( l therapy provides a wide range of soci...)Horticultural Therapy Offers Measurable Physical, Mental Benefits,Health

l therapy provides a wide range of social and vocational benefits. For instance, a former patient may respond so well to the therapy that horticulture becomes a new source of income for him or her.

The groups who may benefit most from horticultural therapy include:

? People with physical, mental, psychological or developmental disabilities.

Someone who’s suffered a traumatic brain injury and needs to work on motor skills, for example, may be encouraged — as a traditional mode of physical therapy — to try squeezing a soft rubber ball a certain number of times per minute.

“If a patient loses interest in that activity, a therapist who’s skilled in the practices of horticultural therapy might then hand her a pruning tool and discover that the patient is happy to clip dead leaves from plants until her hands are too tired to prune any longer,” Airhart said.

? People whose age ranges from the youngest of children to the oldest of adults.

“A child with a chronic illness who doesn’t want to take his medicine can be given a plant to care for and instructed that the water and fertilizer are the plant’s medicines,” he said. “That way, the child sees first-hand how the plant can thrive with proper care or wilt from neglect.”

? Victims of abuse or the abusers.

? People recovering from illnesses or hospice patients seeking enhanced quality of life in their last days.

? And accomplished or novice gardeners — and even people who’ve never gardened before.

“One of the first horticultural therapy activities I learned was to make a bird feeder from a pine cone smeared with peanut butter and rolled in bird seed,” Airhart said. “That’s an easy, inexpensive activity that can be applicable to patients of all ages who are being treated for a wide variety of conditions.”

Although the positive interaction of people with plants has been noted as far back as ancient
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