Notes From A Healing Arts Garden: Using Horticultural Therapy In Caregiving

Send this article to a friend.

Printer friendly version.

Notes From A Healing Arts Garden: Using Horticultural Therapy In Caregiving

By Mary Johnson, editor

Gardening not only provides much-needed physical exercise, there are other healing aspects as well—a link between tending the earth, and mending the spirit. In some areas of the country senior centers, hospitals, nursing homes, and adult-day care centers are incorporating “horticultural therapy,” which uses plants and gardening activities as part of the healing program. I recently took a tour of one such “Healing Arts Garden” located at The Jefferson Area Board For Aging (JABA) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Here are a few garden notes from project mangers Dan and Jan Mahon:

The Healing Arts Garden is accessible from several points of the center, including the Alzheimer’s area. “In one study of Alzheimer’s facilities, aggressive tendencies (a symptom of the disease) decreased 19% over 12 months in a facility that had a garden,” explains Dan, a landscape architect who specializes in clients with special needs. The calming site beckons with benches, paths that follow low curving walls, an attractive garden fence (essential to preventing wandering), while aromatic herbs, flowers, and shrubs invite touch and smell. “Nothing seems to trigger memories faster than the sense of smell,” says Jan.

Another entry is through the bustling activity room of the adult daycare center, which serves about 56 clients. The outdoor patio area has two large raised bed planters, high enough to provide wheel chair level access—big enough to provide a variety of salad greens, tomatoes, and a host of other fresh vegetables. More planters extend like window boxes from a wooden retaining wall. Planters are placed at various heights providing accessibility for those who “find it easier to garden standing up than bending over,” notes Dan. A Montessori school playground is also connected to the patio area where the children join the seniors in planting, watering and tending the garden as well as other activities.

Plants with more than one use and year-round interest are favorite choices for the program. Globe Amaranth and lavender, for example, are dried and used for winter craft projects. The hyacinth bean, a heritage variety of climbing bean, provides both beautiful blossom as well as beans to eat. Herbs provide the ingredients for making blue-ribbon vinegars. Cottoneaster shrubs produce loads of bright red berries— cheering the garden in winter while providing a feeding place birds.

For information about horticultural therapy programs in your area, check with your local Area Board For Aging. Check the yellow pages or call the Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116. Or go to http://www.eldercare.gov.

This article first appeared in Volume 5, Issue 5 of "The Social Security and Medicare Advisor" newsletter (April/2000). To receive future editions of "The Advisor" in its special, free e-mail version, please click here.