got these.
All the other types of hydrangeas are earlier and those buds need to be protected while they’re in their baby state so we leave the flowerhead on for longer as a shelter from frost. It doesn’t seem like it but just having a little umbrella over there heads acts as a barrier to the frost coming down from above (Newton …gravity).

Here is a Spring pruning list for you to work on if you are heading out for for garden therapy.

Roses
Hydrangea
Fushia
Lavender
Perovskia
Buddliea
Late flowering clematis
Willow
Cornus
Cotinus

Such an important feature of a wild garden - yes it’s a movement you all need to be a part of - jump on the wagon Today...
11/03/2026

Such an important feature of a wild garden - yes it’s a movement you all need to be a part of - jump on the wagon
Today we completed a low budget pond creation and beautification….
It’s was actually lined by the clients Uni age children then we have edged it with wood of all shapes and sizes carefully design for a naturalistic look…plus a stretch of mossy rocks and saddles stones.
The pond edge planting is very simple and low budget, just Irises and Rush (Juncus inflexis). We’ll also add two Willow (Salix purpurea ‘Nancy Saunders’) from

I haven’t introduced Mr. Socks for awhile.Here he is with his regal pose.Patterdale x Terrier.I think a gardener’s dog i...
11/03/2026

I haven’t introduced Mr. Socks for awhile.
Here he is with his regal pose.
Patterdale x Terrier.
I think a gardener’s dog is a very lucky one one!

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