Garden Therapy

By Amanda West, empower: abilities

Gardening is one of the simplest, most pure activities imaginable. You start with a tiny seed and some soil, add a little water, sunlight, love and the next thing you know, you are enjoying something that you and nature created together. Pure magic!

“A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.” - Liberty Hyde Bailey

I’ve always had a vegetable garden. When I first started one, it was a big rectangle in my backyard that was nothing but dirt and hope. By mid-summer, I had a full, gorgeous garden that was bursting with color and flavor. Working in the sun, pulling weeds, tending to the soil, and harvesting my daily crops fed my body and my soul. There’s nothing quite like taking a bite out of the literal fruit of your labor. The therapeutic value of gardening, or horticultural therapy, is widely recognized by therapists and psychologists, like author, Lin, Lin, Li’s "Planting Hope in Loss and Grief: Self- Care Applications of Horticultural Therapy for Grief Caregivers in Taiwan."

A few years ago, I moved out of my house and into an apartment. It doesn’t have ample space nor light for window boxes, so my beloved gardening is limited. We work every day with individuals with barriers like these. A key component to successful aging and adjusting to life changes is to continue to do what we love, even if the method changes. But what if you don’t have the space for a garden? This is when you either get creative or rely on technology like the Aerogarden, which is a self-contained countertop hydroponic indoor garden. There is no soil to worry about so the garden is mess-free. It has 40 watt LED grow lights so you don’t have to have a sunny window. The unit automates the lights and alerts you to add water or plant food. We purchased one of these for our demonstration center, and in a month’s time we have fresh, local, and organic crops ready to harvest with minimal effort and we get to feel the renewal of watching things grow!

Sometimes all it takes is a little creative in order to literally harvest the benefits!