TV presenter Angela Scanlon has said gardening can be a remedy for the “madness going on outside” during the pandemic.
The Irish star, 37, said she felt “so grateful” she had a small outdoor space to spend time with her family and sometimes eat dinner.
Scanlon, who shares a daughter with her eco-entrepreneur husband Roy Horgan, hosts Your Garden Made Perfect on BBC Two – which uses virtual reality technology to show homeowners the true potential of their gardens.
From the team that brought you #YourHomeMadePerfect, introducing… #YourGardenMadePerfect! 🎉@angelascanlon brings the VR treatment to the great outdoors, starts Thursday 4th February at 8pm on @BBCTwo & @BBCiPlayer 🌻 pic.twitter.com/X0saWApsnz
— Your Garden Made Perfect (@MadePerfectTV) January 20, 2021
She told the PA news agency: “When you’re not allowed to leave, it’s like there’s a real sense of peace and escape and sanctuary that a garden offers and comfort.
“So, yes, there’s a lot of amazing design that’s going to bend your mind and hopefully inspire, but also, there’s something wildly comforting about it, particularly when there’s madness going on outside and you have no control over what’s happening.
“To be able to look out into a garden and over the course of a year, like this year, to see a change literally in front of your eyes and know that actually, it goes on, no matter what’s happening.”
Speaking about her home life, she added: “We have a small garden and honestly, I felt every day so, so grateful for it.
“Just to be able to open the door and go out and sit there and have the paddling pool out when it was hot in the summer with my daughter and we would often, because obviously we’re not going anywhere, take our kitchen table literally outside because we don’t have patio furniture.
“We’d feel like we were having dinner somewhere special.
“That became a norm. Instead of something you’d do every now and again, I would actually cook dinner and go outside and it was really really lovely.
“The value, the benefit to your head and soul is amazing. So I will never take that for granted again. It’s this little oasis of calm and tranquillity.”
She has been married to Horgan since 2014 and they welcomed daughter Ruby Ellen Horgan in 2018.
Your Garden Made Perfect airs on February 4 at 8pm on BBC Two.