by Geneie Everett
We, as gardeners, appreciate that all gardening is beneficial. However, when a garden is designed with the intention of creating a healing space specifically to improve well-being—whether mind, body, or spirit—it is called a Therapeutic or Healing Garden. The GCFM Therapeutic Gardening Committee’s focus is on those specialty gardens.
For the last several months, the Therapeutic Gardening Series has discussed several types of Restorative Gardens and the therapeutic benefits they provide by simply walking or sitting within the space. The design emphasis of Restorative Gardens is on the psychological and social needs of the visitor. Restorative Gardens are often primarily spaces for refuge, reflection and contemplation and include Meditation Gardens, Sensory Gardens, and Hospice Gardens.
The Enabling Gardens
For the next several months, the Therapeutic Gardening Article Series will explore the specialized Enabling Gardens whose focus is to assist and improve the physical functions of the visitor or gardener by employing gardening as a healing interaction. Enabling Gardens directly address gardeners' or visitors' limited mobility, agility, and reduced physical strength. The design of Enabling Gardens removes physical barriers and concentrates on accessibility needs including wheel chairs, walkers, special ergonomic tools, and other adaptive gardening devices. Enabling Garden design also considers safety and security for persons with memory and awareness difficulties. Enabling Gardens can be located within public or in private settings.
Enabling Gardens in Private Settings
My own enabling garden experience was quite private, beginning in a courtyard in my home town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After a serious car accident that crushed my pelvis, I spent a month in the hospital, another month in rehab, followed by a year in a wheelchair, then walker, then crutches.
A year later, I was back in for a second surgery and rehab started all over again. I had been a downhill skier, a runner and an avid life-long gardener. Everything had changed.
Living in the high dry desert, my gardens were mostly native plants that could handle the heat and limited water. However, the access to my gardens was on uneven, loose, rocky surfaces that a wheelchair couldn’t manage. After listening to my many laments, a gardener-friend brought me a big ceramic pot and some plants. I remember emotional tears of smelling fresh herbs and the feel of the dirt in my hands again. I couldn’t ski, or run, but my hands needed no refresher on what to do. The use of a single pot had made gardening accessible to me again. Duh!
By the end of the week, my patio was filling with pots, brimming with flowers and herbs and COLOR. I could zip around to each of them to tend, water, deadhead, search for unwanted critters, and watch for wanted critters. In came the butterflies. In came the bees.
I added a bird feeder. In came the birds. I added a fountain and more birds came visiting. A windchime introduced a sweet background sound. Adding a raised bed inside the courtyard allowed more choices to my now accessible garden. The courtyard’s brick surface was flat and level, allowing wheels to easily roll. Everything was at sitting level. Now I could reach and tend every plant from my wheeled-chair. My mind, body and spirit definitely improved!
My Enabled Garden in Maine
Gardening in Maine is totally different from Santa Fe! Here the soil is deep and rich, the rain is plentiful, and there is just the right amount of sunshine. I love being in the garden. Today I use a cane that occupies one-hand, and I’m not very sure-footed. Arthritis from metal implants makes bending difficult and lifting heavy bags of soil impossible—but I still garden, and doing lots of it! These days I have several raised beds—some are made with used 55-gallon drums cut in half vertically, some are made of railroad ties. My deck is full of containers, with two hanging baskets mounted on the wall (vertical gardening).
I use a garden stool to reduce the bending and to get closer to the plants. The major paths have wood chips which not only reduce weeds and mud but also make the surface more level. Lightweight collapsible hoses weigh nothing and are easy to move around. Valves on the end of EVERY hose reduce steps to and from the hydrants. An extendable handle cultivator is my favorite tool that doubles my reach and does lots of other jobs—like pick up the hose!
Three years ago, at my husband’s urging, I pushed aside my pride and got a small electric scooter. He outfitted it with a repurposed wine box, that allows me to haul small tools, a few plants, and amendments around the yard—no help required! For bigger jobs, I use a cart on the back of a rider-mower that can carry the garden stool seat, a big bag of 10-10-10, a flat of plants, and a 5-gallon bucket for tall tools and one for weeds. I can’t lift a flat anymore, nor a big bag of amendments, but lifting one plant at a time and using a small can as a scoop works just fine these days. I’m slower than I used to be and get less done, but after I started figuring out how to garden smarter with a stiffer older body, my bet is I’ll be gardening for many more years. I only recently learned what I’ve been doing is called Enabled Gardening. Who knew that some day I'd be writing on that very thing? Ha! That joke is on me!
Enabling Gardens in Public Settings
The majority of public Enabling Gardens are located within institutional settings. These specialized gardens are often integrated into therapeutic, rehabilitative, and vocational programs, and are overseen by professional therapists including Registered Horticultural Therapists (HTR). Public Enabling Gardens include Eldercare Gardens, Memory Care Gardens, and HT/PT/OT Gardens (Horticultural, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy). We will explore each of these specialty gardens individually in future articles.
The Five Senses Sensory Garden—located at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden in Boothbay—is an excellent example of an Enabling Garden and is overseen by an HTR.
Currently, we have no club projects directly working with the professional horticultural therapy community. Let’s change that! The GCFM Therapeutic Gardening Committee is working with a group of horticultural therapists in Maine to develop a partnership for interested clubs to work as volunteers with HTRs in Enabling Garden settings.
Please email me at Theragarden@gmail.com if you would like to learn more about Therapeutic Gardening and/or if you are interested in working within a therapeutic program in a public setting!
Author: Geneie Everett, PhD, RN is a member of the GCW and Chairs the GCFM, Therapeutic Gardening Committee.
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