The Healing Power of Horticulture

Hi there!

We’re back from our wonderful trip to Arizona and I’m sorting through more than 1,000 photos and trying to decide what to share and when. It’s a little bit overwhelming but you should see some gardens and beautiful views very soon! This trip was absolutely epic! I’m ready to retire to Arizona tomorrow… not that I don’t love Salem, but the warm, dry winter climate was very easy to get used to!

In the meantime I came across this great article in a publication from Dubai that describes ten ways that horticulture helps people overcome difficulty and live in a more mentally and physically balanced way. This is what I believe, preach and live for. It’s heartening to see people all over the world recognizing gardening as the healing agent that it is. Just click on the title below to link right to the article.

Enjoy! Michele

The healing power of horticulture: 10 ways gardening can positively influence mental health

Therapy

It’s all I need.

Love, Michele

What’s This?

Here’s a little project that we’ve worked on at Bass River for the past few days. I was able to engage a number of different people at each step along the way from figuring out what we were working with to creating the blog post. Now I’m hoping it leafs out and starts growing!

Bass River Gardens

We wondered…

We thought it could be

sticks,

or antlers

or maybe a cactus…

Then John smelled it and knew right away that it was ginger!

So we soaked it overnight..

filled the bottom of a flowerpot with stones…

and added a soil mixture of half potting soil and half vermicompost.

We dug a little hole and plunked it in!

It’s ready to grow on a bed of rocks for extra humidity and we have fresh ginger to look forward to!

Post by Michele, with John C, Andrew A, Tanya, Ellie, Jay, Mike and Miguel

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Growing Life Skills in the Garden

Garden/Allotment (Photo credit: tricky (rick harrison))

Just below is the link to a great article about a youth gardening program in Loveland, Colorado. It highlights the many benefits that gardening provides to students with special needs. The adults that I work with grow and change as they garden as well. As I settle in to my adaptive gardening specialist position I’m able to see it more every day. Take a minute or two and click on the link to read about the Loveland Youth Gardeners! I truly believe that gardening benefits all who are interested!

Michele

Growing Life Skills in the Garden